2.

006 Spring 2018

MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY

DEPARTMENT OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERING
2.006 Thermal-Fluids Engineering II

April 19, 2018 Problem Set 10 Due: April 24, 2018

OPTIONAL

A major part of the homework grade will account for effort (the remaining part will go for approach and
solution). The value corresponding to effort is shown between brackets for every problem.

Problem 0: Reader 13.14.2-13.14.2.2 (Incropera 10.6-10.10) + Reader 11.7-11.8 (Incropera 9.1-9.11)

Problem 1: Tinkering Tim (45 points) [30]

Note that this problem covers different topics learned so far.
a- (5 points) [3] In the morning, Tim wants to boil some water to prepare a cup of tea. He fills
the kettle with water and places it on an electric stove. The characteristic dimension for
nucleation sites on the bottom of the kettle is 5 µm. If the pressure in the kettle is
1.0142×105Pa, and the surface tension of the water/vapor interface is σ = 0.059 N/m,
estimate the temperature at the bottom of the kettle (on the water side) when water starts
boiling.

the whistle

b- (10 points) [7] On another occasion, Tim places a whistle on the spout of the kettle. The
whistle is a cap that has a small hole. With the cap on, the steam jet leaving the kettle makes
a whistling noise announcing that water is boiling. The diameter of the spout is 14 mm while
that of the whistle hole is 4 mm. The power supplied to the kettle is 2000 W. For this part
neglect heat losses from the kettle and all other flow losses except those associated with the
sudden contraction at the whistle (Kcontraction = 0.4), and assume that the flow of the vapor
can be modeled as incompressible. Calculate the vapor pressure inside the kettle and the
velocity of the steam leaving the whistle while water is boiling.

c- (5 points) [3] One of Tim’s holiday presents is a tightly sealed transparent glass cube with a
mixture of liquid and vapor inside and a clear interface between them. After reading the
label, Tim determines that the substance inside is pure water. The room temperature is still
20 oC, what is the pressure inside the glass cube?

1/3
2.006 Spring 2018

d- (10 points) [7] Tim measures the height of the liquid-vapor interface of the water in the cube
described in question (d) at 20 °C and finds it to be 1/3 of the cube height, as shown in the
figure. He decides to heat the cube to 120 °C. Calculate the new location of the interface,
assuming that the glass cube does not expand or deform.

e- (15 points) [10] Tim is trying to design a heat exchanger to salvage waste heat from his
shower. He fabricates a concentric tube heat exchanger in his garage. When he tests the heat
exchanger by introducing two streams of water with inlet temperatures of 60 °C and 10 °C
in parallel flow mode at certain flow rates, he finds that the steady state outlet temperatures
of the two streams are 45 °C and 25 °C, respectively. He now switches the inlet of one of the
streams so that the heat exchanger operates in counter-flow mode, while maintaining the
same flow rates and inlet temperatures for the two streams. If the overall heat transfer
coefficient remains unchanged, and the specific heat capacity of water is constant at 4.2
kJ/kg, what are the steady state outlet temperatures of the two streams in this configuration?

Problem 2: Condensation on a Static Liquid Film (20 points) [13]

Consider a container exposed to saturated vapor, Tsat, having a cold bottom surface, Ts<Tsat and with
insulated side walls.
a- (15 points) [10] Assuming a linear temperature distribution in the liquid, perform a surface energy
balance on the liquid-vapor interface to obtain the following expression for the growth rate of the
liquid layer.

b- (5 points) [3] Calculate the thickness of the liquid layer formed in 1 hour for a 200 mm2 bottom
surface maintained at 80 ºC and exposed to saturated steam at 1 atm. Compare this result with the
condensate formed by a vertical plate of the same dimensions for the same period of time.

2/3
2.006 Spring 2018

Problem 3: Thermosyphon (35 points) [23]

A thermosyphon consists of a closed container that absorbs heat along its boiling section and rejects heat
along its condensation section. Consider a thermosyphon made from a thin-walled mechanically polished
stainless steel cylinder of diameter D. Heat supplied to the thermosyphon boils saturated water at
atmospheric pressure on the surfaces of the lower boiling section of length Lb, and is then rejected by
condensing vapor into a thin film which falls by gravity along the wall of the condensation section of length
Lc back into the boiling section. The two sections are separated by an insulating section of length Li. The top
surface of the condensation section may be treated as being insulated. The thermosyphon dimensions are D =
20 mm, Lb = 20 mm, Lc = 40 mm, and Li = 40 mm.

a- (12 points) [8] Find the mean surface temperature, Ts,b of the boiling surface if the nucleate boiling
flux is to be maintained at 30% of the critical heat flux.
b- (18 points) [12] Find the mean surface temperature, Ts,c, of the condensation section assuming
laminar flow condensation.
c- (5 points) [3] Find the total condensation flow rate, 𝑚̇, within the thermosyphon. Explain how you
would determine whether the flow is laminar, wavy laminar or turbulent as it falls back into the
boiling section.

3/3