Compact heat exchangers, enhancement and heat pumps

In order to achieve widespread use of heat pumps across the full spectrum of potential applications, it is critical that the first cost of the units is acceptable. There are many factors influencing this cost, including the number of units manufactured, the ease of installation, the complexity of the control requirements, and the cost of the working fluid(s). A common feature of all heat pump cycles is the presence of at least one heat exchanger, indeed some heat-driven cycles are composed almost entirely of heat exchangers, each having a different but critical role to play. There are several important aspects of heat exchangers that can help to reduce first cost of these components and the system, (in addition to the possible positive impact on coefficient of performance). Two of these are discussed here — compact heat exchangers (CHEs) and heat transfer enhancement. The latter may be directly associated with CHEs but can be equally beneficial in reducing approach temperature differences in 'conventional' shell and tube heat exchangers. Both are essential features of many intensified processes, which the author argues need compatible heat pumps if the market for the latter is to flourish. In this paper, the most recent types of CHE are described, with emphasis on the benefits they can bring to heat pump first cost and performance. Heat transfer enhancement in heat pumps is also reviewed.     

Current and future prospects of enhanced heat transfer in ammonia systems

In the last decade a moderate headway has been made in the application of enhanced surface heat exchangers in ammonia refrigeration systems. This has been a result of the persistent issue of ozone and global warming which has resulted in keen interest in natural refrigerants such as ammonia that has played a prominent role in the refrigeration industry for years, particularly in the field of food, beverage and marine. The only drawback with ammonia is the toxicity; hence, if smaller heat exchangers could be introduced in order to reduce ammonia charge, this negative aspect about ammonia can be addressed to a great extent. In order to achieve this goal, novel and compact heat exchangers with enhanced surfaces have to be introduced. This paper presents an over view of the status of ammonia as a refrigerant and discusses the present and the future trends in the development of compact heat exchangers for use in ammonia refrigeration.     

Correction of logarithmic mean temperature difference in a compact brazed plate evaporator assuming heat flux governed flow boiling heat transfer coefficient

The heat transfer in heat exchangers is commonly calculated using the concept of Logarithmic Mean Temperature Difference (LMTD). As is well known this approach is only valid for counter-current and co-current heat exchanger configurations. For other configurations, corrections for the deviation from pure counter-current are introduced. From any standard text book in heat transfer it may be found that the LMTD approach may also be used if condensation and evaporation occurs in the heat exchanger. The purpose of the present paper is to investigate if the LMTD approach can be used in a compact brazed plate evaporator. It will be shown through integration of the governing equations that the LMTD approach indeed may be used for practical cases, even though deviations occur at small logarithmic mean temperature differences. The article presents suggestions on the correction factor (F) needed under some simplified assumptions in a compact brazed plate heat exchanger operating as an evaporator for heat pump and refrigeration applications.     

Prediction of the heat transfer rate of a single layer wire-on-tube type heat exchanger using ANFIS

In this paper, we applied an Adaptive Neuro-Fuzzy Inference System (ANFIS) model for prediction of the heat transfer rate of the wire-on-tube type heat exchanger. Limited experimental data was used for training and testing ANFIS configuration with the help of hybrid learning algorithm consisting of backpropagation and least-squares estimation. The predicted values are found to be in good agreement with the actual values from the experiments with mean relative error less than 2.55%. Also, we compared the proposed ANFIS model to an ANN approach. Results show that the ANFIS model has more accuracy in comparison to ANN approach. Therefore, we can use ANFIS model to predict the performances of thermal systems in engineering applications, such as modeling heat exchangers for heat transfer analysis.     

CoilDesigner: a general-purpose simulation and design tool for air-to-refrigerant heat exchangers

A simulation and design tool to improve effectiveness and efficiency in design, and analysis of air to refrigerant heat exchangers, CoilDesigner, is introduced. A network viewpoint was adopted to establish the general-purpose solver and allow for analysis of arbitrary tube circuitry and mal-distribution of fluid flow inside the tube circuits. A segment-by-segment approach within each tube was implemented, to account for two-dimensional non-uniformity of air distribution across the heat exchanger, and heterogeneous refrigerant flow patterns through a tube. Coupled heat exchangers with multiple fluids inside different subsets of tubes can be modeled and analyzed simultaneously. A further sub-dividing-segment model was developed in order to address the significant change of properties and heat transfer coefficients in the single-phase and two-phase regime when a segment experiences flow regime change. Object-oriented programming techniques were applied in developing the program to facilitate a modular, highly flexible and customizable design platform and in building a graphic user-friendly interface. A wide variety of working fluids and correlations of heat transfer and pressure drop are available at the user's choice. The model prediction with CoilDesigner was verified against experimentally determined data collected from a number of sources.     

Frost, defrost, and refrost and its impact on the air-side thermal-hydraulic performance of louvered-fin, flat-tube heat exchangers

The thermal-hydraulic performance under conditions of an initial frost growth on the air-side surface, and for subsequent ‘refrosting’ after a defrost period is experimentally studied for folded-louvered-fin, microchannel heat exchangers. In total, five heat exchangers are considered; the thermal performances during one frost-growth cycle for four different fin geometries are compared in terms of overall heat transfer coefficient, pressure drop, and j and f factors; the defrost and refrost characteristics of two heat exchangers are compared to explore geometry effects. Typically, the performance under refrosting conditions becomes periodic and repeatable after the third or fourth refrosting cycle. The allowable frost growth period (before a defrost is required), the defrost requirement, and the thermal-hydraulic performance depend on heat exchanger geometry for the specimens used in this study.     

Heat transfer characteristics of flat plate finned-tube heat exchangers with large fin pitch

The objective of this study is to provide experimental data that can be used in the optimal design of flat plate finned-tube heat exchangers with large fin pitch. In this study, 22 heat exchangers were tested with a variation of fin pitch, number of tube row, and tube alignment. The air-side heat transfer coefficient decreased with a reduction of the fin pitch and an increase of the number of tube row. The reduction in the heat transfer coefficient of the four-row heat exchanger coil was approximately 10% as the fin pitch decreased from 15.0 to 7.5 mm over the Reynolds number range of 500–900 that was calculated based on the tube diameter. For all fin pitches, the heat transfer coefficient decreased as the number of tube row increased from 1 to 4. The staggered tube alignment improved heat transfer performance more than 10% compared to the inline tube alignment. A heat transfer correlation was developed from the measured data for flat plate finned-tubes with large fin pitch. The correlation yielded good predictions of the measured data with mean deviations of 3.8 and 6.2% for the inline and staggered tube alignment, respectively.     

Transition from nucleate boiling to convective boiling in compact heat exchangers

The boiling of pure fluids has been experimentally studied in several types of compact heat exchanger channels. Plate fin and corrugated heat exchangers have been studied (seven geometries). Controlling the flow parameters (mass flux and vapour quality), the heat flux and measuring the wall temperature, have allowed characterization of the local heat transfer coefficient.

The results clearly show that the dominant mechanisms occurring could be nucleate or convective boiling. The transition between these two mechanisms depends on the flow characteristics and also on the channel geometry. Based on these measurements, an objective criteria can be established to identify the flow boiling regime. The knowledge of such a criteria is useful if we want to extend the use of compact heat exchanger to boiling of mixtures.     

Superheating of ice slurry in melting heat exchangers

One of the main components of an ice slurry system is the melting heat exchanger, in which ice slurry absorbs heat resulting in the melting of ice crystals. Design calculations of melting heat exchangers are mainly based on heat transfer and pressure drop data, but recent experimental studies have shown that superheating of ice slurry should also be considered. This paper presents ice slurry melting experiments with a tube-in-tube heat transfer coil. The experimental results indicate that operating conditions such as ice slurry velocity, heat flux, solute concentration, ice fraction, and ice crystal size determine the degree of superheating. The various influences are explained by considering the melting process as a two-stage process consisting of the heat transfer between wall and liquid and the combined heat and mass transfer between liquid and crystals. Bigger ice crystals and higher solute concentrations decrease the rate of the second stage and therefore increase the degree of superheating.     

Micro technology in heat pumping systems

Micro heat pumps, with dimensions in the order of centimetres, may in the future be utilised for the heating and/or cooling of buildings, vehicles, clothing, and other products or applications. A number of issues have yet to be solved, including the construction of a microscale compressor, and determination of micro heat exchanger heat transfer capacities. Test samples of micro heat exchangers and a corresponding test apparatus have been built. Some two-phase experiments with propane (R-290) as refrigerant have been conducted. Preliminary results for a micro condenser with 0.5 mm wide trapezoidal channels of 25 mm length showed that a heat flux of up to 135 kW/m², based on the refrigerant-side area, was attainable. The corresponding overall heat transfer coefficient was 10 kW/(m² K), with a refrigerant mass flux of 165 kg/(m² s) and a refrigerant-side pressure drop of 180 kPa/m.     

Numerical analysis of evaporation performance in a finned-tube heat exchanger

This study discusses the effects of the heat exchanger type, refrigerant, inner tube configuration, and fin geometry on evaporator performance by adopting updated correlations of EVSIM, a numerical analysis model based on the tube-by-tube method developed by Domanski. The heat exchanger types considered are the cross-counter flow type and cross-parallel flow type. The refrigerants considered for the numerical test as a working fluid are R-134a, R-410A and R-22. For inner tube configuration, enhanced tube and smooth tube cases are considered. For the air side evaporation performance, heat exchangers using plate fins, wavy fins and slit fins are analyzed. Results show that the heat transfer rate of the cross-counter flow type heat exchanger is 3% higher than that of the cross-parallel flow type with R-22. The total heat transfer rate of the evaporator using R-410A is higher than those using R-22 and R-134a, while the total pressure drop of R-410A is lower than those of R-22 and R-134a. The heat transfer rate of the evaporator using enhanced tubes is two times higher than that using smooth tubes, but the pressure drop of the enhanced tube is 45–50% higher than that of the smooth tubes. The evaporation performance of slit fins is superior to that of plate fins by 54%.     

Assessment of boiling and condensation heat transfer correlations in the modelling of plate heat exchangers

This paper studies refrigeration cycles in which plate heat exchangers are used as either evaporators or condensers. The performance of the cycle is studied by means of a method introduced in previous papers which consists of assessing the goodness of a calculation method by looking at representative variables such as the evaporation or the condensation temperature depending on the case evaluated. This procedure is also used to compare several heat transfer coefficients in the refrigerant side. As in previous works the models of all the cycle components are considered together with the heat exchanger models in such a way that the system of equations they provide is solved by means of a Newton–Raphson algorithm. Calculated and measured values of the evaporation and the condensation temperatures are also compared. The experimental results correspond to the same air-to-water heat pump studied in other papers and they have been obtained by using refrigerants R-22 and R-290.     

Energy-efficient flat-tube heat exchangers for indirectly cooled display cabinets

Different designs of flat-tube heat exchangers with plain fins have been evaluated theoretically in a parameter study in order to evaluate their performance potential in indirectly cooled display cabinets. Two different types of flat-tube heat exchangers were considered; one with serpentine fins and one with continuous plate fins. Both flat-tube heat exchanger types were adapted to the laminar flow regime on the liquid as well as on the air side. The performance of the two heat exchanger types had previously been verified experimentally under dehumidifying conditions. The results from this parameter study show that considerable savings in the required electric drive power to compressors, pumps and fans can be obtained in comparison with the traditional cooling coil. The savings may be up to 15%. In addition, the required temperature difference for the flat-tube heat exchangers is so small that frost-free operation is possible, which would result in even larger savings.     

A semi-theoretical model for predicting refrigerant/lubricant mixture pool boiling heat transfer

This paper outlines the framework of a semi-theoretical model for predicting the pool boiling heat transfer of refrigerant/lubricant mixtures on a roughened, horizontal, flat pool-boiling surface. The predictive model is based on the mechanisms involved in the formation of the lubricant excess layer that exists on the heat transfer surface. The lubricant accumulates on the surface in excess of the bulk concentration via preferential evaporation of the refrigerant from the bulk refrigerant/lubricant mixture. As a result, excess lubricant resides in a thin layer on the surface and influences the boiling performance, giving either an enhancement or degradation in heat transfer. A dimensionless excess layer parameter and a thermal boundary layer constant were derived and fitted to data in an attempt to generalize the model to other refrigerant/lubricant mixtures. The model inputs include transport and thermodynamic refrigerant properties and the lubricant composition, viscosity, and critical solution temperature with the refrigerant. The model predicts the boiling heat transfer coefficient of three different mixtures of R123 and lubricant to within ±10%. Comparisons of heat transfer predictions to measurements for 13 different refrigerant/lubricant mixtures were made, including two different refrigerants and three different lubricants.     

Heat transfer enhancement by winglet-type vortex generator arrays in compact plain-fin-and-tube heat exchangers

The potential of winglet type vortex generator (VG) arrays for air-side heat transfer enhancement is experimentally evaluated by full-scale wind-tunnel testing of a compact plain-fin-and-tube heat exchanger. The effectiveness of a 3VG alternate-tube inline array of vortex generators is compared to a single-row vortex generator design and the baseline configuration. The winglets are placed in a common-flow-up orientation for improved tube wake management. The overall heat transfer and pressure drop performance are assessed under dry-surface conditions over a Reynolds number range based on hydraulic diameter of 220 ≤ Re ≤ 960. It is found that the air-side heat transfer coefficient increases from 16.5% to 44% for the single-row winglet arrangement with an increase in pressure drop of less than 12%. For the three-row vortex generator array, the enhancement in heat transfer coefficient increases with Reynolds number from 29.9% to 68.8% with a pressure drop penalty from 26% at Re = 960 to 87.5% at Re = 220. The results indicate that vortex generator arrays can significantly enhance the performance of fin-tube heat exchangers with flow depths and fin densities typical to those used in air-cooling and refrigeration applications.     

Assessment of condensation heat transfer correlations in the modelling of fin and tube heat exchangers

This is the second paper of a series that assesses the performance of a refrigeration system model by means of cycle parameters. In this case, the condensation temperature is the parameter to study and it is focused on fin and tube condensers. It also studies the influence of the heat transfer models on the estimation of this refrigeration cycle parameter and different correlations for the heat transfer coefficients have been implemented in order to characterise the heat transfer in the heat exchangers. The flow inside the heat exchangers is considered one-dimensional as in previous works. In the cycle definition, other submodels for all the cycle component have been taken into account to complete the system of equations that characterises the behaviour of the refrigeration cycle. This global system is solved by means of a Newton–Raphson algorithm and a known technique called SEWTLE is used to model the heat exchangers. Some experimental results are employed to compare the condensation temperatures provided by the numerical procedure and to evaluate the performance of each heat transfer coefficient. These experimental results correspond to an air-to-water heat pump and are obtained by using R-22 and R-290 as refrigerants.     

Air-side heat transfer enhancement of a refrigerator evaporator using vortex generation

In most domestic and commercial refrigeration systems, frost forms on the air-side surface of the air-to-refrigerant heat exchanger. Frost-tolerant designs typically employ a large fin spacing in order to delay the need for a defrost cycle. Unfortunately, this approach does not allow for a very high air-side heat transfer coefficient, and the performance of these heat exchangers is often air-side limited. Longitudinal vortex generation is a proven and effective technique for thinning the thermal boundary layer and enhancing heat transfer, but its efficacy in a frosting environment is essentially unknown. In this study, an array of delta-wing vortex generators is applied to a plain-fin-and-tube heat exchanger with a fin spacing of 8.5 mm. Heat transfer and pressure drop performance are measured to determine the effectiveness of the vortex generator under frosting conditions. For air-side Reynolds numbers between 500 and 1300, the air-side thermal resistance is reduced by 35–42% when vortex generation is used. Correspondingly, the heat transfer coefficient is observed to range from 33 to 53 W m⁻² K⁻¹ for the enhanced heat exchanger and from 18 to 26 W m⁻² K⁻¹ for the baseline heat exchanger.     

Exhaust air heat recovery in buildings

The technique of heat recovery from ventilation air in dwellings started in Sweden in late 1979. This was due to an energy crisis and new building codes. The competing heat recovery system, air to air heat exchangers, had a firm grip on the market. Today the situation is on the contrary. Almost all new single family houses are equipped with exhaust air heat pumps. This paper describes the development of the market in Sweden and Germany and also the different techniques of supplementary heating due to national differences in electricity prices. Germany has a situation very similar to Sweden concerning new building codes concerning the allowable energy use for space heating. Starting in 1976 and continued from 1982 to 1995, the building code has prescribed tighter and more insulated houses. The new building code for the year 2000 contains requirements for well insulated and tight buildings so the energy demand for heating from ventilation air tends to reach about 60% of the total annual energy demand for the building. Under these circumstances new buildings must have ventilation systems with heat recovery. Different means of heat recovery from the ventilation system, and the benefit for the environment, by using heat pumps are described. The German market for heat recovery systems is approx. 5–10.000 units/year. Most important for the efficiency of a ventilation system is to maintain the quality criterias concerning:equipmentplanning, installation, taking into operationoperation.VEW ENERGIE AG has accomplished a field survey of 60 units from 1994 to 1996. As the result was not statistically sufficient, the field survey is followed by an investigation into air quality and reliability.     

Condensation heat transfer coefficients of binary HFC mixtures on low fin and Turbo-C tubes

In this study, external condensation heat transfer coefficients (HTCs) are measured for nonazeotropic refrigerant mixtures (NARMs) of HFC32/HFC134a and HFC134a/HCFC123 on a low fin and Turbo-C tubes. All measurements are taken at the vapor temperature of 39 °C with the wall subcooling of 3–8 °C. Test results showed that condensation HTCs of NARMs on enhanced tubes were severely degraded from the ideal values showing up to 96% decrease. HTCs of the mixtures on Turbo-C tube were degraded more than those on low fin tube such that HTCs of the mixtures at the same composition were similar regardless of the tube. The mixture with larger gliding temperature differences (GTDs), HFC134a/HCFC123, showed a larger heat transfer reduction from the ideal values than the mixture with smaller GTDs, HFC32/HFC134a. Heat transfer enhancement ratios of the enhanced tubes with NARMs were almost 2 times lower than those with pure refrigerants and they decreased more as the GTDs of the mixtures increased.     

Refrigerant R134a vaporisation heat transfer and pressure drop inside a small brazed plate heat exchanger

This paper presents the experimental heat transfer coefficients and pressure drop measured during refrigerant R134a vaporisation inside a small brazed plate heat exchanger (BPHE): the effects of heat flux, refrigerant mass flux, saturation temperature and outlet conditions are investigated. The BPHE tested consists of 10 plates, 72 mm in width and 310 mm in length, which present a macro-scale herringbone corrugation with an inclination angle of 65° and corrugation amplitude of 2 mm.The experimental results are reported in terms of refrigerant side heat transfer coefficients and frictional pressure drop. The heat transfer coefficients show great sensitivity both to heat flux and outlet conditions and weak sensitivity to saturation temperature. The frictional pressure drop shows a linear dependence on the kinetic energy per unit volume of the refrigerant flow.The experimental heat transfer coefficients are also compared with two well-known correlations for nucleate pool boiling and a correlation for frictional pressure drop is proposed.