| Abstract: | Dropwise condensation of different steam-air mixtures on three substrate materials (copper, aluminium and nickel) is studied. For each steam-air mixture, the heat flux, the heat transfer coefficient and the surface temperature are observed to be highest on copper and lowest on nickel substrates for the same identical test conditions. The above heat transfer variables are related to the bulk properties of the substrate. It is concluded that the presence of non-condensable gases is an inhibiting influence on the heat transfer performance in the condensation of steam. The normalized variables \documentclass{article}\pagestyle{empty}\begin{document}$ \frac{{h_i \left(\eta \right)}}{{h_i \left(o \right)}} $\end{document} and \documentclass{article}\pagestyle{empty}\begin{document}$ \frac{{T_{si} \left(\eta \right)}}{{T_{si} \left(o \right)}} $\end{document} are found to be functions of the air concentration only. |
