Numerical Study of Boundary-Layer Transition in Flowing Film Evaporation on Horizontal Elliptical Cylinder

ABSTRACT

A numerical study of the onset of transverse and longitudinal transitions between turbulent and laminar regimes during the evaporation of a water film is presented. The water film streams, without interfacial shear stress, along a horizontal elliptical tube under the simultaneous effects of gravity, pressure gradients, and viscous forces. Outside the boundary layer, the vapor-phase velocity is obtained from potential flow. In the analysis, a turbulence model taking into account various pressure gradients is proposed, and the inertia and convection terms are retained. Transfer equations are discretized by using the implicit Keller method. The effects of different turbulence models and the main parameters, such as the initial liquid flow rate per unit of length, the Froude number, the temperature difference between the wall and the liquid–vapor interface, and the ellipticity, on the transition position are evaluated. The transition criterion is given in term of the critical film Reynolds number.