2007 Annual Report Conference on Electrical Insulation and Dielectric Phenomena

Experimental Research on Electrostatic Field Enhancement of

Condensation Heat Transfer
Chuntian Chen, Liangyu Chen, Xiaofeng zhou and Xiaoyan Du
Harbin University of Science and Technology, Harbin, P. R. China

In this paper, low temperature waste heat power generation model on the basis of Rankine-cycle is designed and
constructed, and the experiments on electrostatic field enhancement condensation heat transfer and power generation are
conducted. CFC11 is selected as the working medium. Results of the relations among the saturated vapor pressure,
condensation heat transfer coefficient and other relative parameters in the different temperature, and the applied voltage
have been obtained. Analysis has been conducted on the power consumption of the supplied electric field. The results are
valuable for extending the theoretical investigation of electrostatic field enhancement of condensation heat transfer.
KEYWORDS: enhancement of heat transfer, condensation heat transfer, electrostatic field

1. Introduction
Electrostatic field enhancement of heat transfer refers
to the active heat transfer enhancement technique that an
electric field is exerted on a dielectric fluid medium to
increase the heat transfer coefficient and heat transfer
efficiency greatly by coupling up the flow field and
temperature field1-4). In recent years, it has become a very
important investigating area in heat transfer. However,
most of the early work concentrated on the study of
electrostatic field enhancement of boiling heat transfer
and forced convective heat transfer. The study on Fig.1 Low temperature waste heat power

electrostatic field enhancement of condensation heat generation system

transfer is limited. In this paper, low temperature waste
heat power generation model on the basis of
Rankine-cycle is designed and constructed, and the
experiments on electrostatic field enhancement of
condensation heat transfer and power generation are
conducted, CFC11 is selected as the working medium.
2. Experiment
The schematic diagram of the setup is shown in
Fig.1. The major component is a dynamic cycle system
on the basis of single organic Rankine-cycle including
condenser, evaporator, steam turbine, generator and
working medium pump. Assistant components include
high voltage supplied system, heating system, cooling
system and data measuring system.
Experimental procedures: The working medium
CFC11 in the storage tank was warmed up by the waste
heat source, vaporizing, overheating and turned into
Freon steam .The process can be seen as a reversible
isobaric endothermic process. Freon gas was accelerated
by the nozzle in the steamer. The high speed steam flow
pushes the vane to go round and drives the generator to
generate electricity. This process can be treated as a
reversible adiabatic expansion process. Then the dead
steam entered condenser from the steam turbine and was
cooled by recycled water. This process can be regarded as
a reversible isobaric endothermic process. At the end of
this cycle, the dead steam was chilled into liquid and flow
into storage tank, and then it is pushed into the evaporator
as a result of pressure increase at the pump. This process
can be seen as a reversible adiabatic compression process.
Thereupon it formed a Rankine-cycle process.
In the present work, the electrode specially designed
helix-cylinder electrode was developed for electrostatic
field condensation. Wire electrode is the enamel wire of
Φ 1, coil it on the surface of copper tube of condenser.
Its end was fixed on the bar copper which was inserted
into the condenser by the nut. The copper rod was
connected to high voltage and copper tube of heat transfer
was grounded.
3. Results and Discussions
All experiments were conducted at the temperature of
82℃ and 51℃, hot water flow is 0.1kg/s.

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 o
82 C

3.1 The effect of the applied voltage to condensation

o
2000 51 C

condensation heat transfer coefficient h(W/m C)

1900

2o
heat transfer 1800
1700
1600
The dependence of saturated vapor pressure on the 1500
1400
applied voltage is shown in Fig.2. It is clear that all of the 1300
1200
1100
0
82 C 1000
0
0.15 51 C 900
0.14
800
0.13
700
Saturated vapour pressure(Mpa)

0.12
600
0.11 0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000
0.10 Applied voltage(V)
0.09
0.08
0.07 Fig3 Dependence of condensation heat
0.06
0.05 transfer coefficient on the applied voltage
0.04
0.03
0.02
0.01
0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000 o
51 C

condensation heat transfer enhancement coefficient he/ho

Applied voltage(V) o
2.0 82 C
1.9

Fig.2 Dependence of saturation vapor 1.8

1.7
pressure on the applied voltage 1.6

1.5

saturation vapor pressure in the condenser decreases with 1.4

1.3
the increasing of applied voltage at different heat source 1.2

temperatures. The saturation vapor pressure decreases 1.1

1.0

from 0.13Mpa to 0.085Mpa at the heat source 0.9

0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000

temperature of 82℃. The saturation vapor pressure Applied voltage(V)

decreases from 0.075Mpa to 0.03Mpa at the heat source Fig.4 Dependence of condensation heat transfer
temperature of 51℃. Based on the comparing pressure enhancement coefficient on the applied voltage
method, we can conclude that the condensation heat
transfer is enhanced when we adopt applying DC voltage
at different heat source temperatures. 4.6

4.4
According to the definition of condensation heat
Generating voltage (V)

4.2

transfer coefficient: 4.0

3.8

hc = q /(ts - tw ) (1) 3.6

3.4

3.2
In the equality: hc is condensation heat transfer 3.0
0.18 0.19 0.20 0.21 0.22 0.23 0.24
△P (Mpa)

coefficient, t s is saturated vapor temperature, t w is Fig.5 Dependence of generating voltage on pressure

difference between the inlet and outlet of turbine
condensation surface temperature, and q is heat flux
coefficients are 160% and 190% when the heat source
density. The dependence of condensation heat transfer
temperatures are 82℃ and 51℃ respectively.
coefficient on the applied voltage is given in Fig.3, all of
3.2 The relation of generating voltage and pressure
the coefficients increases as the applied voltage increases,
differences between the inlet and outlet of a turbine
which indicates that the electric field can enhance the
When the heat source temperature is 51℃, the
condensation heat transfer.
pressure from the evaporation of working medium CFC11
Fig.4 gives a corresponding curve of the
in the evaporator is not high enough to make the
condensation heat transfer enhancement coefficient
generating system work. But when the temperature
dependence on the applied voltage in the case of two
reaches 82℃, the high pressure then can rotate the
kinds of heat source temperature, we can find that the
turbine-generator system and generate electricity .The
condensation heat transfer enhancement coefficient
dependence of the generating voltage on the pressure
increases with increasing supplied voltage. Under the
differences between the inlet and outlet of the turbine is
condition of this experiment, the maximum enhancement

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 shown in Fig.5, when the load resistance is 3.3 Ω , the
excitation current is 1.9A. Fig.5 indicates the generating
voltage increases with the increasing of pressure
differences between inlet and outlet.
3.3 consumption of DC power supply
Fig.6 depicts the dependence of power consumption
on the applied voltage in the range of applied voltage.
1.4
1.2
Power consumption (W)
1.0
0.8
0.6
0.4
0.2
0.0
0 1000 2000 3000
A pplied voltag e (V )
Fig.6 Dependence of power consumption
on the applied voltage
Take the maximum applied voltage 5.8KV for
examination. Its consumption is only 1.2W, only 0.06%
of condensation heat transfer quantity. The electrostatic
field power consumption is obviously very low
comparing with condensation heat transfer quantity, it can
be negligible.
4. Mechanism analysis of electrostatic field
enhancement of condensation heat transfer
The physical basis of the electrically enhanced
condensation and boiling are due to the force5), generated
by an electric field and is given by Eq. (2):
1 1 ⎡ ∂ε ⎤
fe = ρ e E − E 2∇ε + ∇ ⎢ E 2 ( )T ρ ⎥
2 2 ⎣ ∂ρ ⎦ Enhancement by Utilizing Electric Fields. Annual
Eq. (2) can be further written in a more detailed
form for non-polar fluids as follows:
1 1
fe = ρ e E − E 2 (∇ε ) + ε 0∇[(ε r − 1)(ε r + 2) E 2 ] (3)
2 6
Where ε is the electric permittivity of the fluid,
ε 0 is the electric permittivity of vacuum, ε r is the
relative permittivity, ρ is the density (kg/m3), ρe is
the electric charge density (C/m3) , and E is the applied
electric field strength (V/m).
The first term of Eq.(3), known as the
electrophoretic force, is the Coulomb force acting on the
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free charges in a fluid. An electrophoretic force exists
once a net charge is created in the fluid and it becomes
dominant in applications. The electric field induces a
fluid motion called ‘corona wind’. The second term,
called the dielectric electrophoretic force, is due to the
force exerted on a non-homogeneous dielectric liquid by
an electric field. Condensate is pushed by this force into
higher electric field strength. The third term is the
electrostriction force. This force depends on
non-uniformity of electric permittivity. At condensation
section, when electric field is weak, these forces drag the
condensation film on the tube wall and makes it become
bead or quasi bead, then the heat resistance decreases and
condensation heat transfer is enhanced.
5. Conclusion
According to the experiments and analysis, we can
conclude as follows:
(1) In the case of the same heat transfer surface and
4000 5000 60 00
working medium flow, add high voltage electrode in a
condenser, condensation heat transfer coefficient
increases as an applied voltage increases.
(2) In the experiments, the maximum condensation
enhancement heat transfer coefficient is 160% at heat
source temperature of 82℃ and 190% at 51℃. In the case
of 82℃, the turbine-generator can generate electricity,
which the power is 2W.
(3) The electrostatic field power consumption of a high
voltage power is very low. It can be negligible when
compared to the heat transfer flux.
References
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Rohsnow W M et al eds, Handbook of Heat Transfer
Applications.2 nd ed .New York:McGraw-Hill,1985
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Tip-plane Configuration. 2002 Annual Report
Conference on Electrical Insulation and
DielectricPhenomena, 2002: 216~219
4） Yabe A, Taketami T, Kikuch K, et al. Augmentation of
Condensation Heat Transfer by Applying
Electrohydrodynamical Pseudo-dropwise Condensation.
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