Laminar film condensation of a liquid metal vapor under the effect of an electromagnetic force

The problem of laminar film condensation of a turbulent liquid metal vapor on a vertical channel wall is analyzed by solving the boundary layer form of the conservation equations. Included in the problem were results due to an applied electromagnetic field and a variable channel wall temperature. The value of the wall temperature is extracted at each step down the channel from a coupling of the condensation process with the cooling fluid on the cooling side of the channel wall. The interface and centerline velocities on the condensing side along with an effective viscosity for the vapor phase all vary in the streamwise direction and are found at each step along the channel from various continuity conditions for the condensing flow. In addition, the vapor phase is assumed to enter the condenser at its saturation temperature. It is also shown that the saturation temperature of the vapor remains constant and, therefore, the energy equation for the vapor phase need not be solved. The problem is solved using liquid potassium as the condensing fluid while results are given for both water and liquid potassium as cooling fluids. The temperature drop across the condensate film is shown to be small and, thus, liquid properties are assumed constant throughout the analysis.