Universal correlation for falling film evaporation heat transfer coefficients of water and seawater

M. Muneeshwaran; Hao Yu Lin; Cheng Min Yang; Kashif Nawaz; Chi Chuan Wang

doi:10.1016/j.applthermaleng.2024.124881

Universal correlation for falling film evaporation heat transfer coefficients of water and seawater

M. Muneeshwaran, Hao Yu Lin, Cheng Min Yang, Kashif Nawaz, Chi Chuan Wang

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

Horizontal falling film evaporators are widely utilized in desalination industries to increase fresh water supply. However, universal correlations for seawater falling film evaporation under varied operational and geometrical conditions are simply unavailable in open literature. Thus, this study aims to develop such a universal correlation for both plain and enhanced tubes. The detailed heat transfer mechanisms are reviewed, and rational parameters are incorporated to develop the universal correlation. A dataset of 994 data points from 9 sources covering a wide range of conditions was compiled. These conditions include Reynolds numbers from 10 to 7235, heat fluxes from 7.7 to 208 kW/m⁻², saturation temperatures from 278 to 401 K, salinities from 0 to 60 g_salt kg⁻¹_water, tube diameters from 15.8 to 50.8 mm, and liquid feeder height to diameter ratios from 1 to 2.25. Upon analysis, it was found that most of the recommended existing correlations exhibited poor predictive accuracy, as evidenced by larger MADs. The developed correlation in this study demonstrated the best predictive accuracy for the entire dataset, yielding a MAD of 16.8 % and an R² of 0.82. Furthermore, the performance of the new correlation was individually assessed across a broader spectrum of operational and design conditions, reflecting the individual conditions’ influences with an overall MAD of 20 %.

Original language	English
Article number	124881
Journal	Applied Thermal Engineering
Volume	259
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.applthermaleng.2024.124881
State	Published - Jan 15 2025

Funding

The authors acknowledge the support provided by US Department of Energy Building Technologies Office (BTO) and the Building Technologies Research and Integration Center, Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Financial support from National Science and Technology Council Taiwan under the contract NSTC 112-2221-E-A49-026 is also acknowledged. Notice: This manuscript has been authored in part by UT-Battelle, LLC, under contract DE-AC05-00OR22725 with the US Department of Energy (DOE). The US government retains and the publisher, by accepting the article for publication, acknowledges that the US government retains a nonexclusive, paid-up, irrevocable, worldwide license to publish or reproduce the published form of this manuscript, or allow others to do so, for US government purposes. DOE will provide public access to these results of federally sponsored research in accordance with the DOE Public Access Plan (http://energy.gov/downloads/doe-public-access-plan).

Funders	Funder number
Biological Technologies Office
Oak Ridge National Laboratory
U.S. Department of Energy
Building Technologies Office
National Science and Technology Council	NSTC 112-2221-E-A49-026
National Science and Technology Council

Keywords

Empirical correlation
Falling film evaporation
Heat transfer
Nusselt number
Water

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

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10.1016/j.applthermaleng.2024.124881

Cite this

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title = "Universal correlation for falling film evaporation heat transfer coefficients of water and seawater",

abstract = "Horizontal falling film evaporators are widely utilized in desalination industries to increase fresh water supply. However, universal correlations for seawater falling film evaporation under varied operational and geometrical conditions are simply unavailable in open literature. Thus, this study aims to develop such a universal correlation for both plain and enhanced tubes. The detailed heat transfer mechanisms are reviewed, and rational parameters are incorporated to develop the universal correlation. A dataset of 994 data points from 9 sources covering a wide range of conditions was compiled. These conditions include Reynolds numbers from 10 to 7235, heat fluxes from 7.7 to 208 kW/m−2, saturation temperatures from 278 to 401 K, salinities from 0 to 60 gsalt kg−1water, tube diameters from 15.8 to 50.8 mm, and liquid feeder height to diameter ratios from 1 to 2.25. Upon analysis, it was found that most of the recommended existing correlations exhibited poor predictive accuracy, as evidenced by larger MADs. The developed correlation in this study demonstrated the best predictive accuracy for the entire dataset, yielding a MAD of 16.8 % and an R2 of 0.82. Furthermore, the performance of the new correlation was individually assessed across a broader spectrum of operational and design conditions, reflecting the individual conditions{\textquoteright} influences with an overall MAD of 20 %.",

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doi = "10.1016/j.applthermaleng.2024.124881",

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AU - Wang, Chi Chuan

PY - 2025/1/15

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AB - Horizontal falling film evaporators are widely utilized in desalination industries to increase fresh water supply. However, universal correlations for seawater falling film evaporation under varied operational and geometrical conditions are simply unavailable in open literature. Thus, this study aims to develop such a universal correlation for both plain and enhanced tubes. The detailed heat transfer mechanisms are reviewed, and rational parameters are incorporated to develop the universal correlation. A dataset of 994 data points from 9 sources covering a wide range of conditions was compiled. These conditions include Reynolds numbers from 10 to 7235, heat fluxes from 7.7 to 208 kW/m−2, saturation temperatures from 278 to 401 K, salinities from 0 to 60 gsalt kg−1water, tube diameters from 15.8 to 50.8 mm, and liquid feeder height to diameter ratios from 1 to 2.25. Upon analysis, it was found that most of the recommended existing correlations exhibited poor predictive accuracy, as evidenced by larger MADs. The developed correlation in this study demonstrated the best predictive accuracy for the entire dataset, yielding a MAD of 16.8 % and an R2 of 0.82. Furthermore, the performance of the new correlation was individually assessed across a broader spectrum of operational and design conditions, reflecting the individual conditions’ influences with an overall MAD of 20 %.

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Universal correlation for falling film evaporation heat transfer coefficients of water and seawater

Abstract

Funding

Keywords

UN SDGs

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