Condensation & Condensers

Condensation Process
Condensers & Cooling Towers

When saturated vapour comes in contact with a surface having a

temperature below the saturation temperature, condensation occurs. There
are two types of condensation:

Dr. M. Zahurul Haq

Professor
Department of Mechanical Engineering
Bangladesh University of Engineering & Technology (BUET)
Dhaka-1000, Bangladesh
zahurul@me.buet.ac.bd
http://teacher.buet.ac.bd/zahurul/

Condensers & Cooling Towers

ME 415 (2011)

Film-wise condensation: condensed liquid wets the surface and

forms a film covering the entire surface.

Drop-wise condensation: surface is not totally wetted by the

saturated vapour, and the condensate forms liquid droplets that fall
from the surface.

Compared to film-wise condensation, drop-wise condensation has a greater

surface heat-transfer coefficient as it has a greater area exposed to the
saturation vapour.

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Types of Condensers

De-superheating of the hot gas

Condensing of the gas to liquid state and release of the latent heat.

Sub-cooling of the liquid refrigerant.

Based on the cooling medium used, condensers used in refrigeration

systems can be classified into the following three categories:
1 Water-cooled condensers
1

Sub-cooling only occupies a small portion of condensers surface area.

Therefore, an average heat transfer coefficient is used for the whole
condensers surface area, and the condensation is assumed to occur at the
condensing temperature.

Condensers & Cooling Towers

ME 415 (2011)

Condensation & Condensers

Stages in Condensation

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Double-tube condenser
Shell-and-tube condenser

Air-cooled condensers

Evaporative condensers

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Condensation & Condensers

Condensation & Condensers

Double-tube Condenser

Shell-and-tube Condenser

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Condensation & Condensers

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Condensation & Condensers

The choice of water-cooled condenser depends on the following

factors:
Quality and availability of water
Space requirements
Water treatment costs
Noise

Advantages of water cooled-condensers are:

Easy to operate
Requires less surface area
Low energy requirement for the compressor.

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Condensation & Condensers

Condensation & Condensers

Air-cooled Condenser

Characteristics of Air-cooled Condenser

Compact, easy and economical to install.

Flexibility in changing capacity by varying air flow.
Hot air may be disposed of easily.
Easy to clean fin and tube surface by blowing air.
Required less maintenance.
Higher power requirement per ton of refrigeration
On days when maximum cooling is needed, the least is available.

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Cooling Tower

Evaporative Condenser

Cooling Tower

A cooling tower is a device in which recirculating condenser water

from a condenser or cooling coils is evaporatively cooled by contact
with atmospheric air.
It consists of a fan to extract intake air, a heat-transfer medium or fill,
a water basin, a water distribution system, and an outer casing.
According to the location of the fan corresponding to the fill and to
the flow arrangements of air and water, cooling towers can be
classified into the following categories:
1
2
3

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Counterflow induced draft

Cross-flow induced draft
Counterflow forced draft.

Evaporation of water spray is used to condense the refrigerant

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Cooling Tower

Cooling Tower

Counterflow Induced Draft

Cross-flow Induced Draft

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Cooling Tower

Counterflow Forced Draft

Cooling Tower Terminology

Approach: temperature difference between the temperature of

condenser water leaving the tower and the wet-bulb temperature of
the air entering the tower.
Range: temperature difference between the temperature of condenser
water entering the tower and the temperature leaving the cooling
tower.
Blow-down: water discharged to the drain periodically to avoid
build-up of dissolved solid.
Make-up: water added to the circulating water to compensate for the
loss of water to evaporation, drift and blow-down.

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