Advanced Micro-Heat Exchangers for High Heat Flux

Three micro-heat exchangers for use in a liquid cooling system with a long offset strip, short offset strip, and chevron flow path based on the traditional heat transfer enhancement concepts were designed and tested. A straight channel heat exchanger was also made for comparison. The liquid crystal thermography method described by Lin and Yang (2005) was used to observe the flow and temperature distributions in the micro-heat exchangers. The test results show that the chevron channel heat exchanger provides the lowest thermal resistance. However, its pressure drop is also the highest, approximately five times higher than that for other three heat exchangers. The offset strip heat exchangers provide better thermal performance than does the straight channel heat exchanger. The performance of the heat exchanger with the shorter strip is better than that of heat exchanger with longer strip. From the above results, all of the three micro-heat exchangers with conventional heat transfer enhancement showed less thermal resistance than the straight channel heat exchanger. The conventional heat transfer techniques may be effectively applied in the high-flux micro-heat exchanger design.     

A synthesis of fluid and thermal transport models for metal foam heat exchangers

Metal foam heat exchangers have considerable advantages in thermal management and heat recovery over several commercially available heat exchangers. In this work, the effects of micro structural metal foam properties, such as porosity, pore and fiber diameters, tortuosity, pore density, and relative density, on the heat exchanger performance are discussed. The pertinent correlations in the literature for flow and thermal transport in metal foam heat exchangers are categorized and investigated. Three main categories are synthesized. In the first category, the correlations for pressure drop and heat transfer coefficient based on the microstructural properties of the metal foam are given. In the second category, the correlations are specialized for metal foam tube heat exchangers. In the third category, correlations are specialized for metal foam channel heat exchangers. To investigate the performance of the foam filled heat exchangers in comparison with the plain ones, the required pumping power to overcome the pressure drop and heat transfer rate of foam filled and plain heat exchangers are studied and compared. A performance factor is introduced which includes the effects of both heat transfer rate and pressure drop after inclusion of the metal foam. The results indicate that the performance will be improved substantially when a metal foam is inserted in the tube/channel.     

Optimal Ground Tube Length for Cooling of Electronics Shelters

This paper presents a theoretical, numerical, and experimental study to investigate the possibility of optimizing the configuration (geometry) of underground heat exchangers for maximum heat transfer. The first part of the study identifies a novel fundamental optimization principle for maximizing heat transfer between a tube and its surroundings, which is expected to be present in any buried tube heat exchanger design. The second part presents a practical application of the fundamental principle: a simplified physical model to determine the temperature field inside an electronics shelter that uses an earth-air heat exchanger and the soil as a heat sink. A volume elements methodology is employed to obtain a system of ordinary differential equations with time as the independent variable that combines principles of classical thermodynamics and heat transfer. This allows the computation of the temperature and relative humidity fields at every instant inside the shelter. The numerical results obtained with the proposed model are validated by means of direct comparison with experimental temperature and relative humidity measurements. It is shown that the tube length can be optimized such that the maximum temperature reached inside the shelter is minimal. The results also demonstrate the potential of the utilization of buried tubes for cooling electronic packages. Since accuracy and low computational time are combined, the model is shown to be efficient and could be used as a tool for simulation, design, and optimization of electronic packages cooled by underground heat exchangers.     

Numerical analysis on a microchannel evaporator designed for CO2 air-conditioning systems

A microchannel heat exchanger was numerically analyzed using the finite volume method. The air and refrigerant-side heat transfer coefficients and pressure drops were calculated using the existing correlations that were developed for microchannel heat exchangers. To verify the present model, performance tests of the microchannel heat exchanger were conducted at various test conditions with R134a. The present model yielded a good correlation with the measured heat transfer rate, demonstrating a mean deviation of 6.8%. The performance of the microchannel evaporator for CO₂ systems can be improved by varying the refrigerant flow rate to each slab and changing fin space to increase the two-phase region in the microchannel. Based on the comparison of the performance of the microchannel heat exchanger with that of the fin-tube heat exchanger designed for CO₂ systems, it was proposed that the arrangement of the slabs and inlet air velocity in the microchannel heat exchanger need to be optimized by considering heat exchanger size, air outlet conditions and required capacity.     

Use of C-factor for monitoring of fouling in a shell and tube heat exchanger

Heat exchangers operating in process industries are fouled during operations and results in decrease in the thermal efficiency of a heat exchanger. Once the thermal efficiency decreases to a minimum acceptable level, cleaning of the equipment becomes necessary to restore the performance. This paper uses C-factor as a tool for investigation of the performance of a heat exchanger due to fouling which consequently gives information regarding the extent of fouling developed on the heat transfer surfaces. The fouling parameters are predicted by measurements of flow rate and pressure drop. In contrast to most conventional methods, the extent of fouling can be detected considering the flow rate and pressure drop when the heat exchanger operates in transient states. The C-Factor is first calculated through out cleaning period and then compared with the clean and the design value. The results show that the proposed tool is very effective in detecting the fouling developed and the corresponding degradation in heat transfer efficiency of a heat exchanger. Hence the results of this work can find applications in predicting the reduction in heat transfer efficiency due to fouling in heat exchangers that are in operation and assist the exchanger operators to plan cleaning schedules.     

A Correction Factor-Based General Thermal Resistance Formula for Heat Exchanger Design and Performance Analysis

Methods for the analysis of heat exchangers with various flow arrangements modeling, design, and performance are essential for heat transfer system modeling and its integration with other energy system models. This paper proposes the use of the linear-transfer law for the heat exchanger design and performance analysis as a function of the thermal resistance related to the ratio of a linear temperature difference to the total heat transfer rate. Additionally, we derived a correction factor that represents the influence of the flow arrangement on the heat transfer performance by the effective thermal conductance, as a function of correction factor, heat transfer coefficient, and surface area. Based on the effective thermal conductance, we propose the hot-end NTU and cold-end NTU for deriving a standardized and general thermal resistance formula for different types of heat exchangers by the combination of the correction factor with linear-transfer law. Moreover, for parallel-flow, cross-flow, and 1-2 Tubular Exchanger Manufacturers Association(TEMA) E shell-and-tube heat exchangers, we derived and obtained alternative correction factor expressions without introducing any temperatures. Two cases about heat exchanger design and performance analysis show that the calculation processes using the correction factor-based general thermal resistance are straightforward without any iteration and the calculation results are accurate. Finally, the experimental validation shows that the general thermal resistance formula is appropriate for analyzing the heat transfer performance. That is, the correction factor-based general thermal resistance formula provides a standardized model for heat exchanger analysis and heat transfer/integrated energy system modeling using the heat current method.     

Compact potential of exhaust heat exchangers for engine waste heat recovery using metal foams

To improve the practicability of the waste heat recovery system for internal combustion engines, the compact potential of exhaust heat exchangers using metal foams is investigated. In the present study, the performance of compact exhaust heat exchangers is compared with that of a conventional shell and tube heat exchanger in a real test bench. Both heat transfer and pressure drop performance are considered when assessing the performance of heat exchangers because these two factors normally show a trade‐off relationship when designing exhaust heat exchangers. Compared with the conventional heat exchanger, the compact heat exchanger can achieve a similar pressure drop, and at the same time the heat transfer is increased by 30%, whereas the volume and the weight are each reduced by 2/3. The performance of compact heat exchangers with six types of Ni metal foams is also investigated under different mass flow rates and thicknesses of the porous layer. Results show that the optimum compact heat exchanger enhances the comprehensive performance 1.9 times compared with original one. This study shows that metal foams have great potential in realizing a compact exhaust heat exchanger for engine waste heat recovery.     

Perfluoropolyethers Coatings Design for Fouling Reduction on Heat Transfer Stainless-Steel Surfaces

The scope of this research is to obtain a film coating on stainless-steel surfaces in order to reduce the interaction between the metal surface and the precipitates, so as to mitigate fouling in heat exchangers. Perfuoropolyethers were used to obtain nano-range fluorinated layers in order to make hydrophobic the stainless-steel surfaces. A pilot plant with two identical heat exchangers was built to investigate the ability of the hydrophobic coating of preventing fouling. The heat exchangers, installed in parallel, operated at the same temperature and pressure conditions, namely, laminar flow regime and inlet flow temperatures of 291–293 K for cold streams and 313–333 K for hot streams. We compared the heat transfer performance of the two heat exchangers. After a 5-month operation, the decrease in the heat transferred was 56% for the coated heat exchanger and 62% for the uncoated heat exchanger. Moreover, the increase of heat transfer resistance due to scale on the uncoated heat exchanger, with respect to the coated one, was three times higher.     

Performance Comparison of Rectangular and Air-Foil Shapes Offset Strip Flow Paths Micro-Heat Exchangers

This study designed and tested eight micro-heat exchangers with rectangle-, air-foil-, and shuttle-type strips for use in the liquid cooling system. The effects of strip length, strip type, and strip arrangement were considered for heat transfer performance comparison. The test results show that the heat exchangers with shorter strip length and narrower strip space provide better heat transfer performance. The short air-foil strips heat exchanger with 1.0 mm strip length performed the lowest thermal resistance among all types of heat exchangers. Because of its narrow flow paths, the performance of the overlapped shuttle strip heat exchanger is better than that of the offset shuttle, long air-foil, and rectangle strip heat exchangers. However, the space between strips is limited by the fabrication techniques and is difficult to be made narrower by the method of chemical etching.     

Detailed equipment design in heat exchanger networks synthesis and optimisation

In heat exchanger network synthesis, important features like pressure drop and fouling effects are usually neglected. In this work a new methodology is proposed to include these effects in grassroots as in retrofit designs. Heat exchangers are detailed designed during the heat exchanger network synthesis. Pinch analysis is used to obtain the heat exchangers network with the maximum energy recovery, and a new systematic procedure is proposed to the identification and loop breaking. Bell–Delaware method for the shell side is used to design the heat exchangers. An example of the literature was studied and the results show differences between heat exchangers, with and without the detailed design, relative to heat transfer area, fouling and pressure drop. The great contribution of this work is that individual and global heat transfer coefficients are always calculated, in despite of the current literature, where these value are assumed in the design step. Moreover, the methodology proposed to the heat exchangers design assures the minor heat exchanger according to TEMA standards, contributing to the minimisation of the heat exchanger network global annual cost. Finely, the new heat exchanger network considering pressure drops and fouling effects presents values more realistic then those one neglecting the equipment detailed design.     

A Simple Air-Side Data Analysis Method for Partially Wet Flat-Tube Heat Exchangers

An air-side data analysis method is developed for flat-tube heat exchangers under partially wet conditions. In order to simplify the combined sensible and latent heat transfer, it is assumed that condensate drainage paths develop such that, at steady state, water does not spread to noncondensing surfaces, which therefore remain dry. The air dew point is compared to local fin-tip and fin-base temperatures, and a partially wet flat-tube heat exchanger is partitioned into fully wet, partially wet, and dry-fin regions, which are subsequently analyzed as separate heat exchangers. Using an enthalpy-based effectiveness–NTU (number of transfer units) method, average fin efficiency is calculated for each region, and the locations of region boundaries are determined iteratively. The proposed data analysis method is demonstrated with experimental data for a flat-tube louver-fin heat exchanger under various latent loads. The general approach presented can be extended to other heat exchanger geometries.     

Experimental study of thermal performance improvement in a cross-flow heat exchanger by using copper foam

In this study, copper foam was used as a porous medium in place of traditional aluminum fins. A comparison between the two heat exchangers—one with fins and the other with copper foam—was conducted under various conditions. The air inlet velocity ranged from 0.9 to 9.3 m/s, and the water inlet temperature ranged from 10°C to 18°C. Different water flow rates were tested. A comparison was made between the performance of copper foam and aluminum fins by calculating several parameters, including thermal resistance, heat exchanger effectiveness, Colburn factor, Nusselt number, friction factor, and area goodness factor (AG). The experimental results showed that at low air velocities, the heat transfer coefficient for both types of heat exchangers was almost equal. However, at high air velocities, the copper foam exhibited a higher heat transfer coefficient. The Colburn factor was higher for the heat exchanger with copper foam than in the conventional fins, where it was equal to 0.1959 for the copper foam and 0.1186 for the fins. On the other hand, the AG was higher in the case of fins than in the heat exchanger with copper foam.     

Selection and optimization of pin cross-sections for electronics cooling

Pin fins are widely used as elements that provide increased cooling for electronic devices. Increasing demands regarding the performance of such devices can be observed due to the increasing heat production density of electronic components. For this reason, extensive work is being carried out to select and optimize pin fin elements for increased heat transfer. In the present paper, a procedure is described to select heat exchanger surfaces with pin fins in accordance with their location in a performance diagram. Such a diagram provides performance comparisons of pin fins with respect to two operating parameters: the heat transfer rate per unit base surface area and the power input for the same area. It is shown that elliptical cross-sections offer the best performance compared with all other investigated cross-sections for pin fins. The present work demonstrates that the heat exchanger performance plot allows also the selection of the best elliptical cross-section design within the initial design set (design set obtained numerically) in analogy with the Pareto-optimality approach. However, the real optimal geometry of the elliptical cross-section is deduced from commercial optimization software, modeFRONTIER. It is shown that by subsequent use of the virtual solutions from the response surface modelling (RSM) of that software and their validation with Star-CD, a complete “Pareto-frontier solution” can be obtained.     

Heat transfer and pressure drop performance of twisted oval tube heat exchanger

Twisted oval tube heat exchanger is a type of heat exchanger that aims at improving the heat transfer coefficient of the tube side and also decreasing the pressure drop of the shell side. In the present work, tube side and shell side heat transfer and pressure drop performances of a twisted oval tube heat exchanger has been experimentally studied. The tube side study shows that the tube side heat transfer coefficient and pressure drop in a twisted oval tube are both higher than in a smooth round tube. The shell side study shows that the lower the modified Froude number Fr_M, the higher the shell side heat transfer coefficient and pressure drop. In order to comparatively analyze its shell side performance of the heat exchanger, a rod baffle heat exchanger with similar size of the twisted oval tube heat exchanger is designed and its performance is calculated with Gentry's method. The comparative study shows that the heat transfer coefficient of the twisted oval tube heat exchanger is higher and the pressure drop is lower than the rod baffle heat exchanger. In order to evaluate the overall performance of the twisted oval tube heat exchanger, a performance evaluation criterion considering both the tube side and shell side performance of a heat exchanger is proposed and applied. The analyze of the overall performance of the twisted oval tube shows that the twisted oval tube heat exchangers works more effective at low tube side flow rate and high shell side flow rate.     

Experimental Investigation on Thermo-Hydraulic Performance of Heat Exchanger Tube with Solid and Perforated Circular Disk Along with Twisted Tape Insert

Heat transfer enhancement in heat exchanger by using passive approach has become a very versatile area of research for the researchers. Although very significant results has been achieved in the thermal performance of heat exchangers, especially in the range of lower Reynolds number, but still these passive approaches of heat transfer enhancement is not effective for the range of higher Reynolds number. In the present work the effect of ‘perforated circular disk turbulators with and without twisted tape’, on heat transfer, friction factor and thermal performance of heat exchanger is evaluated experimentally. The different geometrical parameters used for the experiment include fixed diameter ratio (0. 8), pitch ratios (1, 2, and 3), perforation index (0%, 8%, 16%, and 24%), fixed twist ratio (2) and fixed width ratio (0.4). The experiment is done in the range of Reynolds number lying from 6,500 to 26,500. On the basis of experimental observation, there is 2.2–3.54 times improvement in heat transfer and around 1.18–1.64 times improvement in thermal performance factor over smooth tube heat exchanger.     

一种多股流换热器综合性能优化设计方法

在综合考虑了体积、重量和阻力等因素的基础上,对多股流换热器进行通道排列和优化设计,并运用无量纲分析法,自定义了syn因子、syn线等用以评价换热器综合性能的指标。详细分析了应用syn因子综合优化翅片结构的过程,与实际的设计结果比较表明：该方法适用于多股流换热器的综合性能优化设计。     

Experimental study on heat and mass transfer characteristics of louvered fin-tube heat exchangers under wet condition

An experimental study was conducted to investigate the effect of a tube row, a fin pitch and an inlet humidity on air-side heat and mass transfer performance of louvered fin-tube heat exchangers under wet condition. Experimental conditions were varied by three fin pitches, two rows, and two inlet relative humidities. From the experimental results, it was found that the heat transfer performance decreased and the friction increased with the decrease of a fin pitch, for 2 row heat exchanger. The effect of a fin pitch on heat transfer performance was negligible with 3 row heat exchanger. The change in a relative humidity was not affected heat transfer and friction. However, the mass transfer performance was slightly decreased with the increase of a relative humidity and with the decrease of a fin pitch. The mass transfer performance decreased with the decrease of a fin pitch. The mass transfer performance of the louvered fin-and-tube heat exchanger was different according to the number of a tube row.     

Optimal design analysis of a tubular heat exchanger network with extended surfaces using multi-objective constructal optimization

The present work aims to investigate the influence of extended surfaces (fins) on the multi-objective optimization of a tubular heat exchanger network (THEN). An increase in the heat transfer area using various extended surfaces (fins) to enhance the performance of the heat exchanger was used while considering the effectiveness and total heat transfer area as two objective functions. In addition to the simulation of simple fins, a new set of fins, called constructal fins, was designed based on the constructal theory. Tubular heat exchanger network design parameters were chosen as optimization variables, and optimization results were achieved in such a way as to enhance the effectiveness and decrease the total heat transfer area. The results show the importance of constructal fins in improving the objective functions of heat exchangers. For instance, the simple fins case enhances the effectiveness by up to 5.3% compared to that without fins (usual heat exchanger) while using constructal fins, in addition to the 7% increment of effectiveness, reduces the total heat transfer area by 9.47%. In order to optimize the heat exchanger, the heat transfer rate and cold fluid temperature must increase, and at the same time, the hot exiting fluid temperature should decrease at the same constant total heat transfer area, which is higher in the constructal fins case. Finally, optimized design variables were studied for different cases, and the effects of various fins were reported.     

A General Matrix Approach to Model Steady-State Performance of Cross-Flow Heat Exchangers

A steady-state performance model of multirow multipass cross-flow tubular heat exchangers is developed. The proposed matrix approach uses the concepts of local effectiveness, energy balance, and number of transfer units (NTU) applied to every pass/row in the cross-flow heat exchanger to predict thermal performance. The method can predict the total effectiveness of assemblies of heat exchangers. Several circuiting configurations, such as overall counter-cross-flow, overall parallel cross-flow, and fluids in parallel in one of the streams, were considered. Predictions of the steady heat transfer performance of selected multirow multipass cross-flow heat exchangers are obtained by applying the general matrix approach. The heat exchanger geometries selected for the comparative study represent common cross-flow heat exchanger configurations used in industry. For these heat exchangers the overall heat exchanger effectiveness values were computed for various capacity rate ratios and NTU values. The validity of the matrix approach was then verified by comparing the resulting predictions with those obtained using the P-NTU approach and the Domingos method for the selected complex cross-flow heat exchanger configurations.     

A Calculation Method for the Optimized Thermal-Fluid Dynamic Sizing of Heat Exchangers

A thermal-fluid dynamic calculation model has been developed for sizing some compact heat exchangers. In particular, the exhaust heat recovery systems are considered, as the internal regeneration considerably improves the turbogas power cycles efficiency. The calculation model is designed for selecting the best heat transfer surfaces and optimizing some objective-functions. For almost 60 plate-fin heat transfer surfaces, analytical correlations are derived in a database-like form, to calculate the Colburn j factor and Fanning f factor as functions of Reynolds number. A model is developed also for innovative PCHEs, using a simplified approach. The sizing procedure, based on the core mass velocity equation, is implemented on an electronic worksheet. If the minimum heat exchanger effectiveness and the maximum pressure drops are input, the model gives the heat exchanger core sizing for the possible combinations of the heat transfer surfaces. For each combination, the calculation method minimizes (or maximizes) the selected objective-function by means of an optimization procedure, performed by a solver through the Newton or the conjugate gradients algorithm. The thermal-fluid dynamic calculation method is applied to a high-temperature recuperator with a high-streams pressure ratio. The results show the difficulty of arranging streams with highly different volumetric flows (i.e., same massive flow rates but very different pressures) on the two sides of the heat exchanger, so that very unbalanced aspect ratios arise for the cores, due to the limits imposed to the maximum allowable pressure drops.