A Comparative Study of Heat Transfer Coefficients for Film Condensation

Film condensation heat transfer has wide applications in a variety of industrial systems. A number of film condensation heat transfer correlations (FCHTCs) have been proposed. However, their predictions are often inconsistent. This paper presents a comparative study of existing FCHTCs. Totally 1214 experimental data points are obtained from 10 published papers, and 14 FCHTCs are reviewed, among which four correlations are used for horizontal flow outside smooth tubes, three for flow on vertical surfaces of plates or tubes, two for flow inside smooth tubes either vertically or horizontally, and five for horizontal flow inside smooth tubes. 13 FCHTCs are compared with the experimental data. There are three FCHTCs for horizontal flow inside smooth tubes having a mean absolute relative deviation (MARD) less than 26%, among which the best one has an MARD of 22.2%. More efforts should be made to develop better correlations. Key words: Correlation; Heat transfer; Film; Condensation