Study of Pressure Drop, Friction Factor & Heat Transfer Characteristics of Compact Heat Exchangers using CFD

Author(s):  
C Sadhasivam ◽  
R Thirumalai
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.


2019 ◽  
Vol 141 (12) ◽  
Author(s):  
Wei Du ◽  
Lei Luo ◽  
Songtao Wang ◽  
Jian Liu ◽  
Bengt Sunden

Abstract Heat transfer characteristics in a latticework duct with various sidewalls are numerically investigated. The crossing angle is 90 deg and the number of subchannels is eleven on both the pressure side and suction side for each latticework duct. The thickness of the ribs is 8 mm and the distance between adjacent ribs is 24 mm. The investigation is conducted for various Reynolds numbers (11,000 to 55,000) and six different sidewalls. Flow structure, pressure drop, and heat transfer characteristics are analyzed. Results revealed that the sidewall has significant effects on heat transfer and flow structure. The triangle-shaped sidewall provides the highest Nusselt number accompanied by the highest friction factor. The sidewall with a slot shows the lowest friction factor and Nusselt number. An increased slot width decreased the Nusselt number and friction factor simultaneously.


1992 ◽  
Vol 114 (2) ◽  
pp. 373-382 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. A. Olson

We have measured heat transfer and pressure drop of three thin, compact heat exchangers in helium gas at 3.5 MPa and higher, with Reynolds numbers of 450 to 36,000. The flow geometries for the three heat exchanger specimens were: circular tube, rectangular channel, and staggered pin fin with tapered pins. The specimens were heated radiatively at heat fluxes up to 77 W/cm2. Correlations were developed for the isothermal friction factor as a function of Reynolds number, and for the Nusselt number as a function of Reynolds number and the ratio of wall temperature to fluid temperature. The specimen with the pin fin internal geometry had significantly better heat transfer than the other specimens, but it also had higher pressure drop. For certain conditions of helium flow and heating, the temperature more than doubled from the inlet to the outlet of the specimens, producing large changes in gas velocity, density, viscosity, and thermal conductivity. These changes in properties did not affect the correlations for friction factor and Nusselt number in turbulent flow.


Author(s):  
Kun-Hao Li ◽  
Chi-Chuan Wang

This study numerically examines some commercially available plate patterns of plate heat exchangers using a 3-D CFD simulation. Detailed flow distribution and heat transfer characteristics subject to three different plate patterns are examined in this study. The plate pattern include GC26 and NT10 (double chevron) and SW26. The effective surface area of the associated plate patterns are 0.8671, 0.6808, and 0.6721 m2, respectively. The corresponding chevron angle are 33°, 64° (double chevron) and 61°, repectively. The calculated results show that the heat transfer efficient for NT10 is higher than that of GC26 by approximately 6.35% and is higher than SW26 by 10.3%. The results indicate that the heat transfer characteristics for the double chevron plate outperform that of the single chevron plate. On the other hand, the pressure drop is also increased with the double chevron as well as chevron angle. However, it is found that the double chevron design provides a better heat transfer capability subject to identical 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.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document