Parametric distributions of a horizontal-tube falling film evaporator for desalination

Abstract

Three independent experiments which correspond to the characteristic study on the performance of the horizontal-tube falling film evaporators were carried out, and each came out with a validated model for its performance prediction. A comprehensive distributed parameter model was developed based on the above three models to simulate a large tube bundle consisting of 160 rows and 80 columns aluminum-brass tubes in a horizontal-tube falling film evaporator. The simulation was conducted with the superficial evaporation temperature on the shell side of 60°C, the superficial overall temperature difference of 3.0°C, the inlet brine salinity of 30 g/kg, the inlet brine spray density of 0.06 kg/m s, and the maximum steam inlet velocity of 40 m/s. The non-uniform distributions of several thermal parameters are presented and discussed.

Keywords:

• Falling film evaporator
• Horizontal-tube bundle
• Distributed parameter model
• Distributions of parameters

Acknowledgments

The authors are grateful for the support of the Key Project of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 51336001) and the Research Fund for the Doctorial Program of Chinese Universities (20110041110032).