A study of laminar film condensation on a vertical surface with a porous coating

This paper presents a theoretical investigation of laminar film condensation along a solid impermeable surface coated with a porous material. This material may be a conductive metallic foam used to augment heat transfer, scale deposited over a long period of time on a surface or any relatively thin porous matrix layer. The dependence of the local heat transfer coefficient (represented by the Nusselt number) on the porous matrix parameters is presented and compared to the classical study of Nusselt. Representative results of the velocity and temperature distributions as well as the film thickness are also presented. It is shown that a conductive coating may yield a considerable heat transfer enhancement.