Nucleation Studies In Convergent Nozzle

Abstract

The problem of instability in condensing flows of steam understand parallel to the care of heat addition to a compressible fluid. For any specific mach number, there is a maximum amount of heat release that the flow can cope with. If the heat release by condensation is more than the heat required to reduce the flow Mach number to unity, then instability occurs. This quantity of heat released is a function of the limiting supercooling attained by the fluid. A description is given on the theoretical treatment of nucleation in flowing steam employing an equation of state based on the third virial coefficiant. Calculated results covering the pressure range 0.1-1.5 bar in a convergent nozzle of expansion rate P = l000 s^-1 are presented.