Steam flow rate

Thread Content

Steam flow rate: The steam flow rate is an important factor affecting the evaporation of cooling water; cooling water can evaporate rapidly only when it is suspended in the steam stream. Therefore, it is necessary to ensure a minimum steam flow rate that creates disturbance in the injected cooling water, allowing it to remain suspended in the steam stream without falling to the tube walls too quickly. The minimum allowable steam flow rate is related to the degree of atomization of the injected cooling water; if traditional nozzles are used in the system, the minimum steam flow rate must be maintained at 15 meters per second or higher. For nozzles with auxiliary misting and mixing functions, the minimum steam flow rate can be as low as 3 meters per second. It is commonly believed that the faster the steam flow, the better, but this is not the case. In practical applications, the length of the pipes in the evaporation section is always limited. The faster the steam flow rate, the shorter the time it takes for the two-phase flow of steam and cooling water to pass through the evaporation section; as a result, the cooling water passes through this section before it has fully evaporated. Therefore, the steam flow rate in the pipeline must also not be too high, to ensure that the cooling water can stay in the evaporation section for a sufficient length of time, allowing it to evaporate completely there. Generally, the maximum steam flow velocity should not exceed 70 meters per second.