Heat Transfer and Fouling Performance During Falling Film Evaporation in Vertical Porous Tubes

An experimental investigation was conducted on falling film evaporation along two porous tubes, which were sintered by stainless-steel powder with a diameter of 0.45 and 1 um, respectively. The test section is a 2 m long sintered tube with an outer diameter of 25 mm and a wall thickness of 2 mm. During the experiment, the pressure inside the tube was maintained at 1 atm, the inlet temperature was 373 K, and mass flux ranged from 0.51 to 1.36 kg/ (m s). Conditions of the steam outside the pipe, which was the heat source, were fixed, while the fouling tests were carried out at a constant mass flow of 0.74 kg/ (m s) using high-concentration brine as work fluid. The overall heat transfer coefficient under different working conditions was tested and compared with the stainless steel smooth tube of the same dimensions. The heat transfer coefficient of the two porous stainless tubes are about 35% and 20% lower than that of the smooth one, showing an inferior effect because the steam in the pores of the pipe wall during the infiltration process will reduce the heat conductivity. The heat transfer coefficient of the smooth tube deteriorated severely due to the deposition of calcium carbonate, which had little effect on the sintered tubes. Besides, the fouling weight of porous tubes is 2.01 g and 0 g compared with 5.52 g of the smooth tube.