International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 110 (2017) 783–788

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International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ijhmt

Technical Note

Study on average Nusselt and Sherwood numbers in vertical plate

channels with falling water film evaporation
Yangda Wan, Chengqin Ren ⇑, Yang Yang, Li Xing
State Key Laboratory of Advanced Design and Manufacturing for Vehicle Body, College of Mechanical and Vehicle Engineering, Hunan University, Changsha 410082, China

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: In this paper, the effects of variable parameters on the average Nusselt and Sherwood numbers between
Received 19 January 2017 moist air and liquid water film in vertical plate channels are investigated using an approach proposed by
Received in revised form 24 March 2017 previous work. The validity of data is also investigated. Traditional correlations for the average Nusselt
Accepted 24 March 2017
and Sherwood numbers are not comprehensive enough as they cannot indicate the effects of inlet param-
Available online 1 April 2017
eters on heat and mass transfer process. In this research, correlations for the average Nusselt and
Sherwood numbers are developed in terms of moist air inlet Reynolds number, ratio of water to moist
Keywords:
air inlet mass flow rate, ratio of channel length to half channel width and moist air inlet dimensionless
Falling water film evaporation
Average Nusselt and Sherwood numbers
temperature. The definition of the moist air inlet dimensionless temperature takes into account the
Correlations effects of moist air inlet dry-bulb and wet-bulb temperatures and water film inlet temperature. The cor-
Heat and mass transfer relations show that the moist air inlet dimensionless temperature has the greatest influence on the aver-
age Nusselt number compared with that of the other dimensionless parameters, but it has the lowest
influence on the average Sherwood number. The results would be helpful to understand the heat and
mass transfer behavior between moist air and liquid water film.
Ó 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction been used in literature [9–12]. Wu et al. [11] proposed a simplified

Falling film evaporation is widely used for effective cooling [1–
3]. The application of falling film evaporation for air conditioning
can bring environmentally friendly products and reduce energy
consumption. Therefore falling film evaporation devices are draw-
ing more and more attention in recent years.
Xuan et al. [4,5] presented research and application of evapora-
tive cooling for air conditioning in China. Experimental and theo-
retical research works on feasibility studies, performance test
and optimization as well as heat and mass transfer analysis were
reviewed in detail. The energy saving potential and environmental
impacts of typical evaporative cooling air conditioning systems
were illustrated. Camargo et al. [6,7] developed a mathematical
model for evaporative cooling air conditioning system, allowing
the determination of the effectiveness of saturation. The experi-
mental results are used to determine the heat transfer coefficient
and to compare with the mathematical model. Dowdy and Kara-
bash [8] proposed the correlation for determination of the heat
transfer coefficient in a rigid cellulose evaporative medium based
on the assumption that air flow is turbulent. The correlation has
⇑ Corresponding author.
E-mail address: renchengqin@163.com (C. Ren).
cooling efficiency correlation based on material properties and
configuration of wetted medium used in the cooler. The models
that implement this correlation were presented in literature
[13,14].
Considering that heat and mass transfer process are also
affected not only by material, but also by operation conditions,
such as the inlet parameters of moist air and liquid water, tradi-
tional correlations are not comprehensive enough as they cannot
indicate the effects of the inlet parameters on heat and mass trans-
fer process. Heat and mass transfer coefficients correlations devel-
oped by many studies were calculated by the logarithmic mean
temperature difference or arithmetical mean temperature differ-
ence. Little study was concerned on the method of measuring cou-
pled heat and mass transfer coefficients during falling water film
evaporation process. In a previous article [15], we have developed
a new approach to analyze the heat and mass transfer characteris-
tic in vertical plate channels with falling water film evaporation.
The objective of the present paper is to extend the previous work
[15] to develop general correlations for heat and mass transfer
coefficients. In dimensionless terms, this means developing corre-
lations for the average Nusselt and Sherwood numbers in terms of
their dependence on the influence parameters. A temperature
dimensionless parameter hg;i takes into account the effects of moist

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijheatmasstransfer.2017.03.087
0017-9310/Ó 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
784 Y. Wan et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 110 (2017) 783–788

Nomenclature

A heat and mass transfer area [m2] T temperature [°C]

cp specific heat capacity [kJ kg
1 °C
1] u, v velocity components in x, y coordinate directions,
C ast
w water to air heat capacity rate ratio respectively [m s
1]
D, L half width and length of the channel respectively [m] W humidity ratio of moist air [kg kg
1]
Ds diffusion coefficient of water vapor in air [m2 s
1] x, y space coordinate as shown in (Fig. 1) [m]


E dimensionless ratio of water film heat transfer coeffi-
cient to air mass transfer coefficient defined as Greek letters
hc;w =hD cp;dg aL ratio of channel length to half channel width
hfg evaporation heat of water [kJ kg
1] d water film thickness [m]
hfg;0 evaporation heat of water at reference temperature h dimensionless temperature
(0 °C) [kJ kg
1] k thermal conductivity [W m
1 °C
1]
hc moist air side heat transfer coefficient [kW m
2 °C
1] t kinematic viscosity [m2 s
1]
hc;w water film side heat transfer coefficient [kW m
2 °C
1] q density [kg m
3]
hD moist air side mass transfer coefficient [kg m
2 s
1] U relative humidity [%]
hfg;0 normalized evaporation heat of water at reference tem-
perature condition [°C] Subscripts
i specific enthalpy [kJ kg
1] g; dg moist air, dry air respectively
Lef Lewis factor defined as hc =hD cp;dg
i, o inlet, outlet respectively
m mass flow rate [kg m
1 s
1] I condition at the gas-liquid interface
NTU m number of mass transfer units w, v water film, water vapor respectively
NuM , ShM average Nusselt and Sherwood numbers respectively wg moist air wet bulb temperature
Re Reynolds number
Rwg ratio of water to moist air mass flow rate

air inlet dry-bulb and wet-bulb temperatures and water film inlet
temperature. The results would be helpful to understand the heat
and mass transfer behavior between moist air and liquid water
film.
2. Methodology
2.1. 2-D model
The model investigated is a vertical plate channel with the
length L and half channel width D as shown schematically in
Fig. 1. The moist air flows upward and the liquid water film flows
along the surface of the channel. The channel walls are thermally
insulated in order to investigate the evaporative cooling process
associated with many engineering applications such as direct
evaporative cooler, cooling tower, etc. It is assumed that the flow
is incompressible and the air-vapor mixture is an ideal gas mix-
ture. The thermo-physical properties of the dry air, water and
water vapor are assumed to be constant. Dufour and Soret effects
are neglected. The interface between the water film and the moist
air is at thermodynamic equilibrium state [16–18].
The governing equations for the 2-D CFD model have been
described in our previous study [15]. In view of the large number
of parameters, a similarity analysis was performed to deduce the
2-D model equations into dimensionless forms to find the dimen-
sionless factors affecting the average Nusselt and Sherwood num-

Fig. 1. (a) Schematic diagram of the physical. (b) Differential element of channel.
 Y. Wan et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 110 (2017) 783–788 785

bers in the previous study. For brevity, the correlations for the Lef
dT g ¼ ðT I
T g ÞdNTU m ð10Þ
average Nusselt and Sherwood numbers are repeated as follows: B1
NuM ¼ f ðRwg ; Reg ; aL ; hg;i Þ ð1Þ
dW g ¼ ðW I
W g ÞdNTU m ð11Þ
ShM ¼ f ðRwg ; Reg ; aL ; hg;i Þ ð2Þ
~
E
where Rwg ¼ mw =mg represents ratio of liquid water to moist air dT w ¼
B2 ðT I
T w ÞdNTU m ð12Þ
C w
mass flow rate; Reg ¼ 4ðD
dÞv g;i =tg represents moist air inlet Rey-
nolds number; aL ¼ L=D represents ratio of channel length to half W I ¼ d þ eT I ð13Þ
channel width; hg;i ¼ ðT g;i
T wg;i Þ=ðT w;i
T wg;i Þ represents moist air
inlet dimensionless temperature.
w þ Lef T g þ B3 hfg;0 ðW g
dÞ
½ET
The average Nusselt and Sherwood numbers are defined as: TI ¼ ð14Þ

þ Lef B4 Þ
ðE
4ðD
dÞhc  
NuM ¼ ð3Þ Rcv
kg In the above equations, B1 ¼ ð1 þ W g Rcv Þ=½1 þ Lef
ðW I
W g Þ,


B2 ¼ 1 þ ðRcw =EÞðW I
W g Þ, B3 ¼ 1 þ T I ðRcv
Rcw Þ=hfg;0 and
4ðD
dÞhD
ShM ¼ ð4Þ B4 ¼ 1 þ B3 ehfg;0 =Lef ; NTU m ¼ hD A=mg represents the number of
Ds qg
mass transfer units, here A is the total heat and mass transfer area
and will be equal to L if the channel breadth in the direction per-
2.2. 1-D model pendicular to x-y plane is unity; E
¼ hc;w =hD cp;dg represents dimen-
sionless ratio of water film heat transfer coefficient to air mass
The 1-D model developed by our previous study [15,19] will be transfer coefficient; C w ¼ mw cpw =mg cp;dg represents water to dry
used in this paper for calculating the average Nusselt and Sher- air heat capacity ratio; hfg;0 ¼ hfg;0 =cp;dg represents a normalized
wood numbers, as shown in Fig. 1(b). To simplify the complexity heat of evaporation at 0 °C; Rcv ¼ cpv =cp;dg and Rcw ¼ cpw =cp;dg repre-
of the heat and mass transfer analysis, the two additional assump-
sent water vapor and liquid water to dry air specific heat capacity
tions for the 1-D model are made: (1) humidity ratio of air in equi-
ratios, respectively; Lef ¼ hc =hD cp;dg represents Lewis factor for air-
librium with the water surface is assumed to be a linear function of
water mixture.
the water surface temperature, (2) constant heat and mass transfer
coefficients along the heat exchanger surface. By principles of mass
and energy conversion, a set of differential equations can be 3. Numerical method and model validation
obtained:
Energy balance equation for moist air 3.1. 2-D model solution and model validation
 
mg dig ¼ hc ðT w
T g Þ þ hfg;I hD ðW I
W g Þ dA ð5Þ The 2-D model equations governing the heat and mass transfer
Mass balance equation for moist air and liquid water in the channel are solved together with the boundary conditions by
means of the finite volume method commercial software (Fluent).
mg dW g ¼ hD ðW I
W g ÞdA ¼
dmw ð6Þ SIMPLE algorithm is used for coupling pressure and velocity. Sec-
Energy balance equation for the differential element ond order upwind scheme is selected as the difference scheme.
2-D double precision style is used in the simulation for accuracy.
hc;w ðT w
T I Þ ¼ hc ðT I
T g Þ þ hfg;I hD ðW I
W g Þ ð7Þ In the setting of convergence conditions, the absolute value of
Energy balance equation for the incremental volume energy residual is less than 1  10
8 , and the absolute value of
other quality residuals are less than 1  10
6 . The heat and mass
dðmw cpw T w Þ
mg dig ¼ 0 ð8Þ
transfer characteristics are studied by Fluent, and it is necessary
For specific enthalpy of moist air, the following equation applies to verify the reliability of simulation method. The results derived
by Yan [20] are employed to check the validation of the CFD
ig ¼ ðcp;dg þ W g cpv ÞT g þ W g hfg;0 ð9Þ
method. Fig. 2(a) and (b) show respectively the axial distributions
After rearrangement of (Eqs. (5)–(9)), the final forms of the devel- of local Nusselt and Sherwood numbers for: Reg ¼ 2000,
oped equations are as follows: T w;i ¼ 40 °C, T g;i = 20 °C, U = 50%, mw;i =0.04 kg m
1 s
1. It can be
noted that the relative error between the present predictions and

Fig. 2. Axial distributions of (a) local Nusselt number, (b) local Sherwood number.
786 Y. Wan et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 110 (2017) 783–788

Fig. 3. Calculation of the average Nusselt and Sherwood numbers.

those of Yan [20] is less than 3.0%, which is within the engineering 40 °C and 20 °C, respectively, and the half channel width D is still
allowable range. Therefore, it is reliable to conduct simulation on fixed at 0.0015 m. As illustrated in Fig. 4, it is concluded that the
the heat and mass transfer characteristics of the 2-D CFD model. method based on combining the 1-D model and the 2-D CFD model
can give reasonable results of the heat and mass transfer coeffi-
3.2 Determination of the average Nusselt and Sherwood numbers cients between moist air and liquid water film, since the discrepan-
cies of the gas-liquid interface outlet temperature T I;o between
The average Nusselt and Sherwood numbers for air flow inside calculated results and 2-D CFD values are acceptable (within
vertical plate channels with falling water film evaporation are very ±0.2 °C).
important parameters to evaluate devices performance, which is Fig. 5 presents the effects of moist air inlet dimensionless tem-
helpful to reveal the heat and mass transfer characteristics perature hg;i , moist air inlet Reynolds number Reg , ratio of water to
between moist air and liquid water film. The heat and mass trans-
fer coefficients are the primary parameters in the heat and mass
transfer mathematical model, which is used for calculating all
the outlet parameters and designing the devices.
The average Nusselt and Sherwood numbers can be calculated
by combining the 1-D model and the 2-D CFD model data. The
steps for calculating the average Nusselt and Sherwood numbers
are summarized in Fig. 3. (According to the output values NTU m ,

the average heat and mass transfer coefficients can be
Lef and E,
calculated, and then the average Nusselt and Sherwood numbers
can be calculated according to Eqs. (3) and (4) respectively.)

4. Results and discussion

Simulation experiments are performed for a lot of cases under

different operating conditions. For all these cases, the inlet water Fig. 4. Comparison of calculated results with 2-D CFD model values for the gas-
temperature and the moist air wet-bulb temperature are fixed at liquid interface outlet temperature.
 Y. Wan et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 110 (2017) 783–788
Fig. 5. Effects of parameters hg;i , Reg and Rwg on the average Nusselt and Sherwood numbers at various aL from 100 to 400. (a)–(b) Rwg ¼ 1:5, Reg ¼ 1100, (c)–(d) hg;i ¼ 0:6,
Rwg ¼ 1:5, (e)–(f) hg;i ¼ 0:6, Reg ¼ 1100.
moist air mass flow rate Rwg on the average Nusselt and Sherwood
numbers for the ratio of channel length to half channel width aL
between 100 and 400. It is concluded that the average Nusselt
and Sherwood numbers increase with the decrease of the ratio of
channel length to half channel width. This is because a higher
means a greater percentage of the fully developed region with
smaller local Nusselt and Sherwood numbers than those in the
entrance region. Fig. 5(a) and (b) present the effects of the moist
air inlet dimensionless temperature hg;i on the average Nusselt
and Sherwood numbers respectively. The average Nusselt numbers
are greatly dependent on the moist air inlet dimensionless temper-
ature. The slope becomes much steeper when hg;i > 0:5, whereas
the average Sherwood numbers slightly change for hg;i from 0.2
to 1.0. From the results of Fig. 5(c) and (d), the moist air inlet Rey-
nolds number influence on the average Nusselt and Sherwood
numbers are presented. The results show that the average Nusselt
and Sherwood numbers rapidly rise with the increase of the moist
air inlet Reynolds number. Taking the case of aL ¼ 100 as an exam-
ple, when the moist air inlet Reynolds number changes from 600 to
2100, the average Nusselt and Sherwood numbers increases from
787
9.4 to 11.1 and 7.5 to 9.3 respectively. Similar trends can be found
in the ratio of water to moist air mass flow rate Rwg influence on
the average Nusselt and Sherwood numbers, as shown in Fig. 5
(e) and (f).
The heat and mass coefficients are very important for designing
or simulating the thermodynamic performance of falling water
film evaporation systems. Thus, the correlations of the average
Nusselt and Sherwood numbers are developed as following by
regression method:
NuM ¼ 8:250h0:196 Re0:101 Re0:050
0:090
ð15Þ
g;i g wg aL
ShM ¼ 3:926h0:016 Re0:213 Re0:049
0:163
ð16Þ
g;i g wg aL
The application ranges are 0:2 6 hg;i 6 1:0, 600 6 Reg 6 2100,
0:75 6 Rewg 3:5 and 100 6 aL 400 in this study. The maximum
errors of above correlations are 8.0%. According to the values of
exponents in the correlations, it can be concluded that hg;i has
the greatest influence on NuM compared with that of the other
788 Y. Wan et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 110 (2017) 783–788
dimensionless parameters, but it has the lowest influence on ShM .
In addition, the signs of the exponents are also consistent with
the variations of the parameters in Fig. 5.
5. Conclusion
The determination of the average Nusselt and Sherwood num-
bers in vertical plate channels with falling water film evaporation
via a new approach is reported. Many cases under different condi-
tions are performed for providing valid and important data for fall-
ing water film evaporation. Dimensionless parameters such as
moist air inlet Reynolds number, ratio of water to moist air mass
flow rate, ratio of channel length to half channel width and moist
air inlet dimensionless temperature have significant effect on the
average Nusselt and Sherwood numbers. In particular, the moist
air inlet dimensionless temperature takes into account the effects
of the inlet parameters, such as moist air dry-bulb and wet-bulb
temperatures and water film temperature. Finally, the correlations
of the average Nusselt and Sherwood numbers are developed for
designing or simulating the thermodynamic performance of falling
water film evaporation systems, which will be conducted in our
future research.
Acknowledgment
This work is supported by the 2017 Graduate Student Research
Innovation Project in Hunan Province.
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