scholarly journals Flow and Heat Transfer Simulation Analysis of 3D Compact Heat Exchanger

Author(s):  
G. Sashwin Nair ◽  
Ahmed N. Oumer ◽  
Azizuddin Abd Aziz ◽  
Januar Parlaungan Siregar

Compact heat exchangers (CHEs) are one of the most commonly used heat exchangers in the industry due to their superior advantages over other types of heat exchangers. Various geometric (fin spacing, tube inclination angle, etc) and process (such as flow velocity, temperature, etc) parameters affect the performance of such compact HEs. This research aims to examine the effects of fin spacing, tube inclination angle, and airflow velocity on heat transfer and pressure drop performance of CHE in both inline and staggered configurations. A three-dimensional (3D) numerical method with the aid of Ansys FLUENT software was carried out for the laminar flow condition. Based on the obtained results, the highest average heat transfer coefficient was observed at 120° for both tube arrangements while the lowest average pressure drop penalty is at 30°. Therefore, the recommended inclination angle when high heat transfer is needed is at 120° while if the pumping power is the major problem, 30 °or 150° is recommended. based on the London area goodness factor (j/f), 30° and 150° show the highest value for both configurations. The j/f factor decreases with the increase of Reynolds number for both configurations. In addition, 120° shows the lowest j/f which can be due to the high pressure drop.

Micromachines ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 403 ◽  
Author(s):  
Binghuan Huang ◽  
Haiwang Li ◽  
Tiantong Xu

The application of microchannel heat exchangers is of great significance in industrial fields due to their advantages of miniaturized scale, large surface-area-to-volume ratio, and high heat transfer rate. In this study, microchannel heat exchangers with and without fan-shaped reentrant cavities were designed and manufactured, and experiments were conducted to investigate the flow and heat-transfer characteristics. The impact rising from the radius of reentrant cavities, as well as the Reynolds number on the heat transfer and the pressure drop, is also analyzed. The results indicate that, compared with straight microchannels, microchannels with reentrant cavities could enhance the heat transfer and, more importantly, reduce the pressure drop at the same time. For the ranges of parameters studied, increasing the radius of reentrant cavities could augment the effect of pressure-drop reduction, while the corresponding variation of heat transfer is complicated. It is considered that adding reentrant cavities in microchannel heat exchangers is an ideal approach to improve performance.


Author(s):  
M. Ruhul Amin ◽  
Santhosh K. Ramachandran

Numerical investigation has been performed to study the heat transfer and pressure drop characteristics of plain-fin-tube and wavy-fin tube heat exchangers. Performance results are presented in terms of non-dimensional parameters, friction factor and Colburn factor. The flow rate is varied over the range of 2000 ≤ ReH ≤ 7000 in the turbulent regime. The analysis was performed using a finite volume method. Comparisons with experimental data are performed to validate the code. Parametric study is performed to investigate the effects of transverse pitch and wavy angle. It is observed that an increase in transverse pitch results in a decrease in thermal and hydraulic characteristics. On the other hand with the increase of wavy angle, resulting in the increase of the number of corrugations, both the friction factor and Colburn factor increased. The critical balance between high heat transfer and pressure drop is analyzed using the efficiency index. The tube layout in the staggered form is seen to have better heat transfer characteristics than the in-lined layout for both the configurations.


2013 ◽  
Vol 465-466 ◽  
pp. 500-504 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shahrin Hisham Amirnordin ◽  
Hissein Didane Djamal ◽  
Mohd Norani Mansor ◽  
Amir Khalid ◽  
Md Seri Suzairin ◽  
...  

This paper presents the effect of the changes in fin geometry on pressure drop and heat transfer characteristics of louvered fin heat exchanger numerically. Three dimensional simulation using ANSYS Fluent have been conducted for six different configurations at Reynolds number ranging from 200 to 1000 based on louver pitch. The performance of this system has been evaluated by calculating pressure drop and heat transfer coefficient. The result shows that, the fin pitch and the louver pitch have a very considerable effect on pressure drop as well as heat transfer rate. It is observed that increasing the fin pitch will relatively result in an increase in heat transfer rate but at the same time, the pressure drop will decrease. On the other hand, low pressure drop and low heat transfer rate will be obtained when the louver pitch is increased. Final result shows a good agreement between experimental and numerical results of the louvered fin which is about 12%. This indicates the capability of louvered fin in enhancing the performance of heat exchangers.


Author(s):  
Ece Özkaya ◽  
Selin Aradag ◽  
Sadik Kakac

In this study, three-dimensional computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analyses are performed to assess the thermal-hydraulic characteristics of a commercial Gasketed Plate Heat Exchangers (GPHEx) with 30 degrees of chevron angle (Plate1). The results of CFD analyses are compared with a computer program (ETU HEX) previously developed based on experimental results. Heat transfer plate is scanned using photogrammetric scan method to model GPHEx. CFD model is created as two separate flow zones, one for each of hot and cold domains with a virtual plate. Mass flow inlet and pressure outlet boundary conditions are applied. The working fluid is water. Temperature and pressure distributions are obtained for a Reynolds number range of 700–3400 and total temperature difference and pressure drop values are compared with ETU HEX. A new plate (Plate2) with corrugation pattern using smaller amplitude is designed and analyzed. The thermal properties are in good agreement with experimental data for the commercial plate. For the new plate, the decrease of the amplitude leads to a smaller enlargement factor which causes a low heat transfer rate while the pressure drop remains almost constant.


2004 ◽  
Vol 126 (4) ◽  
pp. 528-534 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. B. Sathe ◽  
B. G. Sammakia

The results of a study of a new and unique high-performance air-cooled impingement heat sink are presented. An extensive numerical investigation of the heat sink performance is conducted and is verified by experimental data. The study is relevant to cooling of high-power chips and modules in air-cooled environments and applies to workstations or mainframes. In the study, a rectangular jet impinges on a set of parallel fins and then turns into cross flow. The effects of the fin thickness, gap nozzle width and fin shape on the heat transfer and pressure drop are investigated. It is found that pressure drop is reduced by cutting the fins in the central impingement zone without sacrificing the heat transfer due to a reduction in the extent of the stagnant zone. A combination of fin thicknesses of the order of 0.5 mm and channel gaps of 0.8 mm with appropriate central cutout yielded heat transfer coefficients over 1500 W/m2 K at a pressure drop of less than 100 N/m2, as is typically available in high-end workstations. A detailed study of flow-through heat sinks subject to the same constraints as the impingement heat sink showed that the flow-through heat sink could not achieve the high heat transfer coefficients at a low pressure drop.


Author(s):  
Puxuan Li ◽  
Steve J. Eckels

Accurate measurements of heat transfer and pressure drop play important roles in thermal designs in a variety of pipes and ducts. In this study, the convective heat transfer coefficient was measured with a semi-local surface average based on Newton’s Law of cooling. Flow and heat transfer data for different Reynolds numbers were collected and compared in a duct with smooth walls. Pressure drop was measured with a pressure transducer from OMEGA Engineering Inc. The experimental results were compared with numerical estimations generated in ANSYS Fluent. Fluent contains the broad physical modeling capabilities needed to model heat transfer and pressure drop in the duct. Thermal conduction and convection in the three-dimensional (3D) duct are simulated together. Special cares for selecting the viscosity models and the near-wall treatments are discussed. The goal of the paper is to find appropriate numerical models for simulating heat conduction, heat convection and pressure drop in the duct with different Reynolds numbers. The relationship between the heat transfer coefficient and Reynolds numbers is discussed. Heat flux and inlet temperature measured in the experiment are applied to the boundary conditions. The study provides the unique opportunity to verify the accuracy of numerical models on heat transfer and pressure drop in ANSYS Fluent.


Author(s):  
Shoichi Kodate ◽  
Tatsuya Kubo ◽  
Shinji Ebara ◽  
Hidetoshi Hashizume

In this study, the characteristic of the swirling flow was analyzed in detail in terms of flow field by means of a visualization experiment using matched refractive index PIV measurement to evaluate the applicability of the swirling flow generated downstream of a three-dimensionally connected dual elbow to the divertor cooling. The dual elbow used in the experiment comprises two 90-degree elbows with the same curvature connected directly in three-dimensional configuration. From the experiment, it was found that strong swirling velocity component appears locally near the pipe wall downstream of the second elbow. Moreover, although the strength of the swirling flow changed gradually as it flowed downstream, it attenuated little even 8D downstream of the dual elbow, where D was the diameter of the piping. Therefore, this swirling flow is expected to survive for a considerable distance downstream of the elbow, and the applicability of this flow field to divertor cooling can be promising. Furthermore turbulence quantities such as Reynolds stress were analyzed in terms of heat transfer performance. Since there were some regions where larger Reynolds stress than a developed turbulent pipe flow was observed near the pipe wall, high heat transfer is expected there.


2010 ◽  
Vol 133 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen P. Lynch ◽  
Narayan Sundaram ◽  
Karen A. Thole ◽  
Atul Kohli ◽  
Christopher Lehane

Complex vortical secondary flows that are present near the endwall of an axial gas turbine blade are responsible for high heat transfer rates and high aerodynamic losses. The application of nonaxisymmetric, three-dimensional contouring to the endwall surface has been shown to reduce the strength of the vortical flows and decrease total pressure losses when compared with a flat endwall. The reduction in secondary flow strength with nonaxisymmetric contouring might also be expected to reduce endwall heat transfer. In this study, measurements of endwall heat transfer were taken for a low-pressure turbine blade geometry with both flat and three-dimensional contoured endwalls. Endwall oil flow visualization indicated a reduction in the passage vortex strength for the contoured endwall geometry. Heat transfer levels were reduced by 20% in regions of high heat transfer with the contoured endwall, as compared with the flat endwall. The heat transfer benefit of the endwall contour was not affected by changes in the cascade Reynolds number.


2006 ◽  
Vol 129 (4) ◽  
pp. 835-841 ◽  
Author(s):  
T. Verstraete ◽  
Z. Alsalihi ◽  
R. A. Van den Braembussche

This paper presents a numerical investigation of the heat transfer inside a micro gas turbine and its impact on the performance. The large temperature difference between turbine and compressor in combination with the small dimensions results in a high heat transfer causing a drop in efficiency of both components. Present study aims to quantify this heat transfer and to reveal the different mechanisms that contribute to it. A conjugate heat transfer solver has been developed for this purpose. It combines a three-dimensional (3D) conduction calculation inside the rotor and the stator with a 3D flow calculation in the radial compressor, turbine and gap between stator and rotor. The results for micro gas turbines of different size and shape and different material characteristics are presented and the impact on performance is evaluated.


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