Film flow analysis for a vertical evaporating tube with inner evaporation and outer condensation

A numerical study for the flow, heat and mass transfer characteristics of the evaporating tube with the films flowing down on both the inside and outside tube walls has been carried out. The condensation occurs along the outside wall while the evaporation occurs at the free surface of the inside film. The transport equations for momentum and energy are parabolized by the boundary-layer approximation and solved by using the marching technique. The calculation domain of 2 film flow regions (evaporating and condensation films at the inside and outside tube wall respectively) and tube wall is solved simultaneously. The coupling technique for the problem with the 3 different regions and the 2 interfaces of them has been developed to calculate the temperature field. The velocity and temperature fields and the amount of the condensed and evaporated mass as well as the position where the evaporating film is completely dried out are successfully predicted for various inside pressures and inside film inlet flow rates.