Design of a test rig for the investigation of falling film flows with counter-current gas flows

Abstract

Geothermal phase change probes operate on the principle of falling film evaporation, enabling the efficient use of geothermal heat for space heating applications. Despite successful applications in research, their commercial use is limited. One of the primary reasons for this is the absence of validated models capable of accurately representing the falling film flow coupled with counter-current gas flow within these probes. For this reason, a test rig has been developed to facilitate the validation of future models. This test rig allows for the replication of flow phenomena appearing within geothermal probes under controlled conditions. The test rig was successfully tested within the first measurement campaign presented in this paper. Within the framework of this measurement campaign water was used as liquid due to its similar Kapitza number compared to \(CO_{2}\), typically used within geothermal probes, and humid air as gas. For the gas phase, velocity profiles were measured and for the liquid phase high temporal resolution film thickness measurements were conducted. Both measurement systems show qualitative comparable results to literature. Additionally, the sampled film thickness data were averaged to enable a time-independent interpretation. The investigation of the average film thickness in flow direction, without gas flow, revealed an increase in film thickness along flow direction for \(Re_{film}=500\). In contrast, for \(Re_{film}\geq 980\), an opposing trend was observed. Furthermore, the influence of gas flow on the average film thickness was investigated. The measurement results and high-speed camera images indicate that the test rig is capable of reaching flooding conditions.