Incorporating Moldability Considerations During the Design of Polymer Heat Exchangers

2011 ◽  
Vol 133 (8) ◽  
Author(s):  
Juan Cevallos ◽  
S. K. Gupta ◽  
Avram Bar-Cohen

Recently, available formulations of thermally enhanced polymer composites are attractive in heat exchanger applications due to their low cost and improved corrosion resistance compared to the conventional metal options. This paper presents a systematic approach to the design of plate-fin heat exchangers made out of thermally enhanced polymer composites. We have formulated the design problem as the life cycle cost minimization problem. The integrated design model introduced here accounts for heat transfer performance, molding cost, and assembly costs. We have adopted well-known models to develop individual parametric models that describe how heat transfer performance, molding cost, and assembly cost varies as a function of the geometric parameters of the heat exchanger. Thermally enhanced polymer composites behave differently from the conventional polymers during the molding process. The desired thin walled large structures are expected to pose challenges during the filling phase of the molding process. Hence, we have utilized experimentally validated simulations to develop a metamodel to identify difficult and impossible to mold design configurations. This metamodel has been integrated within the overall formulation to address the manufacturability considerations. This paper also presents several case studies that show how the material and labor cost strongly influence the final design.

Author(s):  
Juan Cevallos ◽  
S. K. Gupta ◽  
Avram Bar-Cohen

Recently available formulations of thermally enhanced polymers are attractive in heat exchanger applications due to their low cost and improved corrosion resistance compared to the conventional metal options. This paper presents a systematic approach to the design of plate-fin heat exchangers made out of thermally enhanced polymers. We have formulated the design problem as the life cycle cost minimization problem. The integrated design model introduced here accounts for heat transfer performance, molding cost, and assembly costs. We have adopted well known models to develop individual parametric models that describe how heat transfer performance, molding cost, and assembly cost varies as a function of the geometric parameters of the heat exchanger. Thermally enhanced polymers behave differently from the conventional polymers during the molding process. The desired thin walled large structures are expected to pose challenges during the filling phase of the molding process. Hence we have utilized experimentally validated simulations to develop a metamodel to identify difficult and impossible to mold design configurations. This metamodel has been integrated within the overall formulation to address the manufacturability considerations. This paper also presents several case studies that show how the material and labor cost strongly influence the final design.


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):  
Tosha Churitter

Pins are a common type of extended surface used in the field of heat transfer; their main application being in the electronics field. Historically, pins used in heat exchangers have diameters that are considered negligible in comparison to their lengths and are therefore termed as tubes. In this report, the use of pins as an extended surface is investigated for the heat transfer on the airside (cold) of the Compact Advanced Pin Surface Heat Exchanger. The pins are circular in cross section and follow a staggered arrangement. The uniqueness of the pin design is such that they cannot be treated as tubes. Key Pin Design features are as follows: • Pins have a maximum Length: Diameter ratio of 3. • Pin Spacing to Pin Diameter ratio is greater than in traditional arrangements. • Pins function as a primary as well as secondary surface. The heat transfer performance of extended surfaces possessing the above features has not been characterized, using commercially available Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) software, in any research specifically focused on applications for the aerospace industry. Based on actual test results, this study specially develops a unique approach that can predict the outlet temperature of the heat exchanger to within 1% accuracy. This ‘developed’ approach is applied over cold-side mass flow rates ranging from 0.05 kg/s to 0.23 kg/s, while keeping the hot side mass flow rate constant at 0.05 kg/s. At worst, the simulation results lie within 5% accuracy and at best the simulation accuracy is 1%, a significant improvement on traditional derivations. This article specifically discusses the methodology developed to analyse the heat transfer performance of the novel pin design using Fluent 6.2. It highlights the current limitations of existing equations as well as the theoretical knowledge gap that currently exists in the analysis of pins as extended heat transfer surfaces in heat exchangers.


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.


Author(s):  
Wei Dong ◽  
Shengbao Zhang ◽  
Zhiqiang Guo ◽  
Xiao Yu

The primary surface heat exchanger (PSHE) is a kind of small size, light weight, high integration heat exchanger. The characteristics of the complex internal structure, complex flow pattern and the flow interaction have a great influence on the heat transfer of the air-air primary surface heat exchanger. Five cross-corrugated air-air primary surface heat exchangers with different core configurations are designed and fabricated applying additive manufacturing technology. The cross angle θ of upper and lower corrugated plates is 0°, 15°, 30°, 45°, respectively. An experimental investigation on the flow and heat transfer performance is carried out. The comparison of test results of overall heat transfer coefficient and the pressure drop for different primary heat exchangers is presented. The test results show that the pressure drop is significantly increased with the cross angle increasing, and the heat transfer performance does not show the linear increasing with the cross angle increasing.


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.


2005 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yong-Du Jun ◽  
Kum-Bae Lee ◽  
Seok-Bo Ko ◽  
Sheikh Zahidul Islam

Now-a-day’s energy recovery process in the industry is a common practice for improving the production process while major concern goes to environment. The performance of the heat exchangers, used for the purpose of recovering energy, decreases continuously with time due to fouling depending on surface temperature, surface condition, construction material, fluid velocity, flow geometry and fluid composition. To overcome the fouling of fly ash on the heat transfer surface and erosion and periodical cleaning which are the major drawbacks in conventional heat exchangers for flue gas heat recovery, a no-distributor-circulating-fluidized-bed (NDCFB) heat exchanger with automatic particle controlling is devised. One of the main advantages of this model is the reduced pressure drop through the entire heat exchanger system, while increasing heat transfer performance. The research started with a single riser system with multiple down comers and multi-riser system is also studied. The heat transfer performance and pressure drop have been evaluated through experiments for these gas-to-water lab scale heat exchanger systems. However, due to the operational complexity, these two models are not readily applicable to real applications. As a derivation of the previous studies regarding the no-distributor CFB heat exchangers, third generation model of the heat exchanger is now under investigation.


2021 ◽  
Vol 245 ◽  
pp. 01048
Author(s):  
Bin Ren ◽  
Xuchen Zhu ◽  
Yannan Du ◽  
Zhe Pu ◽  
Hongliang Lu ◽  
...  

Plate heat exchangers are new-type compact heat exchangers with high heat transfer efficiency widely used in heating, food, medicine, shipbuilding and petrochemical industries. However, only the laboratory testing can accurately obtain the real heat transfer and flow resistance performance of plate heat exchanger. In this paper, the basic principles of modified Wilson plot method and equal velocity method are firstly introduced. Then the testing system including flow chart and testing instruments are discussed. Finally, contrast experiments using the different two methods are conducted. The results showed that for plate heat exchangers with equal channel, the equal velocity method and modified Wilson plot method can both be used to test the convective heat transfer performance of plate heat exchanger. The equal velocity method is recommended because the deformation of plate is relatively smaller.


Author(s):  
Raffaele L. Amalfi ◽  
Todd Salamon ◽  
Filippo Cataldo ◽  
Jackson B. Marcinichen ◽  
John R. Thome

Abstract The present study is focused on the experimental characterization of two-phase heat transfer performance and pressure drops within an ultra-compact heat exchanger (UCHE) suitable for electronics cooling applications. The UCHE is composed of a double-side-copper finned plate with an optimized geometry that enhances the heat transfer performance and flow stability, while minimizing the pressure drops. These features make the UCHE the ideal component for thermosyphon cooling systems, where low pressure drops are required to achieve high passive flow circulation rates and thus achieve high critical heat flux values. The UCHE's thermal-hydraulic performance is first evaluated in a pump-driven system at the Laboratory of Heat and Mass Transfer (LTCM-EPFL), where experiments include many configurations and operating conditions. Then, the UCHE is installed and tested as the condenser of a thermosyphon loop that rejects heat to a pumped refrigerant system at Nokia Bell Labs, in which both sides operate with refrigerants in phase change (condensation-to-boiling). Experimental results demonstrate high thermal performance with a maximum heat dissipation density of 5455 (kW/m3/K), which is significantly larger than conventional air-cooled heat exchangers and liquid-cooled small pressing depth brazed plate heat exchangers. Finally, a thermal performance analysis is presented that provides guidelines in terms of heat density dissipations at the server- and rack-level when using passive two-phase cooling.


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