Enhanced condensation with active methods

Condensation of low surface tension fluids is important in liquefied natural gas processing and refrigeration systems. Current state of the art low surface energy low hysteresis coatings are not able to achieve dropwise condensation below 10 mN/m. Surface acoustic waves are proposed as an active method to shed thin condensate films to reduce their thermal resistance and improve heat transfer coefficients. Interdigitated electrode patterns were fabricated on piezoelectric LiNbO3 wafers and SAW waves were generated with RF voltages in the 12.5 - 100 MHz regime. These were tested in the in-house condensation rig with Ethanol, Pentane, Hexane and Perfluorohexane. Heat transfer coefficients showed more than 2X improvement over standard filmwise condensation. Further, the effect of refrigerant side heat transfer enhancement in a condenser operating in a vapor compression refrigeration cycle is studied as a potential application.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Mechanical Engineering.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2016

Author dc:creator

• Sarathy, Sudarshan

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Kripa K. Varanasi.

• Mechanical Engineering.

Statement dc:rights

• MIT theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed, downloaded, or printed from this source but further reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/107064

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/107064