CFD Study on Counterflow Ceramic Microchannel Heat Exchanger With Different Fins

Author(s):  
W. X. Chu ◽  
T. Ma ◽  
M. Zeng ◽  
Q. W. Wang

The conventional heat exchangers cannot satisfy the high efficiency and power requirements due to the low heat transfer performance and large volume. With the development of micro-scale manufacture technology, the ceramic micro-channel heat exchangers are recommended to be used to the highly-efficiency power and propulsion systems, especially the very high temperature conditions. The present paper analyzes the thermal hydraulic performance of the alumina-based ceramic microchannel heat exchangers with four different fins (straight, Z-shaped, airfoil and S-shaped). The numerical results show that the maximal heat transfer rate and heat transfer effectiveness of the heat exchanger with Z-shaped fins reach 90.7 W and 61%, respectively. The temperature distribution of both fluid sides and solid body is predicted. Moreover, the pressure drop and the ratio of E/k are used to evaluate the general heat exchanger performance. The ratio of E/k is smaller than unit of ten at the low Reynolds number and increases greatly at high Reynolds number.

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.


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.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kyle Hassan ◽  
Robert F. Kunz ◽  
David Hanson ◽  
Michael Manahan

Abstract In this work, we study the heat transfer performance and particle dynamics of a highly mass loaded, compressible, particle-laden flow in a horizontally-oriented pipe using an Eulerian-Eulerian (two-fluid) computational model. An attendant experimental configuration [1] provides the basis for the study. Specifically, a 17 bar co-flow of nitrogen gas and copper powder are modeled with inlet Reynolds numbers of 3×104, 4.5×104, and 6×104 and mass loadings of 0, 0.5, and 1.0. Eight binned particle sizes were modeled to represent the known powder properties. Significant settling of all particle groups are observed leading to asymmetric temperature distributions. Wall and core flow temperature distributions are observed to agree well with measurements. In high Reynolds number cases, the predictions of the multiphase computational model were satisfactorily aligned with the experimental results. Low Reynolds number model predictions were not as consistent with the experimental measurements.


Author(s):  
Koji Iiyama ◽  
Akiko Kaneko ◽  
Yutaka Abe ◽  
Yutaka Suzuki

At present, a microchannel heat exchanger is requested to achieve high efficiency in small size energy equipments. In order to clarify the heat transfer mechanism in a microchannel heat exchanger, knowledge on the thermal hydraulic characteristics of condensation flow in the channels is essential. However, study on the thermal hydraulic characteristics of condensation flow in a microchannel is hardly conducted except visualization of flow patterns. Objectives of the present study are to estimate the heat transfer performance of the present device and to observe the condensation behavior of vapor flow to clarify the thermal hydraulic characteristics of condensation flow in a capillary tube. As the results, it is confirmed that the microchannel heat exchanger realizes heat exchange of 7 kW when phase changes. In a single capillary glass tube as a simulated unit microchannel, the annular flow, the injection flow and the bubbly flow in a capillary tube are observed. According to the comparison of the present device and the glass tube experiment, it is suggested that the flow structure in the microchannel heat exchanger is almost same as that in the glass capillary tube.


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):  
B. Mathew ◽  
H. Hegab

In this paper the effect of axial heat conduction on the thermal performance of a microchannel heat exchanger with non-adiabatic end walls is studied. The two ends of the wall separating the coolant are assumed to be subjected to boundary condition of the first kind. As the end walls are not insulated heat transfer between the microchannel heat exchanger and its surroundings occur. Analytical equations have been formulated for predicting the axial temperature of the coolants and the wall as well as for determining the effectiveness of both fluids. The effectiveness of the fluids has been found to depend on the NTU, axial heat conduction parameter and end wall temperatures. The heat transfer through the end walls have been expressed in nondimensional terms. The nondimensional heat transfer from both ends of the wall also depends on the axial heat conduction parameter and temperature gradient at the end walls. A new parameter, performance factor, has been proposed for comparing the variation in effectiveness due to axial heat conduction coupled with heat transfer with the effectiveness without axial heat conduction. The effectiveness of both the hot and cold fluid for several cases of end wall temperatures and axial heat conduction parameter are analyzed in this paper for better understanding of heat transfer dynamics of microchannel heat exchangers.


2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 41-52
Author(s):  
Mohd Rahimie Md Noor ◽  
Nur Syafiqah Hidayah Mohd Fauzi ◽  
Siti Nur Fadhilah Masrom ◽  
Mohd Azry Abdul Malek ◽  
Muhammad Firdaus Mustapha ◽  
...  

Heat exchangers are tools used to transfer thermal energy between two fluids (liquid or gas) by convection and conduction at different level of temperatures. Heat exchangers are the common equipment and employed in many different applications because of ability to withstand high temperatures and compactness. There are no intermixing or leakage occurred between two fluids during the heat transfer process as fluids are separated by walls of heat exchanger. The main objective of this project is to determine the heat exchanger effectiveness in heat transfer performance. This will be done by investigating the performance of five different angles of heat exchanger which are 150,300, 450, 600 and 750. The effectiveness of heat exchanger depends on the convection heat transfer coefficient of the fluid. Besides that, this project also aims to develop some parameters such as Nusselt number, Reynolds number and Prandtl number for evaluating the heat transfer. It is found that the Nusselt Number at angle of 150 is lower compared to angle of 750. Meanwhile, Reynolds number for angle 150 is higher than angle 750 which means that the type of flow produced by angle 150 is turbulent flow while for 750 angle is laminar flow. Hence, the overall result of this project proved that 150 is the best angle for heat exchanger in chimney because of higher velocity, higher volume flow rate, higher density of gas and higher LMTD. The relationship between Nusselt number and Reynolds number between different angles can be observed by plotting the graph using Maple Software.


2020 ◽  
Vol 24 (6 Part A) ◽  
pp. 3601-3612
Author(s):  
Dan Zheng ◽  
Jin Wang ◽  
Yu Pang ◽  
Zhanxiu Chen ◽  
Bengt Sunden

Experimental research was conducted to reveal the effects of nanofluids on heat transfer performance in a double-tube heat exchanger. With nanoparticle weight fraction of 0.5-2.0% and Reynolds number of 4500-14500, the flow resistance and heat transfer were analyzed by using six nanofluids, i.e., CuO-water, Al2O3-water, Fe3O4-water, ZnO-water, SiC-water, SiO2-water nanofluids. Results show that SiC-water nanofluid with a weight concentration of 1.5% provides the best improvement of heat transfer performance. 1.0% CuO-water and 0.5% SiO2-water nanofluids have lower friction factors in the range of Reynolds number from 4500-14500 compared to the other nanofluids. Based on test results of heat transfer performance and flow resistance, the 1.0% CuO-water nanofluid shows a great advantage due to a relatively high heat transfer performance and a low friction factor. Finally, empirical formulae of Nusselt numbers for various nanofluids were established based on experimental data tested in the double-tube heat exchanger.


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