Analysis of Variance of the Heat and Mass Transfer Coefficients in an Evaporative Condenser

Modelling of evaporative condensers relies heavily on the correct choice of the correlations for transport coefficients to give an accurate estimate of the dissipated thermal load and evaporated water mass flowrate, yet the literature does not cover all flow arrangements, nor operating conditions. In order to avoid expensive, and often impractical, experimental campaigns devoted to the determination of these quantities for a specific piece of equipment, a statistical approach based on the analysis of variance can be adopted: by analysing the sensitivity of the dependent variables on the choice of the transport coefficients, the best set of correlations can be determined, depending on whether a more accurate estimate is desired for the heat flux or evaporated mass flowrate, or if both are equally important.