Experimental heat and mass transfer data for condensing flow in a parallel plate heat exchanger

The increased pressure to conserve our natural resources continues to require that all heat exchanges be optimized. Numerical techniques have been devised to optimize the exchangers with respect to many parameters which influence their behavior. In optimization programs for condensing flow heat exchangers, a knowledge of the local heat and mass transfer coefficient and the local friction factor are usually required. The influence of the condensing water on the friction factor, heat transfer coefficient and the mass transfer coefficient during condensing flow in a heat exchanger was studied. In this investigation a very simple heat exchanger configuration was examined, i.e., a parallel plate heat exchanger involving only two plates. The experimental results of this work are presented. Experimental measurements were made to determine both average and local values of the friction factor and heat transfer coefficient. Both are presented. Due to several conditions, the local data has a large scatter and the uncertainty may be as much as 100%. Since the uncertainty calculation is based on the worst possible case, the error in the actual data should be less than this.