Supercooling of steam condensation in natural gas fumes

ABSTRACT

The low-temperature heat-exchange section of boiler tails differs from other sections by absorbing latent heat. The subcooling of water vapor droplets in natural gas flue gas in boiler tails is becoming increasingly important. However, little is known about heat transfer and the subcooling mechanism. We report an airtight condensation cavity table and use thermal imaging to monitor the surface temperature and time-dependent size of single droplets. We observed a temperature gradient in droplets; three distinct size distributions; a change in infiltration mode from Wenzel to Cassie when non-condensing gas was introduced; and accelerated departure of droplets in a sound field.

KEYWORDS:

• Supercooling
• flue gas condensation
• non-condensing gas
• droplet size
• acoustic field

Acknowledgments

The authors gratefully acknowledge financial support from the national key research and development plan sub-topic: key technologies and equipment for energy efficiency testing and monitoring of gas boilers (Numbering: 2017YFF0209801).