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Modeling of Wall Condensation Phenomena and Liquid Film Interactions


Thesis topic details

General information

Organisation

The French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA) is a key player in research, development and innovation in four main areas :
• defence and security,
• nuclear energy (fission and fusion),
• technological research for industry,
• fundamental research in the physical sciences and life sciences.

Drawing on its widely acknowledged expertise, and thanks to its 16000 technicians, engineers, researchers and staff, the CEA actively participates in collaborative projects with a large number of academic and industrial partners.

The CEA is established in ten centers spread throughout France
  

Reference

SL-DES-26-0349  

Thesis topic details

Category

Engineering science

Thesis topics

Modeling of Wall Condensation Phenomena and Liquid Film Interactions

Contract

Thèse

Job description

In this thesis, we focus on modeling mass and energy transfer associated with wall condensation in a turbulent flow of a vapor–noncondensable gas mixture. The flow is two-phase and turbulent, where forced, mixed, and natural convection modes may occur. The framework of this work relies on the RANS approach applied to the compressible Navier–Stokes equations, in which wall condensation is described using semi-analytical wall functions developed in a previous doctoral study \cite{iziquel2023}. These functions account for the different convection modes as well as suction and species interdiffusion effects, but neglect the presence of a liquid film.
In the literature, the influence of film formation and flow on mass and heat transfer is often neglected, since it is generally assumed that, in the presence of noncondensable gases, the resistance of the gaseous layer to vapor diffusion is much greater than the thermal resistance of the liquid film.
The objective of this thesis is to improve the prediction of heat and mass transfer by investigating, beyond the thermal resistance of the condensate, the dynamic effect of the liquid and its interaction with the gaseous diffusion layer during wall condensation. The study will first consider laminar film flow, and then attempt to extend the analysis to the turbulent regime.
In the gas phase, the wall-function model developed in \cite{iziquel2023} for a binary mixture of vapor and a single noncondensable gas will be extended to mixtures of vapor and $n>1$ noncondensable gases (N2, H2, …), in order to address hydrogen risk issues.
The validation of the implemented models will be carried out using results from separate-effect (SET) and coupled-effect (CET) experiments available in the literature (Huhtiniemi \cite{huhti89}, COPAIN, ISP47-MISTRA, ISP47-TOSQAN, RIVA). Comparisons at the CFD scale, using wall functions for condensation neglecting the film, will be performed on benchmark cases from the literature and condensation experiments (COPAIN) to assess the impact of this assumption as well as the improvement provided by the new model in terms of accuracy and computational cost.

University / doctoral school

Sciences, Ingénierie et Environnement (SIE)
Université Paris-Est

Thesis topic location

Site

Saclay

Requester

Position start date

01/01/2026

Person to be contacted by the applicant

BENTEBOULA Sonia sonia.benteboula@cea.fr
CEA
DES/DM2S/STMF
CEA Saclay
91191 Gif-sur-Yvette
0169089713

Tutor / Responsible thesis director

VINCENT Stéphane stephane.vincent@univ-eiffel.fr
Université Gustave Eiffel
FR / IFSA - Institut Francilien de Sciences Appliquées
Champs-sur-Marne

Bâtiment: Lavoisier

5 boulevard Descartes
Champs-sur-Marne
77454 Marne-la-Vallée Cedex 2

Bureau: L32
0160957307

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