Falling Film Evaporation: Heat transfer and visualization

Horizontal falling film evaporators have the potential of displacing flooded evaporators in industry, due to advantages such as lower required refrigerant charge and lower pressure drop. However, there is a need to improve the understanding of falling film evaporation mechanisms to provide accurate thermal design methods. Experimental data (heat transfer and visualization) taken in falling film, pool boiling and in adiabactic conditions are used to study the physical phenomena governing the falling film evaporation process. Measurements of the local heat transfer coefficient were obtained and utilized to generate new prediction methods, including a method for predicting the onset-of- dryout film flow rate during falling film evaporation, local pool boiling and falling film heat transfer prediction methods and a falling film multiplier prediction method.

Marcel Christians received his Ph.D. from the Laboratory of Heat and Mass Transfer, part of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne, Switzerland. He currently lives in Syracuse, NY with his wife.