Experimental analysis of the rate of absorption of steam bubbles in lithium bromide solution for use in an absorption heat transformer

Abstract

Paper presented to the 10th International Conference on Heat Transfer, Fluid Mechanics and Thermodynamics, Florida, 14-16 July 2014.

An experimental investigation is conducted into the absorption of steam bubbles in a concentrated lithium bromide solution. The aim of the work is to determine whether such bubble absorption may be advantageously utilised within the absorber column section of an absorption heat transformer system. A glass bubble column is constructed and a high speed camera is used to track the collapse of steam bubbles at different temperatures and solution concentrations. A simple ordinary differential equation model is developed which is capable of explaining 96% of the observed experimental variance. Very high mass transfer coefficients of ~0.012m/s are observed which indicates that this method of absorption may have significant advantages over alternative methods previously examined.