We study the conjugate condensation-heat conduction process of a saturated
vapor in contact with a vertical fin, including both longitudinal and trans
versal heat conduction effects. The momentum and energy balance equations a
re reduced to a nonlinear system of partial differential equations with fou
r parameters: the Prandtl number, Pr-c, Jakob number, Ja, a nondimensional
fin thermal conductivity alpha and the aspect ratio of the plate epsilon. U
sing the small Jakob limit and the boundary layer approximation, the total
mass flow rate of condensed fluid has been obtained for all possible values
of the involved parametric space. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All right
s reserved.