Heat transfer, condensation and fog formation in crossflow plastic heat exchangers

In this paper heat transfer of air-water-vapour mixture in plastic crossflow heat exchangers is studied theoretically and experimentally. First, a model for heat transfer without condensation is derived, resulting in a set of classical differential equations. Subsequently, heat transfer with wall condensation and fog formation are considered in some detail. Separate attention is paid to the heat transfer and condensation of pure steam in the heat exchanger. Finally, the experiments performed are reported and the results compared with the models presented. From this comparison it can be learnt that the models are well able to predict the rate of heat transfer and phenomena such as condensation and fog formation.