International Symposium on Symbiotic Nuclear Power (ISSNP2024)

The steep surge in demand for fast and efficient heat dissipation in many applications such as electronic and data systems, medical X-ray equipment, heat exchangers and nuclear power plants has rendered single-phase heat dissipation processes inefficient and ineffective. This therefore brought to light the need for a two-phase heat removal process such as Direct Contact Condensation (DCC). In both normal operations and accident scenarios, direct contact condensation is an essential phenomenon in the lifetime of the nuclear power plant. Since direct contact condensation is mostly associated with drastic changes in thermal hydraulic parameters, it is prudent to predict transient parameters with a high level of accuracy to avert the possibility of an accident scenario. Fundamentally, the condensation rate, which is associated with heat and mass transfer is based on the interfacial area between the steam and subcooled water, hence the objective was to study the interfacial area in a DCC. To achieve this objective, a computer visualization vision technique using a Python algorithm was applied to predict the interfacial area between the steam and subcooled water during a DCC. The input data for the computer visualization vision technique was from the output data of a numerical simulation of steam jet condensation. Results from the study showed a strong predictivity of the interfacial area of the Python algorithm regarding the output data from the CFD simulation.