Investigation of Interfacial Phenomena During Condensation of Humid Air on a Horizontal Substrate

The condensation phenomenon of humid air on solid substrates can occur in many applications, and it is known as one of the most difficult problem to deal with for the improvement of the quality of air in a closed environment. The present study was motivated by the investigation of the coupling between ventilation and condensation inside controlled ecological life support systems (CELSS), as it has an important role for higher plants growth in greenhouses and living conditions in manned spacecraft cabins, particularly in long duration space flights or in future space bases. It is well known that the enhancement of the gas exchange with leaves and the growth of plants are dependent on the organoleptic and/or the surrounding thermo-physical factors. Insufficient air movement around plants and condensation on plant leaves generally limit their growth by suppressing the gas diffusion in the leaf boundary-layer thereby decreasing photosynthetic and transpiration rates. Thus, the optimization of a CELSS will require the control of the airflow and concomitant gas/liquid transfer at the plant surfaces. The experimental and theoretical modeling of CELSS requires a comprehensive understanding of the micro to the macro levels of liquid gas phase transfer. Hence, an experimental set-up was developed at 1-g to evaluate the mass transfer coefficients due to condensation of humid air on specific geometries in well controlled environmental conditions. The goal was to establish correlations between the fluxes of mass and heat, the relative humidity and the mean flow for the development of theoretical models based on local transfer coefficients. The experiments were performed at ambient temperature, with a relative humidity between 35-70% and for a velocity range of 1.0-3.0 m.s−1.