Wall film effects on liquefied natural gas

San Roman, Oscar R (1979) Wall film effects on liquefied natural gas. University of Southampton, Doctoral Thesis.

Abstract

The present work is an investigation of the wall film which appears as a "supermeniscus" on vertical surfaces partially immersed in liquified natural gas. This phenomenon (Narangoni effect) is described in terms of an upwards directed surface tension gradient by a model derived from the Navier-Stoke's equation. In our experiments, the film was formed on the surface of a copperplate partially inmersed in the LNG (at atmospheric pressure).It was produced by a temperature gradient on the plate which, in turn,generated the surface tension gradient on the liquidWe measured the flow rate at a height of 3.2 cm and the thickness at a height of 1.5 cm above the bulk liquid level on a large number of samples. A comparison between the experimental and the calculated values (assuming that the film liquid had its saturated composition at each point on the plate),shows that the measured flow rate per unit width (-10-4 cm 2s-I) is near to its maximum possible calculated value, and that the measured thickness (#u 80 microns), although slightly higher, is of the same order of magnitud as calculated.

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