# Compute convective heat transfer coefficient for a condensing steam

I have a question about convective heat transfer coefficients. I am trying to figure out how much steam I can condense in this specific heat exchanger.

Steam at 9 MPa is condensed in a 1 shell pass, two tube pass type heat exchanger which contains a total of 280 U shaped tubes inside the shell.

The steam is condensed in the shell. I know the geometry of the tubes. The saturation temp at this pressure is 307 C.

The resistance in the system is the sum of steam convection, wall conduction and water convection.

I am not sure how to compute $h_o$, the convective heat transfer coefficient on the steam side since I am trying to calculate how much flow I can use, and $h_o$ depends on the steam flow rate (or velocity).

• When you do find correlations for this, make sure that you're looking at ones for condensation. This generally much stronger than ordinary convection(in terms of heat flux). The physical process is very different due to the formation of liquid on the fold surface. – user3823992 Oct 21 '14 at 15:50