Thermal-Hydraulic Performance and Optimization of Tube Ellipticity in a Plate Fin-and-Tube Heat Exchanger

Author(s):  
Zhuo Yang ◽  
Tariq Amin Khan ◽  
Wei Li ◽  
Hua Zhu ◽  
Zhijian Sun ◽  
...  

The flow field inside the heat exchangers is associated with maximum heat transfer and minimum pressure drop. Designing a compact heat exchanger and employing various techniques to enhance its overall performance has been widely investigated and still an active research field. However, few researches deal with thermal optimization. The application of elliptic tube is an effective alternative to circular tube which can reduce the pressure drop significantly. In this study, numerical simulation and optimization of variable tube ellipticity is studied at low Reynolds numbers. The three-dimensional numerical analysis and a multi-objective genetic algorithm (MOGA) with surrogate modelling is performed. Two row tubes in staggered arrangement in fin-and-tube heat exchanger is investigated for combination of various elliptic ratio (e = minor axis/major axis) and Reynolds number. Tube elliptic ratio ranges from 0.2 to 1 and Reynolds number ranges from 150 to 750. The tube perimeters are kept constant while changing the elliptic ratio. The numerical model is derived based on continuum flow approach and steady-state conservation equations of mass, momentum and energy. The flow is assumed as incompressible and laminar due to low inlet velocity. Results are presented in the form of Colburn factor, friction factor, temperature contours and streamline contours. Results show that increasing elliptic ratio increases the friction factor due increased flow blocking area, however, the effect on the Colburn factor is not significant. Moreover, tube with lower elliptic ratio followed by higher elliptic ratio tube has better thermal-hydraulic performance. To achieve maximum heat transfer enhancement and minimum pressure drop, the Pareto optimal strategy is adopted for which the CFD results, Artificial neural network (ANN) and MOGA are combined. The tubes elliptic ratio (0.2 ⩽ e ⩽ 1.0) and Reynolds number (150 ⩽ Re ⩽ 750) are the design variables. The objective functions include Colburn factor (j) and friction factor (f). The CFD results are input into ANN model. Once the ANN is computed and its accuracy is checked, it is then used to estimate the model responses as a function of inputs. The final trained ANN is then used to drive the MOGA to obtain the Pareto optimal solution. The optimal values of these parameters are finally presented.

2019 ◽  
Vol 141 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Hua Zhu ◽  
Zhuo Yang ◽  
Tariq Amin Khan ◽  
Wei Li ◽  
Zhijian Sun ◽  
...  

The flow field inside the heat exchangers is associated with maximum heat transfer and minimum pressure drop. Designing a heat exchanger and employing various techniques to enhance its overall performance has been widely investigated and is still an active research. The application of elliptic tube is an effective alternative to circular tube which can reduce the pressure drop significantly. In this study, numerical simulation and optimization of variable tube ellipticity is studied. The three-dimensional numerical analysis and a multi-objective genetic algorithm (MOGA) with surrogate modeling are performed. Tubes in staggered arrangement in fin-and-tube heat exchanger are investigated for combination of various elliptic ratios and Reynolds numbers. Results show that increasing elliptic ratio increases the friction factor due to increased flow blocking area, however, the effect on the Colburn factor is not significant. Moreover, tube with lower elliptic ratio followed by higher elliptic ratio tube has better thermal-hydraulic performance. To achieve the best overall performance, the Pareto optimal strategy is adopted for which the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) results, artificial neural network (ANN), and MOGA are combined. The tubes elliptic ratio and Reynolds number are the design variables. The objective functions include Colburn factor (j) and friction factor (f). The CFD results are input into ANN model. Once the ANN is computed, it is then used to estimate the model responses as a function of inputs. The final trained ANN is used to drive the MOGA to obtain the Pareto optimal solution. The optimal values of these parameters are finally presented.


2021 ◽  
Vol 40 (1) ◽  
pp. 286-299
Author(s):  
Behzad Ghobadi ◽  
Farshad Kowsary ◽  
Farzad Veysi

Abstract In this article, the numerical analysis has been carried out to optimize heat transfer and pressure drop in the horizontal channel in the presence of a rectangular baffle and constant temperature in two-dimension. For this aim, the governing differential equation has been solved by computational fluid dynamics software. The Reynolds numbers are in the range of 2,000 < Re < 10,000 and the working fluid is water. While the periodic boundary condition has been applied at the inlet, outlet, and the channel wall, axisymmetric boundary condition has been used for channel axis. For modeling and optimizing the turbulence, k–ω SST model and genetic algorithm have been applied, respectively. The results illustrate that adding a rectangular baffle to the channel enhances heat transfer and pressure drop. Hence, the heat transfer performance factor along with maximum heat transfer and minimum pressure drop has been investigated and the effective geometrical parameters have been introduced. As can be seen, there is an inverse relationship between baffle step and both heat transfer and pressure drop so that for p/d equal to 0.5, 1, and 1.25, the percentage of increase in Nusselt number is 141, 124, and 120% comparing to a simple channel and the increase in friction factor is 5.5, 5, and 4.25 times, respectively. The results of modeling confirm the increase in heat transfer performance and friction factor in the baffle with more height. For instance, when the Reynolds number and height are 5,000 and 3 mm, the Nusselt number and friction factor have been increased by 35% and 2.5 times, respectively. However, for baffle with 4 mm height, the increase in the Nusselt number and friction factor is 68% and 5.57 times, respectively. It is also demonstrated that by increasing Reynolds number, the maximum heat transfer performance has been decreased which is proportional to the increase in p/d and h/d. Moreover, the maximum heat transfer performance in 2,000 Reynolds number is 1.5 proportional to p/d of 0.61 and h/d of 0.36, while for 10,000 Reynolds number, its value is 1.19 in high p/d of 0.93 and h/d of 0.15. The approaches of the present study can be used for optimizing heat transfer performance where geometrical dimensions are not accessible or the rectangular baffle has been applied for heat transfer enhancement.


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.


2019 ◽  
Vol 25 (8) ◽  
pp. 39-51
Author(s):  
Nassr Fadhil Hussein ◽  
Abdulrahman Shakir Mahmood

Enhancement of heat transfer in the tube heat exchanger is studied experimentally by using discrete twisted tapes. Three different positions were selected for inserting turbulators along tube section (horizontal position by α= 00, inclined position by α= 45 0 and vertical position by α= 900). The space between turbulators was fixed by distributing 5 pieces of these turbulators with pitch ratio    PR = (0.44). Also, the factor of constant heat flux was applied as a boundary condition around the tube test section for all experiments of this investigation, while the flow rates were selected as a variable factor (Reynolds number values vary from 5000 to 15000). The results show that using discrete twisted tapes enhances the heat transfer rate by about 60.7-103.7 % compared with plane tube case. Also, inserting turbulators with inclined position offers maximum heat transfer rate by 103.7%.  


2011 ◽  
Vol 347-353 ◽  
pp. 2519-2523
Author(s):  
Wen Wen Wang ◽  
Rui Li

In this paper, simulates the air performance of multi-row finned-tube heat exchanger by Fluent. The mathematics model is established, using standard k-ε turbulence model. The temperature, velocity and pressure changes of air are analyzed. By research the multi-row finned-tube heat exchanger, analyzed the different structures have different effects on the efficiency of heat transfer, obtained the most appropriate number of tube rows, making the heat exchanger for maximum heat transfer efficiency.


Author(s):  
Kizhakke Kodakkattu Saijal ◽  
Thondiyil Danish

A shell and tube heat exchanger with staggered baffles (STHX-ST) is designed by integrating the features of both segmental and helical baffles, which produces a helical flow in the shell side. This work studies the effect of different parameters on the performance of the STHX-ST through numerical analysis. Shell inner diameter, tube outer diameter, baffle cut, baffle spacing, and baffle orientation angle are the design parameters. Multi-objective optimization using genetic algorithm (GA) is carried out to maximize the heat transfer rate while minimizing the pressure drop. The objective functions for optimization are approximated using artificial neural networks (ANNs). The training data for ANNs are simulated from CFD analysis as per the Taguchi orthogonal test table. The optimal solution obtained from the Pareto front has a maximum heat transfer of 154555 W for a minimum pressure drop of 88083.86 Pa.


2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 10
Author(s):  
Mahtab Alam ◽  
Dr. Dharmendra Singh Rajput

The main objective of the present work is to investigation of optimum design of plate fin tube heat exchanger using Computational fluid dynamic approach and maximizing thermal performance. There are total five designs of plate fin and tube heat exchanger are used in present work and CFD analysis have been performed in it to get maximum heat transfer. It has been observed from CFD analysis that the maximum heat transfer can be achieved from plate fin and tube heat exchanger with elliptical tube arrangement inclined at 30o with 23.22% more heat transfer capacity as compared to circular tube plate pin heat exchanger. So that it is recommended that if the plate fins and tube heat exchanger with inclined elliptical tube used in place of circular tube arrangement, batter heat transfer can be achieved.


2011 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 379-388
Author(s):  
Srinivas Bhatta ◽  
Seetharam Ramarao ◽  
Kankanhalli Seetharamuω

A three dimensional study of heat transfer from three heated blocks in a square channel at a Reynolds number of 108 with height of the chip assembly as the characteristic length is presented. Heated blocks affixed to the bottom plate represent electronic chips mounted on horizontal circuit board. A hexahedron block is affixed on to the top shrouding wall over the heated section. Thickness of this block is varied to study the effect on heat transfer from the chip assembly. A block of thickness equal to the passage between substrates produces maximum heat transfer enhancement. A block over the first passage enhances heat transfer from both immediate upstream and downstream chips considerably. A block over each recirculation zone produces moderate heat transfer from all the chips for a moderate pressure-drop. It is also observed that addition of blocks in the top plate does not add much to the pressure-drop in the duct.


Author(s):  
Khwanchit Wongcharee ◽  
Somsak Pethkool ◽  
Chinaruk Thianpong

This paper describes an experimental study of turbulent convective heat transfer and flow friction characteristics in a double tube heat exchanger equipped with propellers (2 blade-type). The propellers are used as the decaying swirl generators in the inner tube. The experiments were performed using the propellers with four different interval lengths (l = 1D, 2D, 3D and 4D where D is diameter of the inner tube), for the Reynolds number ranging from 5000 to 32,000, using water with temperature of 27°C and 70°C as cold and hot working fluids, respectively. The data of the tube equipped with the propellers are reported together with those of the plain tube, for comparison. The obtained results demonstrate that the heat transfer rate in term of Nusselt number (Nu) and friction factor (f) in the tube with propellers are higher than those in the plain tube at the similar operating conditions. This is due to the chaotic mixing and efficient interruption of thermal boundary layer caused by the propellers. In addition, the Nusselt number and friction factor in the tube fitted with the propellers increase as the interval length decreases. Depending on Reynolds number and interval length, Nusselt numbers and friction factors in the tube fitted with the propellers are augmented to 1.95 to 2.3 times and 5.8 to 13.2 times of those in the plain tube. In addition, the correlations of the Nusselt number (Nu) and the friction factor (f) for tube fitted with the propellers are reported and the performance evaluation to access the real benefits of using the turbulators is also determined.


Symmetry ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (10) ◽  
pp. 1652
Author(s):  
Mehdi Ghalambaz ◽  
Ramin Mashayekhi ◽  
Hossein Arasteh ◽  
Hafiz Muhammad Ali ◽  
Pouyan Talebizadehsardari ◽  
...  

This paper investigates the convective heat transfer in a heat exchanger equipped with twisted tape elements to examine effects of the twisted tape truncation percentage, pitch value, position and Reynolds number using 3D numerical simulation. A symmetric heat flux is applied around the tube as the studied heat exchanger. Based on the influences in both heat transfer enhancement and pressure drop, the performance evaluation criterion (PEC) is utilized. Inserting twisted tape elements and reducing the pitch value significantly augment the Nusselt number, friction coefficient and PEC number compared to the plain tube. For the best case with a Reynolds number of 1000, the average Nusselt number increases by almost 151%, which is the case of fully fitted twisted tape at a pitch value of L/4. Moreover, increasing the twisted tape truncation percentage reduces both heat transfer and pressure drop. Furthermore, the highest heat transfer rate is achieved when the truncated twisted tape is located at the entrance of the tube. Finally, it is concluded that for P = L, L/2, L/3 and L/4, the optimum cases from the viewpoint of energy conservation are twisted tapes with truncation percentages of 75, 50, 50 and 0%, in which the related PEC numbers at a Reynolds number of 1000 are almost equal to 1.08, 1.24, 1.4 and 1.76, respectively.


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