Condensation enhancement by means of electrohydrodynamic techniques

Short state-of-the-art on the enhancement of condensation heat transfer techniques by means of condensate drainage is presented in this paper. The electrohydrodynamic (EHD) technique is suitable for dielectric media used in refrigeration, organic Rankine cycles and heat pump devices. The electric field is commonly generated in the case of horizontal tubes by means of a rod-type electrode or mesh electrodes. Authors proposed two geometries in the presented own experimental investigations. The first one was an electrode placed just beneath the tube bottom and the second one consisted of a horizontal finned tube with a double electrode placed beneath the tube. The experimental investigations of these two configurations for condensation of refrigerant R-123 have been accomplished. The obtained results confirmed that the application of the EHD technique for the investigated tube and electrode arrangement caused significant increase in heat transfer coefficient. The condensation enhancement depends both on the geometry of the electrode system and on the applied voltage