Regimes of direct contact condensation of steam injected into water

• Main Authors: Anka de With, Raj K. Calay, Arne E. Holdø, Govert de With
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Multi-Science Publishing 2007-09-01
• Series: International Journal of Multiphysics
• Online Access: http://journal.multiphysics.org/index.php/IJM/article/view/28

Direct contact condensation of steam injected into water is a special mode of condensation where condensation occurs on the interface between steam and water. Crucial in the modelling of direct contact condensation is the behaviour of the injected steam, commonly termed as a regime. Depending on the environmental conditions, steam injected into water appears in different regimes. These are observed in different geometrical appearances of the injected steam and are ranging from steam being condensed in the injector to bubbles and jets of steam formed in water. The two dimensional regime maps and models presently available are able to predict different condensation behaviour for limited range of flow conditions. In this paper a new three-dimensional condensation regime diagram is presented. The diagram is capable of predicting regimes for a wide range of flow conditions as well as different sizes of steam injector. Furthermore, expected penetration distance of steam injected into water, which is also crucial in modelling of the process, is presented for different flow conditions in the form of a new two-dimensional steam plume length diagram.