Pressure drop and heat transfer performance of microchannel heat exchanger with different reentrant cavities

Author(s):  
Tingbo Hou ◽  
Yuanlong Chen
2019 ◽  
Vol 29 (11) ◽  
pp. 4334-4348
Author(s):  
Minqiang Pan ◽  
Hongqing Wang ◽  
Yujian Zhong ◽  
Tianyu Fang ◽  
Xineng Zhong

Purpose With the increasing heat dissipation of electronic devices, the cooling demand of electronic products is increasing gradually. A water-cooled microchannel heat exchanger is an effective cooling technology for electronic equipment. The structure of a microchannel has great impact on the heat transfer performance of a microchannel heat exchanger. The purpose of this paper is to analyze and compare the fluid flow and heat transfer characteristic of a microchannel heat exchanger with different reentrant cavities. Design/methodology/approach The three-dimensional steady, laminar developing flow and conjugate heat transfer governing equations of a plate microchannel heat exchanger are solved using the finite volume method. Findings At the flow rate range studied in this paper, the microchannel heat exchangers with reentrant cavities present better heat transfer performance and smaller pressure drop. A microchannel heat exchanger with trapezoidal-shaped cavities has best heat transfer performance, and a microchannel heat exchanger with fan-shaped cavities has the smallest pressure drop. Research limitations/implications The fluid is incompressible and the inlet temperature is constant. Practical implications It is an effective way to enhance heat transfer and reduce pressure drop by adding cavities in microchannels and the data will be helpful as guidelines in the selection of reentrant cavities. Originality/value This paper provides the pressure drop and heat transfer performance analysis of microchannel heat exchangers with various reentrant cavities, which can provide reference for heat transfer augmentation of an existing microchannel heat exchanger in a thermal design.


2020 ◽  
Vol 142 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Tingbo Hou ◽  
Yuanlong Chen

Abstract The rib arrangement has an important influence on the pressure drop and heat transfer performance of a microchannel heat exchanger (MHE) with circular reentrant cavities and ribs. In this study, four kinds of MHEs with circular reentrant cavity and ribs were designed, namely, circular reentrant cavities (circular), circular reentrant cavities and single-sided ribs (circular—single), circular reentrant cavities and odd-symmetric ribs (circular—odd), and circular reentrant cavities and double symmetric ribs (circular—double). The effect of the rib arrangement on the pressure drop and heat transfer performance of MHEs was numerically investigated by ansysfluent 15.0. The experimental platform was then designed and built for the subsequent experimental verification. The results showed that the pressure drop between the inlet and outlet of the MHE with circular reentrant cavities and ribs increased as the inlet flow increased. At the same inlet flowrate, the pressure drop between the inlet and outlet of the MHEs was largest for the circular reentrant cavities and double symmetric ribs, followed by the circular reentrant cavities and odd-symmetric ribs, circular reentrant cavities and single-sided ribs, and the circular reentrant cavities. The presence of the rib structure increased the inlet and outlet pressure drop of the MHE. The MHE with circular reentrant cavities and double symmetric ribs had the largest inlet and outlet pressure drop, followed by that with circular reentrant cavities and odd-symmetric ribs, that with circular reentrant cavities and single-sided ribs, and that with circular reentrant cavities, indicating that the latter exhibited the best pressure drop performance. At the same inlet flowrate, the MHE with circular reentrant cavities had the highest hot water outlet temperature and the MHE with circular reentrant cavities and double symmetric ribs had the lowest temperature, whereas the results were the opposite for the cold-water outlet temperature. This indicates that the heat transfer performance was best for the MHE with circular reentrant cavities and double symmetric ribs, followed by that with circular reentrant cavities and odd-symmetric ribs and that with circular reentrant cavities and single-sided ribs.


2013 ◽  
Vol 832 ◽  
pp. 160-165 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohammad Alam Khairul ◽  
Rahman Saidur ◽  
Altab Hossain ◽  
Mohammad Abdul Alim ◽  
Islam Mohammed Mahbubul

Helically coiled heat exchangers are globally used in various industrial applications for their high heat transfer performance and compact size. Nanofluids can provide excellent thermal performance of this type of heat exchangers. In the present study, the effect of different nanofluids on the heat transfer performance in a helically coiled heat exchanger is examined. Four different types of nanofluids CuO/water, Al2O3/water, SiO2/water, and ZnO/water with volume fractions 1 vol.% to 4 vol.% was used throughout this analysis and volume flow rate was remained constant at 3 LPM. Results show that the heat transfer coefficient is high for higher particle volume concentration of CuO/water, Al2O3/water and ZnO/water nanofluids, while the values of the friction factor and pressure drop significantly increase with the increase of nanoparticle volume concentration. On the contrary, low heat transfer coefficient was found in higher concentration of SiO2/water nanofluids. The highest enhancement of heat transfer coefficient and lowest friction factor occurred for CuO/water nanofluids among the four nanofluids. However, highest friction factor and lowest heat transfer coefficient were found for SiO2/water nanofluids. The results reveal that, CuO/water nanofluids indicate significant heat transfer performance for helically coiled heat exchanger systems though this nanofluids exhibits higher pressure drop.


Author(s):  
Jian Yang ◽  
Min Zeng ◽  
Qiuwang Wang

Pin fin heat exchanges are often used in cooling of high thermal loaded electronic components due to their excellent heat transfer performance. However, the pressure drop in such heat exchanges is usually much higher than that in others, so their overall heat transfer performance is seriously reduced. In order to reduce the pressure drop and improve the overall heat transfer performance for pin fin heat exchangers, porous metal pin arrays are used and the performance of fluid flow and heat transfer in heat exchanger unit cells are numerically studied. The Forchheimer-Brinkman extended Darcy model and two-equation heat transfer model for porous media are employed and the effects of Reynolds number (Re), permeability (K) and pin fin cross-section forms are studied in detail. The results show that, with proper selection of governing parameters, the overall heat transfer performance of porous pin fin heat exchanger is much better than that of traditional solid pin fin heat exchanger; the overall heat transfer performance of long elliptic porous pin fin heat exchanger is the best, that is, the heat transfer per unit pressure drop of such heat exchanger is the highest and the maximum value of the heat transfer over pressure drop is obtained at K = 2×10−7 m2.


Author(s):  
Sun-Joon Byun ◽  
Sang-Jae Lee ◽  
Jae-Min Cha ◽  
Zhen-Huan Wang ◽  
Young-Chul Kwon

This study presents the comparison of heat transfer capacity and pressure drop characteristics between a basic fin-tube heat exchanger and a modified heat exchanger with the structural change of branch tubes and coiled turbulators. All experiments were carried out using an air-enthalpy type calorimeter based on the method described in ASHRAE standards, under heat exchanger experimental conditions. 14 different kinds of heat exchangers were used for the experiment. Cooling and heating capacities of the turbulator heat exchanger were excellent, compared to the basic one. As the insertion ratio of the coiled turbulator and the number of row increased, the heat transfer performance increased. However, the capacity per unit area was more effective in 4 rows than 6 rows, and the cooling performance of the 6 row turbulator heat exchanger (100% turbulator insert ratio) was down to about 6% than that of 4 row one. As the water flow rate and the turbulator insertion ratio increased, the pressure drop of the water side increased. This trend was more pronounced in 6 rows. In the cooling condition, the pressure drop on the air side was slightly increased due to the generation of condensed water, but was insignificant under the heating condition. The power consumption of the pump was more affected by the water flow rate than the coiled turbulator. The equivalent hydraulic diameter of a tube by the turbulator was reduced and then the heat transfer performance was improved. Thus, the tube diameter was smaller, the heat flux was better.


2014 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Hie Chan Kang ◽  
Hyejung Cho ◽  
Jin Ho Kim ◽  
Anthony M. Jacobi

The present work is performed to evaluate the heat transfer performance of a heat exchanger used in a direct methanol fuel cell. Because of material constraints and performance requirements, a louver fin heat exchanger is modified for use with conventional microchannel tubes and also with multiple small-diameter tubes (called multitubes). Prototype heat exchangers are tested, and the air-side heat transfer, pressure drop, and fan power are measured in a wind tunnel and simulated using a commercial code. The air-side pressure drop and heat transfer coefficient of the multitubes show similar trends to those of the flat-tube heat exchanger if the contact resistance is negligible. The tube spacing of the prototype multitube heat exchangers has a small effect on the pressure drop and heat transfer, but it has a profound effect on the air-side heat transfer performance because of the contact resistance between the tubes and louver fins. The air-side pressure drop agrees well with an empirical correlation for flat tubes.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Takele Gameda ◽  
M. Mehdi Kabir ◽  
Jiajun Xu

Abstract The present study aims to numerically investigate the effect of cross section on the heat transfer performance of single-phase flow of Ethanol/Polyalphaolefin nanoemulsion fluid with ethanol concentrations of 8 wt.% in a microchannel heat exchanger. While the exterior geometry of the microchannels’ solid structure remains the same, four different cross sections of channels including: circular, upward semi-circular, rectangular, and trapezoidal, are designed with keeping the channels’ wetted perimeters, mass flow rate, and Reynolds number constant for comparison purposes. In the present study, the hydrodynamic and heat transfer characteristics, including local Nusselt number, heat transfer coefficient, and velocity profile, were investigated under a uniform wall heat flux boundary conditions within the laminar flow regime. The channel models of different cross sections were developed by the COMSOL-Multiphysics for numerical analysis. The heat transfer characteristics were then compared for different cross sections under the same operating conditions, and the effect of aspect ratio for rectangular and trapezoidal cross sections were also studied.


2011 ◽  
Vol 673 ◽  
pp. 35-39 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shuichi Torii

The aim of the present study is to improve heat transfer performance and to attenuate pressure drop in plate heat exchanger with the different plate shapes. In this study, the single plate model of the plate heat exchanger is made and the thermal fluid flow characteristics in the narrows channel are examined for two different shaped plates, i.e., separate herringbone and plover patterns and the results are compared with that of flat or herringbone plate. In addition, the flow of the fluid with the surface of the rugged plate in the plate heat exchanger was visualized by tuft method. It is found that if the separate herringbone plate whose pith is 2 is employed, heat transfer performance is substantially enhanced for the high Reynolds number region, while pressure drop is suppressed.


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