Applied Thermal Engineering 40 (2012) 189e197

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Applied Thermal Engineering

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

Modeling and experimental investigation on water-driven steam injector for

waste heat recovery
Zhao Zhang, DaoTong Chong, JunJie Yan*
State Key Laboratory of Multiphase Flow in Power Engineering, Xian Jiaotong University, Xian 710049, PR China

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

Article history: This paper discusses a proposed model of the water-driven steam injector that can be used to recover
Received 19 August 2010 waste heat in many industries. A mathematical model was developed for evaluating the injector recovery
Accepted 3 February 2012 performance in this study; the results indicated that a higher inlet steam pressure, lower inlet-driven
Available online 13 February 2012
water temperature or lower inlet-driven water pressure improved the entrainment ratio, whereas the
back pressure of the discharge water had little effect on the injector performance. Moreover, a one-
Keywords:
dimensional two-uid analytical model of two-phase ow was presented with a set of closure equa-
Water-driven steam injector
tions for estimating ow parameters of the whole injector. The one-dimensional model involved a single
Entrainment ratio
Two-uid analytical model of two-phase
distinct ow regime, inverted annular ow in the mixing nozzle and throat tube of the injector. The
ow condensation heat transfer and interfacial shear stress were found to be two main factors affecting
Heat recovery the static pressure proles along the injector. A series of experiments were conducted to investigate the
performance of the injector and the pressure distribution along the injector under different operating
conditions. The entrainment ratio and ow parameters along the condensing section of the models were
reasonably consistent with the experimental data.
2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
An injector is a pump-like device that converts the pressure
energy of a motive uid to velocity energy and creates a low
pressure zone which draws in and entrains a suction uid. After
passing through the throat of the injector, the mixed uid expands
and the velocity reduces, resulting in converting velocity energy
back into pressure energy. The motive uid may be a liquid, steam
or any other gas. The entrained suction uid may be a gas, liquid,
slurry, or dust-laden gas stream. The injectors have been applied in
many industrial areas, such as the injector of the thermal
management system for aerospace applications by Sherif [1], the
vapor injector for the refrigeration system by Cizungu [2], the
injector for the hydraulic discharging system designed by Spi-
ridonov [3], the injector for boosting low pressure natural gas
designed by Chong [4], etc.
A two-phase steam water injector is a typical case of the injector.
Working uids in the injector exchange their momentum, heat and
mass with violent steam condensation. There are two types of two-
phase injector designs, one type with a steam jet in the center, and
* Corresponding author. Tel.: 86 29 82665741.
E-mail address: yanjj@mail.xjtu.edu.cn (JunJie Yan).
the other type with a water jet in the center. Both types of injectors
have the following merits: efcient heat and mass transfer, an
unsurpassed simplicity on account of the absence of moving parts,
low purchase and maintenance costs, absence of sealing problems,
etc.
In the industrial applications that cold water needs to be
pumped at a pressure higher than the steam, a steam-driven water
injector used is always designed with a convergent-divergent
steam nozzle in the center, aiming to achieve a higher outlet
pressure. In such application case, violent interactions occur
between the supersonic steam and the annular water in the mixing
nozzle; a condensation shock arises and results in a signicantly
higher pressure lift at the outlet of the injector. This type of injector
has been used as the feedwater supply device in locomotives and in
the Merchant Marine since World War . In recent years, it is used
for emergency core cooling and feedwater supply system in
advanced nuclear reactors, as shown by Beithou and Aybar [5e7],
Cattatdori [8], Deberne [9,10], Dumaz [11], Narabayashi [12,13], etc;
it can also be used for district-heating system, as shown by Yan [14].
It is well known that low temperature and pressure waste heat
exists extensively in the industrial application occasions. Most of
the waste heat cannot be efciently utilized by the conventional
power machines. For example, the exhaust steam is usually mixed
with non-condensable gas; a conventional surface heat exchanger

1359-4311/$ e see front matter 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.applthermaleng.2012.02.006
190 Z. Zhang et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 40 (2012) 189e197

Nomenclature r mass density, kg/m3

s shear stress, N/m2
A area, m2 y specic volume, m3/kg
D diameter, m f entrainment ratio
f friction factor
H heat transfer coefcient, W/(m2$K) Subscript
h specic enthalpy, J/kg 0e5 section 0e5
P pressure, Pa b back pressure
T temperature,  C c contact condensation
M mass owrate, kg/s d discharge water
V velocity, m/s f water
x axial distance along the injector fg phase change
Y vector for local parameters fn water nozzle
g steam
Greek symbols gn steam nozzle
b perimeter of ow channel, m I interface
h efciency Sat saturation
q angular position, rad W wall

is not suitable for recovering the exhaust steam. However, due to
the direct contact of the steam and water, and efcient heat and
mass transfer between them, this two-phase injector is a good
choice for waste heat recovery. Unfortunately, little information is
available on the waste heat recovery by use of the two-phase
injector. Yan et al. [15] proposed a water-driven steam injector
(WDSI) for waste heat recovery. The injector was designed with
a convergent water nozzle in the center and a convergent steam
nozzle in the annular, aiming to recover the low pressure waste
steam as much as possible. The effect of swirling vanes on the
recovery performance of the injector was experimentally investi-
gated. However, it is not very clear about the internal ow, heat and
mass transfer process inside the WDSI. Modeling and experimental
investigation on this device will facilitate the understanding and
design of this kind of injector.
In this study, a WDSI was designed with an annular convergent
steam nozzle to recover a low-pressure steam at a pressure ranging
from 0.02 to 0.1 MPa. The experiment was performed under
different operating conditions, including various inlet water pres-
sures, inlet water temperatures, inlet steam pressures, and back
pressures. A mathematical model for calculating the recovery
performance was developed. In contrast to the complex ow
patterns in the steam-driven water injector, a one-dimensional
two-uid analytical model of two-phase inverted annular ow
was developed considering the lower pressure of the inlet steam to
estimate the ow parameters of the injector.
Mgn
f ; (1)
Mfn
where Mgn and Mfn are the mass owrates in the steam and water
nozzles, respectively.
The outlet pressures of the steam and water nozzle are
considered to be equal at section 2. The pressure P2 is related to the
inlet water pressure and temperature and the inlet steam pressure.
An empirical correlation to obtain the pressure P2, Eq. (25), is
presented in accordance with the experimental data.
2.1.1. Steam nozzle
The steam nozzle was designed as a convergence nozzle from
section 1 to section 2, as shown in Fig. 1. Because of the short length
of the steam nozzle, the condensation of the saturated steam while
owing through the steam nozzle is neglected. The steam velocity
at section 2 is obtained from an energy conversation for the adia-
batic and reversible ow in the convergence steam nozzle:

 1=2
Vg2 2 hg0  hg2 ; (2)
where hg0 and hg2 are the steam-specic enthalpies at inlet and
outlet pressures of the steam nozzle, respectively.
If the steam-nozzle dimensions, pressure P2, and state equation
of steam r r(P, h) are known, the owrate of the steam mass can
be derived using the continuity equation:

Mgn rg2 Vg2 Ag2 ; (3)

2. Modeling of a water-driven steam injector
The WDSI in the present study was composed of ve parts:
steam nozzle, water nozzle, mixing nozzle, throat tube, and
diffuser, as shown in Fig. 1. The water and steam nozzles used were
both convergence nozzles. In the convergence-mixing nozzle, the
central water jet entrained steam through the steam nozzle, thus
forming a two-phase condensing ow. In the diffuser the steam was
completely condensed into water.
where the rst subscript g denotes the steam uid, and the second
subscript 2 denotes section 2, as shown in Fig. 1.
2.1.2. Water nozzle
If the values of the driven water pressure and the outlet water
pressure are known, the water velocity at the nozzle outlet can be
determined by applying the Bernoulli equation between sections
0 and 2 of the water nozzle:

2.1. Injector performance evaluation Vf20 Pf 0 Vf22 P2

; (4)
2 rf 0 2hfn rf 2
As a device for recovering waste steam, the performance of the
WDSI can be indicated by a dimensionless parameter, namely the where Pf0, rf0, and Vf0 corresponds to the water pressure, density, and
entrainment ratio. The entrainment ratio f can be used to describe velocity at the inlet of water nozzle; P2, rf2, and Vf2 represent the
the efciency of exhaust steam recovery, which is dened as follows: water pressure, density, and velocity at the outlet of the water
 Z. Zhang et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 40 (2012) 189e197 191

Fig. 1. Schematic diagram for modeling of water-driven steam injector.

nozzle. hfn denotes the hydraulic efciency of the water nozzle, whereas the quantity of steam decreases. Under routine conditions,
which is 0.90 in the following experiment. Compared with the outlet the complete condensation is designed to take place in the diffuser.
velocity, the velocity of inlet water can be neglected; then, the water A stratied ow model was applied to the mixing nozzle of the
velocity from the water nozzle can be calculated from the Eq. (5). injector. The ow was considered to be steady and adiabatic in the
mixing nozzle. Equations based on the conservations of mass,
" !#1=2
Pf 0 P2 momentum and energy were used for each phase. The velocities
Vf 2 2hfn  : (5) and uid properties of the water and steam had uniform values in
rf 0 rf 2
any plane normal to the direction of ow. This means that a one-
To obtain the water-mass owrate, the continuity equation can dimensional two-uid model was presented for the inverted
be used: annular ow. A one-dimensional control volume method was used
to develop the mathematical model for the mixing nozzle.
Mfn rf 2 Vf 2 Af 2 : (6) The mass conservation equation for the water phase is denoted
as
Therefore, by using P2, the mass owrate in the water nozzle,
Mfn, and the mass owrate in the steam nozzle, Mgn, can be calcu- d   dMf
lated. The entrainment ratio can be obtained by the following rf Vf Af : (10)
dx dx
equation:
The momentum conservation equation for water phase is as

 1=2 follows:
rg2 2 hg0  hg2 Ag2
f h  i1=2 : (7)
rf 2 2hfn Pf 0 =rf 0  P2 =rf 2 Af 2 dP dVf   dM
f
Af  Mf Vg  Vf si b: (11)
dx dx dx
Furthermore, the entrainment ratio can be deduced from the
The energy conservation equation for the water phase is
energy conversation. In the experiment, the WDSI is thermally
well-insulated so that the heat loss can be neglected. Thus, the !
dTf dVf Vf2 dMf  
energy conversation equation can be described as follows: Mf Cp Mf Vf hg  hf  Vg  Vf si b;
dx dx 2 dx
1 2 1 (12)
Mgn $hg1 Mgn Vg1 Mfn $hf 0 Mfn Vf20
2 2
  1  where rf, Vf, Af, Mf, and Tf are density, velocity, ow area, mass
Mgn Mfn $hd Mgn Mfn Vd2 : (8) owrate, and temperature of the water jet, respectively; b is the
2
perimeter of the ow channel; hg and hf are the specic enthalpies
In this case, only a small error in approximation will occur if the of steam and water, respectively; si is the interfacial shear stress
inlet and outlet kinetic energies are neglected. Combining Eqs. (1) between the two streams, which can be obtained by
and (2), the entrainment ratio can be obtained:
 2
  1
hd  hf 0
si fi rg Vg  Vf ; (13)
2
f  : (9)
hg1  hd where fi is the interfacial friction factor in the stratied ow, which
is correlated to the local properities of the two phases. Many
researchers, such as Linehan [16] and Kim [17], have studied the
2.2. Two-uid model for inverted annular ow in the mixing nozzle interactions between the stratied steam and water ow, reporting
that the interfacial shear stresses between the two phases
When a cold water jet from the water nozzle enters the mixing increased with an increase in steam and water owrates, along
nozzle, the jet with lower pressure takes up the annular saturated with the condensation rate. In the present study, the interfacial
steam, and direct contact condensation between the two phases friction factor in the mixing nozzle and throat tube could be
takes place, accompanied by violent heat, momentum, and mass obtained with the method presented in Akimotos work [18], and
transfers. The water-mass owrate in the two-phase uid increases, the fi was found to be in the range 0.05e0.67.
192 Z. Zhang et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 40 (2012) 189e197

The mass conservation equation for the steam phase is dY

Mx; Y f x; Y: (22)
dx
d   dMg
r g Vg Ag : (14) In this equation, Y is the vector for these nine variables. On the
dx dx
basis of the solution introduced by Shampine [21], this initial value
The momentum conservation equation for the steam phase is problem can be solved for the local nine variables together with
parameters of the mixing nozzle from section 2 to section 3.
dP dVg
Ag  Mg sw si b; (15)
dx dx
2.3. Two-uid model for inverted annular ow in the throat tube
where rg, Vg, Ag, and Mg are density, velocity, ow area, and mass
owrate of steam. The shear stress between the annular steam uid In comparison with the dispersed ow model or homogeneous
and the channel wall, which is denoted as sw, can be obtained by ow model adopted by Linehan [22] and Manno [23], and other
researchers, the ow in the throat was also treated as an inverted
1 annular ow in the present study. Based on the observations and
sw fw rg Vg2 ; (16)
2 experimental data in the test rig, the two-uid model was applied
where fw is the wall friction factor in the stratied ow, which is for the two phases separately. The nine equations in throat tube
mainly related to the local properties of the steam phase. The shear were similar to those in the mixing nozzle, with the exception that
stress exerted on the outer channel walls is hypothesized to be the geometrical condition was
consistent with the single-phase steam ow in smooth channels.
The Reynolds number for the steam ow at the inlet of the mixing dAg dAf
0: (23)
nozzle would be approximately 4.7  106. The wall friction factor at dx dx
this Reynolds number was 0.032. The values determined at the end of the mixing nozzle acted as
The annular steam is assumed to be saturated at local pressure the initial values of the system of ODEs for the throat tube. More-
in the mixing channel. The variation of steam density at the pres- over, Shampines solution for the ODEs was adopted, and the
sure from section 2 to section 3 is given by variables along the throat tube were evaluated.
However, for the operation of the WDSI, if the hydraulic resis-
P tance downstream of the injector changes, a steep pressure
const; (17)
rng increase, called a condensation shock, appears in the throat tube of
the injector. The shock occurs over a very short distance along the
where n is a polytropic coefcient with a value of 1.135, which was
axis of the throat tube. After the shock has occurred, the steam
proposed by Zeuner [19] for the initial saturated condition of steam.
condenses completely into a water jet.
In addition, for calculating the constant total mass owrate and
the total channel area, two equations are obtained:
2.4. Single-phase ow in the diffuser
dMg dMf
0 (18) The diffuser is a diverging nozzle. In most cases, steam
dx dx
condenses completely in the mixing chamber, through which
dAg dAf a homogeneous single-phase water ow occurs. With an increase
btan q; (19) in the cross-section area along the nozzle, the consequent decrease
dx dx
in water velocity results in an increase in static pressure. The
where q is the half convergence angle of the mixing nozzle. discharge water pressure is determined using the Bernoulli equa-
With the energy balance of the interface, the condensation rate tion between sections 4 and 5 of the injector as:
can be calculated as:
  1  
P5 P4 rf V42  V52 : (24)
dMg Hc Tg  Tf b 2
 ; (20)
dx hfg

where Hc is the contact condensation heat transfer coefcient, and
hfg is the latent heat of condensation during the phase change at the
local pressure.
By using the ideal condensation on the basis of
ClausiuseClapeyron equation and Bernoullis theorem [20],
a correlation for the direct contact condensation heat transfer
coefcient of steam on the sub-cooled water jet can be derived as
follows:
3=2
21=2 hfg
Hc h    i1=2 ; (21)
yg yg  yf Tg Tg  Tf
where yg and yf are the local specic volumes of steam and water,
respectively, Tg and Tf are the local temperatures of steam and water,
respectively, for the control volumes in the two-phase region.
The above equations correlate the associations among nine
variables P, rg, Vg, Vf, Mg, Mf, Ag, Af, and Tf, and form a system of
ordinary differential equations (ODEs), which has a general form:
3. Experimental materials and methods
3.1. Experimental apparatus
The diagram of the test rig is shown in Fig. 2. Steam for the
experiment was generated using an electrical steam boiler. The
high-pressure water jet in the water nozzle of the injector
was generated by a drive pump. The water discharged was
transported to a water tank or a cooling tower by a discharge
pump.
The test conditions of this experiment are indicated in Table 1.
The test system had two operation modes. If the cooling tower
was not operating, the temperature of inlet water would increase
gradually in a closed cycle mode. However, when the cooling
tower was operating, the temperature of inlet water would
remain constant, which was called an open mode. Experiments
where inlet water temperatures varied or remained constant,
required to select a closed cycle mode or open mode, respec-
tively. The water pressure and owrate of water mass were
 Z. Zhang et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 40 (2012) 189e197 193

Fig. 2. Schematic experimental system of water-driven steam injector.

Table 1 the test data were acquired and processed by a computer-based

Test conditions. system.
Condition Value The WDSI used in the experiments in the present study is shown
Inlet steam pressure Pg, (MPa) 0.02e0.1 in Fig. 3.
Inlet steam temperature Tg, ( C) 95e120
Inlet water pressure Pf, (MPa) 0.1e1.0 3.2. Experimental procedure
Inlet water temperature Tf, ( C) 25e70

Experiments were performed in a selected injector with xed

adjusted by a control valve in the outlet pipeline of the drive
pump. The steam pressure and back pressure of the injector were
adjusted by the control valves for steam and back pressure,
respectively.
The mass owrate of inlet water was measured by an electrical
owmeter (0.5%). Temperatures and pressures along the mixing
chamber were measured by K-type thermocouples (1  C) situated
in the uids and pressure transducers (0.2%), respectively. To
determine the pressure and temperature proles along the
injector, 18 points (with nine for measuring temperature and nine
for measuring pressure) were arranged along the mixing nozzle
and throat tube. In addition, the pressure and temperature of
inlet water, inlet steam pressure, and the pressure and temper-
ature of discharge water were measured in the experiments. All
geometry sizes to investigate the inuences of operating conditions
on the injector performance and ow parameters. The cold water
from the water tank was introduced into the injector by the drive
pump. The steam was therefore induced into the mixing chamber
because of the pressure difference and shear stress at the steam-
water interface. The steam gradually condensed in the mixing
nozzle and nally the steam-water mixture totally became high
temperature water.
In each run to investigate the effects of inlet water pressure,
inlet water temperature and inlet steam pressure on the injector,
only a single operation condition varied, whereas the other two
parameters remained constant, and the back-pressure valve was
maintained completely open.
Furthermore, in experiments to investigate the effect of back
pressure on the injector, the inlet water pressure, inlet water

Fig. 3. Schematic diagram of water-driven steam injector.

194 Z. Zhang et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 40 (2012) 189e197

Fig. 4. Outlet pressures of water and steam nozzle.

Fig. 6. Entrainment ratios under different inlet water temperatures (Pg 0.1 MPa,
Pb 0.1 MPa).

temperature and inlet steam pressure were maintained constant,

while the back pressure was changed by adjusting the back-
experimental data, an empirical correlation was used to calculate P2
pressure valve.
as follows:
Experimental data were recorded and processed for each run.

P2 0:0013$Tf3  0:2382$Tf2 14:8233$Tf
4. Results and discussions   
 277:0551 $ 0:0006  0:0002$Pf 0:6765Pg
First, the entrainment ratios of the injector obtained from the
experimental data and from the mathematical model are presented 0:0163; 25
and discussed. Second, the static pressures along the injector where Tf was the inlet water temperature, Pg was the inlet steam
obtained from the two-uid models are studied and compared with pressure, and Pf was the inlet water pressure. The coefcients in this
the pressures measured in the experiment. equation were mainly determined by the geometrical parameters
of the steam and water nozzles according to the experimental data
4.1. Performance of steam injector obtained from different experiments.
Fig. 4 shows the values of the outlet pressure of water and steam
The operating conditions of the inlet had effects on the outlet nozzles calculated from experimental data using Eq. (25); the
pressures of the water and steam nozzles, whereas changes in calculated values coincide well with results from the experimental
the back pressure of the injector had almost no effect on data.
these parameters. The pressure of the rst measuring point was From the above, it is clear that the entrainment ratio can be
considered as an approximation of the outlet pressure of the calculated by using Eqs. (7) and (25), and can also be obtained from
nozzles. Through multiple nonlinear regression analysis on the

Fig. 5. Entrainment ratios under different inlet steam pressures (Tf 30  C, Fig. 7. Entrainment ratios under different inlet water pressures (Tf 30  C,

Pb 0.1 MPa). Pb 0.1 MPa).

 Z. Zhang et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 40 (2012) 189e197 195

Fig. 8. Entrainment ratios under different back pressures (Pg 0.1 MPa, Tf 30  C). Fig. 10. Pressure proles for different inlet water pressures (Pg 0.1 MPa, Tf 30  C).

pressure had no or a negligible inuence on pressure P2, and the

the experimental data using Eq. (9). The two entrainment ratios
constant mass owrates in the water and steam nozzles resulted in
were evaluated under different operating conditions.
a nearly constant entrainment ratio.
Figs. 5e8 illustrate the effects of inlet steam pressure, inlet
water temperature, inlet water pressure and back pressure on the
4.2. Axial static pressure proles of condensing section
entrainment ratio. The calculated entrainment ratios obtained
using Eqs. (7) and (25) are consistent with the ratios obtained from
Figs. 9e11 show the static pressures and calculated pressures
Eq. (9), shown in Figs. 5e7. Because the effect of the back pressure
obtained from the inverted annular ow of the mixing nozzle and
on P2 is neglected in Eq. (25), only the entrainment ratio obtained
throat tube in the experiment, indicating the effects of inlet steam
from the experimental data using Eq. (9) is shown in Fig. 8. Within
pressure, inlet water pressure, and inlet water temperature on the
the limits of the experiments, the entrainment ratios were higher
static pressure proles with a constant back pressure of 0.1 MPa.
when the inlet steam pressure increased and the inlet water
For a given operation condition, the static pressure decreased
pressure or water temperature decreased, whereas the entrain-
along the condensing section of the injector. The pressure prole
ment ratio remained nearly constant with changes in the back
increased with an increase in the inlet steam pressure and inlet
pressure.
water temperature, whereas it decreased with an increase in the
When the inlet steam pressure increased, the entrainment ratio
inlet water pressure. The pressures determined from the simulated
was higher mainly because of the increased mass owrate through
mathematical model agreed with the experimental pressures
the steam nozzle. When the inlet water temperature increased,
recorded.
pressure P2 increased, and the mass owrate in the water nozzle
These results can be explained on the basis of two main factors:
decreased more slowly than that in the steam nozzle, leading to
the condensation heat transfer coefcient and the interfacial shear
a decrease in entrainment ratio. When the inlet water pressure
stress between the two streams in the inverted annular ow. For
increased, the entrainment ratio decreased mainly because of the
each run of the experiments, the steam velocity along the
increased mass owrate through the water nozzle. The back

Fig. 11. Pressure proles for different inlet water temperatures (Pg 0.1 MPa,
Fig. 9. Pressure proles for different inlet steam pressures (Pf 1.0 MPa, Tf 30  C). Pf 0.4 MPa).
196 Z. Zhang et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 40 (2012) 189e197
Fig. 12. Pressure proles for different back pressures (Pg 0.1 MPa, Pf 1.0 MPa).
condensing section decreased in line with the condensation and
interfacial shear stress, whereas the water velocity increased, and
the local static pressure of the two phases decreased.
From the two-uid model for the condensing section, it can be
inferred that a higher local condensation heat transfer coefcient or
a lower interfacial shear stress would result in higher pressure
proles. When the inlet steam pressure increased, the local
condensation heat transfer coefcient and the interfacial shear
stress both increased; however, the local condensation heat
transfer coefcient was the dominating factor resulting in higher
pressure proles, as depicted in Fig. 9. The increased inlet water
pressure led to reduction of the local condensation heat transfer
coefcient and was responsible for lower pressure proles, as
shown in Fig. 10. Moreover, when the inlet water temperature
increased, the local condensation heat transfer coefcient and the
interfacial shear stress both decreased; however, the interfacial
shear stress was the determining factor resulting in higher pressure
proles, as shown in Fig. 11.
Fig. 12 denotes the effect of back pressure on the experimental
static pressure along the injector condensing section under the
xed inlet conditions.
With the back pressure increased, a steep pressure rise occurred
within the throat tube, and the position where the condensation
shock arose moved upward with the increasing back pressure. It
was observed that the static pressure at the inlet of the mixing
chamber remained unchanged before the condensation shock
spread to the inlet; this indicated that the drive pressure difference
of the steam through the steam nozzle remained constant, and the
back pressure of the ejector did not affect the entrainment ratio.
When the condensation shock spread to the inlet of the mixing
chamber, the steam could not be taken up and the sharp pressure
increased at the inlet of the mixing chamber, driving the water out
of the steam nozzle accompanied by violent shaking and loud noise
in the test rig.
5. Conclusions
The WDSI is an effective device for recovering the low-pressure
steam generated during industrial processes. To investigate the
performance of WDSI, both theoretical and experimental studies
were carried out. A mathematical model was developed for eval-
uating the injector performance, and a one-dimensional two-uid
analytical model of two-phase ow with a set of closure equations
was also presented for estimating ow parameters of the entire
injector. Furthermore, corresponding data on WDSI performance
and ow parameters were obtained from the experiments. The
results acquired from the two models were compared with the
experimental data, and found to agree with each other. From
the mathematical and experimental results, the following conclu-
sions can be obtained:
1) The operating conditions of higher inlet steam pressure, lower
inlet water pressure, or lower water temperature led to higher
entrainment ratios, whereas changes in the back pressure had
little effect on the entrainment ratio.
2) The operating conditions affected the ow parameters along
different sections of the injector. The condensation heat
transfer coefcient and interfacial shear stress were the main
factors affecting the static pressure proles in the injector. The
one-dimensional mathematical model developed on the basis
of a two-uid model could provide good predictions for ow
parameters in the condensing section of the WDSI, proving that
the assumption of an inverted annular ow regime along the
mixing nozzle and throat tube was reasonable in this model.
3) For successful practical application of this injector, continued
experimental and numerical work concerning the condensa-
tion shock, effects of injector geometrical sizes, multi-
dimensional ow in the injector, and so on is required to be
investigated.
Acknowledgements
This project was nancially supported by China National
Funds for Distinguished Young Scientists with Grant No. 51125027,
China National Natural Science Foundation with Grant No.
51006081 and China National Basic Research Program with Grant
No. 2009CB219805.
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