SOLTEQ

Equipment for Engineering Education

FILM AND DROPWISE

CONDENSATION UNIT
MODEL: HE 163

his Film and Dropwise Condensation Unit (Model: HE 163) has been specially developed for use in students
teaching and demonstration purposes. It will enable students to visually observe the process of heat transfer during
condensation, as well as gather experimental data for a better theoretical understanding. The unit is a self contained

bench top unit, with an integrated steam generator and air extraction system. The main components in the unit are the specially
designed condensers for the observation of both filmwise and dropwise condensation.

DESCRIPTION
Condensation of steam on the surface of a condenser causes heat to transfer from the steam into the cooling medium flowing
through the condenser. This type of heat transfer may occur at very high fluxes depending on the conditions at the condenser
surface. Steam may condense in two different manners--filmwise or dropwise. For the same operating conditions, dropwise
condensation exhibits a much higher and efficient heat transfer compared to filmwise condensation. Although dropwise
condensation is always desirable, it seldom occurs in practice for a continuous period of time.

Rev1.0 16/06/2011

Equipment for Engineering Education & Research

Filmwise Condensation
Most heat transfer surfaces on a heat exchanger are made of
wettable materials. During condensation, a film of
condensate spreads over these surfaces. As more vapor
condenses on the outside of the film, its thickness increases
and the film will start flowing downwards due to its weight.
Heat transfer occurs through this film of condensate to the
surface material beneath, then to the cooling medium. The
liquid film is generally a poor conductor of heat,
contributing much to the thermal resistance and inefficiency
of this mode of condensation.
Dropwise condensation
If the heat transfer surfaces are treated to become nonwettable, the condensate that forms on the surface will be
shaped like spherical beads. These beads adheres together
to become larger as condensation proceeds. The bigger
beads will then start to flow downwards due to their weight,
thus collecting all other static beads along the way. As the
beads increase in size, the velocity increases, finally leaving
a trail of bare surface free from liquid film. This bare surface
offers very little resistance to the transfer of heat. Therefore,
very high heat fluxes are possible.

b)

Condenser
Type : Two water-cooled condenser fabricated
from copper and brass
Diameter : 12.7 mm
Length : 120 mm
Material : Gold plated (dropwise condenser)
Natural finish (filmwise condenser)
Fitted with 3 thermocouples to measure the mean metal
temperature and 2 thermocouples to measure the inlet
and outlet water temperatures.

c)

Heating Element
Coiled heater with thermal protection
Power : 3 kW
Control : Triac control between 0.4 to 3.0 kW

d)

Air Extraction System

Air cooler, separator and water jet vacuum pump

e)

Instrumentations
Temperature sensors at all important points.
Pressure sensor to measure the chamber pressure.
Flow meters to measure the water flow rate through the
condensers:
Dropwise condenser : 0.4 to 4.0 LPM
Filmwise condenser : 0.1 to 1.0 LPM

f)

Safety Features
Pressure switch to turn off the heater when chamber
pressure exceeds 1.20 abs bar, pressure relief valve to
discharge at 1.50 abs bar.

The advantages of dropwise over filmwise condensation are

apparent, resulting in a smaller heat transfer area, smaller
temperature difference or larger heat transfer rate for a fixed
set of conditions.

EXPERIMENTAL CAPABILITIES

Visual observation of filmwise and dropwise

condensation, as well as nucleate boiling.
Determination of heat flux and heat transfer
coefficients in both filmwise and dropwise
condensation at different operating pressures.
Investigation on the relationship between saturation
pressure and temperature for water up to 100C.
Study on the effect of presence of air in the
condensers.
Demonstration of Daltons Law.
TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS
a)

Steam Chamber
Type : Borosilicate glass cylinder with flanged
ends and covers
Outer Diameter
: 105 mm
Height
: 400 mm
Thickness
: 5 mm

SOLTEQ

SOLTEQ

Rev1.0 16/06/2011

SOLTEQ

Equipment for Engineering Education & Research

- EI
DIGITALINSTRUMENTATION
i)
ii)
iii)
iv)
v)

2 units of electronic flowmeter

1 unit of pressure transmitter
7 units of temperature sensor
1 unit of power transducer
7 units of digital display

-DAS
SOLDAS DATAACQUISITION SYSTEM
i)
ii)
iii)
iv)

A PC with latest Pentium Processor

An electronic signal conditioning system
Stand alone data acquisition modules
Windows based software
Data Logging

Signal Analysis
Process Control
Real-Time Display
Tabulated Results
Graph of Experimental Results
- CAL
SOLCAL COMPUTER AIDED LEARNING SOFTWARE
i)
ii)
iii)
iv)

Interactive multimedia features

Graphical simulation
Experiment results samples
Full experiment manuals

REQUIREMENTS
Electricity
Water

: 240 VAC / 1-Phase / 50Hz

: Continuous water supply (Min. 10 LPM @
2 to 3 bar)

OVERALL DIMENSION
Height
: 0.71 m
Width
: 0.71 m
Depth
: 0.24 m
MANUAL
The unit is supplied with Operating and Experiment manuals
in English giving full descriptions of the unit, summary of
theory, experimental procedures and typical experimental
results.

SOLTEQ

OPTIONAL ITEMS

Rev1.0 16/06/2011

SOLTEQ

Equipment for Engineering Education & Research

SOFTWARE & E-LEARNING

Our range of teaching equipment can be complemented with our
SOLDAS and SOLCAL software.

SOLDAS - Supervisory Control & Data Acquisition

- Data Logging
- Signal Analysis
- Process Control
- Real-Time Display
- Tabulated Results
- Graph of Experiment Results

SOLCAL - Computer Aided Learning

- Multimedia Features
- Interactive
- Graphic Simulation
- Samples of Experiment Result
- Full Experiment Manuals

Contact us for a catalog CD

SOLUTION ENGINEERING SDN. BHD.

AGENT:

(Co. No. 174876-M)

Sales Office :
No.3, Jalan TPK 2/4, Taman Perindustrian Kinrara,
47100 Puchong, Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia.
Tel. No. : +(603) 80758000
Fax. No. : +(603) 80755784
R&D Office :
G-2A, Incubator 3, Technology Park Malaysia,
Bukit Jalil, 57000 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Tel. No. : +(603) 8996 0023
Email
: solution@solution.com.my
Web site : http//www.solution.com.my/

MSC- Status
BUATAN MALAYSIA

Company

Rev1.0 16/06/2011