Open Access
ARTICLE
NUMERICAL SIMULATION ON CONDENSING FLOW OF WATER VAPOR OF WET NATURAL GAS INSIDE THE NOZZLE
Rongge Xiaoa
, Wenbo Jina,*, Shicong Hanb
, Rui Lia
, Xuewen Caoc
a
College of Petroleum Engineering, Xi’an Shiyou University, Xi’an / Shaanxi,710065, China
b
Sinopec Group Natural Gas Branch, Beijing, 100029, China
c College of Pipeline and Civil Engineering, China University of Petroleum, Qingdao/ Shandong, 266580, China
Frontiers in Heat and Mass Transfer 2017, 9, 1-8. https://doi.org/10.5098/hmt.9.6
Abstract
Combines theories of gas dynamics, fluid dynamics and numerical heat transfer theory, the condensing flow characteristics of water vapor in wet
natural gas within the Laval nozzle were studied. A mathematical model was developed to predict the spontaneous condensing phenomenon in the
supersonic flows using the classical nucleation and droplet growth theories. The numerical approach is validated with the experimental data by using
UDF and UDS modules in FLUENT software, which shows a good agreement between them, and showed that the mathematical model can better
predict the parameter changes in the condensation process. The condensation characteristics of water vapor in the Laval nozzle are described in
detail. The results show that the condensation process was a rapid variation of the vapor-liquid phase change both in the space and in time, the
distribution of nucleation rate is restricted to a small area. The spontaneous condensation of water vapor will not appear immediately when the steam
reaches the saturation state. Instead, it occurs downstream the nozzle throat, where the steam is in the state of supersaturation. The previous
accumulation of Supersaturation has led to a nuclear process occurring in a very short time. The degree of supercooling was also dramatically
reduced in this small area, and when it is below the supersaturation limitation, the nucleation process ceases to occur.
Keywords
Cite This Article
Xiao, R., Han, S. (2017). NUMERICAL SIMULATION ON CONDENSING FLOW OF WATER VAPOR OF WET NATURAL GAS INSIDE THE NOZZLE.
Frontiers in Heat and Mass Transfer, 9(1), 1–8. https://doi.org/10.5098/hmt.9.6