Nucleation and Condensation Modeling of Metal Vapor in Laval Nozzle

Abstract

Nucleation and condensation of mercury vapor has been investigated in various divergent angle and operating condition. Divergent angle has a great effect on droplet size at the end of nozzle. Influence of operating condition such as pressure and temperature on the size of droplet has been investigated. A one-dimensional mathematical model based on classical nucleation and growth has been developed to calculate the nucleation and condensation of mercury vapor. A mercury vapour turbine has been used in conjunction with a steam turbine for generating electricity. The mercury cycle offers an efficiency increase compared to a steam-only cycle because energy can be injected into the Rankine Cycle at higher temperature. The target of modeling is predicting the droplet size of mercury nano-particles during rapid expansion. The results are verified by accurate experimental data available in the literature. The governing equations were solved using Runge-Kutta third-order numerical method in MATLAB software.