Flow maldistribution and thermal performance deterioration in a cross-flow air to air heat exchanger with plate-fin cores

The inlet and outlet duct geometry in an air to air compact heat exchanger is always irregular. A skewed Z-type arrangement is popular between the impinging flow and the core. Such duct placements usually lead to a non-uniform flow distribution on core surface. In this research, the flow maldistribution and thermal performance deterioration in cross-flow air to air heat exchangers are investigated. The inlet duct, the core and the outlet duct are combined together to calculate the flow distribution on core inlet face. First, a CFD code is used to calculate the flow distribution, by treating the plate-fin core as a porous media. Then a heat transfer model between the two air flows in the plate-fin channels is set up. Using the flow distribution data predicted, the heat exchange effectiveness and the thermal performance deterioration factor are calculated with finite difference scheme. Experiments are performed to validate the flow distribution and heat transfer model. The results indicate that when the channel pitch is below 2.0 mm, the flow distribution is quite homogeneous and the thermal deterioration due to flow maldistribution can be neglected. However, when the channel pitch is larger than 2 mm, the maldistribution is quite large and a 10–20% thermal deterioration factor could be found. The study proves that the inlet duct, the outlet duct, and the core should be coupled together to clarify flow maldistribution problems.     

Thermal state of an incompressible pseudo-plastic fluid and Nusselt number at the interface fluid–die wall

An experimental and numerical study was made of the steady laminar convective heat transfer to polyethylene Dowlex 2042E described by the Cross model flowing through an extrusion die. The inverse heat transfer problem is formulated to reconstruct the thermal history of the melted polymer in the channel die. Local Nusselt number distributions are presented for different flow rate and thermal boundary conditions. The effect of viscous dissipation combined with the flow rate on heat transfer is discussed. It is shown that an increasing flow rate leads to different Nusselt number and correlation is proposed to compute the heat transfer.     

基于Workbench的固体电蓄热装置换热通道参数优化

为了解决固体电蓄热装置储释热过程的温度分布均匀性问题,需要对蓄热体换热通道结构参数开展优化设计。根据对称性建立了表征空气与蓄热材料传热过程的传热单元,以传热单元平均温度最大和压力损失最小为优化目标,基于ANSYS Workbench的响应面优化模块对蓄热砖的几何参数(高度、宽度、厚度)和换热通道宽度开展优化设计。结果表明：恒定入口流速下,换热通道高度和宽度的增加,对传热单元平均温度的提高影响较小,但是换热通道宽度对压力损失的改变有显著影响;蓄热砖宽度或高度对于蓄热过程平均温度的改变影响明显,水平方向蓄热砖宽度由15 mm增加到40 mm平均温度降低约7.5 K,竖直方向蓄热砖高度由15 mm增加到30 mm整体蓄热温度线性降低(降温幅度7.5 K),竖直方向蓄热砖高度为20 mm、入口温度1 023 K时升温速度达到297.5 K/h;通过传热单元结构参数敏感性分析可知,设计换热通道选择的蓄热砖宽度和高度均不宜过大。     

Thermal modeling of a packed bed thermal energy storage system during charging

The process of charging of an encapsulated ice thermal energy storage device (ITES) is thermally modeled here through heat transfer and thermodynamic analyses. In heat transfer analysis, two different temperature profile cases, with negligible radial and/or stream-wise conduction are investigated for comparison, and the temperature profiles for each case are analyzed in an illustrative example. After obtaining temperature profiles through heat transfer analysis, a comprehensive thermodynamic study of the system is conducted. In this regard, energy, thermal exergy and flow exergy efficiencies, internal and external irreversibilities corresponding to flow exergy, as well as charging times are investigated. The energy efficiencies are found to be more than 99%, whereas the thermal exergy efficiencies are found to vary between 40% and 93% for viable charging times. The flow exergy efficiency varies between 48% and 88% for the flows and inlet temperatures selected. For a flow rate of 0.00164 m³/s, the maximum flow exergy efficiency occurs with an inlet temperature of 269.7 K, corresponding to an efficiency of 84.3%. For the case where the flow rate is 0.0033 m³/s, the maximum flow exergy efficiency becomes 87.9% at an inlet temperature of 270.7 K. The results confirm the fact that energy analyses, and even thermal exergy analyses, may lead to some unrealistic efficiency values. This could prove troublesome for designers wishing to optimize performance. For this reason, the flow exergy model provides the most useful information for those wishing to improve performance and reduce losses in such ITES systems.     

Subcooled flow boiling heat transfer and associated bubble characteristics of R-134a in a narrow annular duct

Experiments are conducted here to investigate how the channel size affects the subcooled flow boiling heat transfer and associated bubble characteristics of refrigerant R-134a in a horizontal narrow annular duct. The gap of the duct is fixed at 1.0 and 2.0 mm in this study. From the measured boiling curves, the temperature undershoot at ONB is found to be relatively significant for the subcooled flow boiling of R-134a in the duct. The R-134a subcooled flow boiling heat transfer coefficient increases with a reduction in the gap size, but decreases with an increase in the inlet liquid subcooling. Besides, raising the imposed heat flux can cause a substantial increase in the subcooled boiling heat transfer coefficient. However, the effects of the refrigerant mass flux and saturated temperature on the boiling heat transfer coefficient are small in the narrow duct. Visualization of the subcooled flow boiling processes reveals that the bubbles are suppressed to become smaller and less dense by raising the refrigerant mass flux and inlet subcooling. Moreover, raising the imposed heat flux significantly increases the bubble population, coalescence and departure frequency. The increase in the bubble departure frequency by reducing the duct size is due to the rising wall shear stress of the liquid flow, and at a high imposed heat flux many bubbles generated from the cavities on the heating surface tend to merge together to form big bubbles. Correlation for the present subcooled flow boiling heat transfer data of R-134a in the narrow annular duct is proposed. Additionally, the present data for some quantitative bubble characteristics such as the mean bubble departure diameter and frequency and the active nucleation site density are also correlated.     

SIMULTANEOUS ESTIMATION OF INLET TEMPERATURE AND WALL HEAT FLUX IN TURBULENT CIRCULAR PIPE FLOW

An inverse heat convection problem is solved for simultaneous estimation of unknown inlet temperature and wall heat flux in a thermally developing, hydrodynamically developed turbulent flow in a circular pipe based on temperature measurements obtained at several different locations in the stream. The direct problem of turbulent forced convection is solved with a finite difference method with appropriate algebraic turbulence modelling. Although we seek for two unknown functions, we formulate the inverse problem as one of parameter estimation through the representation of the unknown inlet temperature profile and the wall heat flux distribution by one-dimensional finite element interpolation. Nodal values of the inlet temperature and the wall heat flux at chosen positions are determined as unknown parameters through the Levenberg–Marquardt algorithm for minimization procedure. Numerical results for several testing cases with different magnitudes of measurement errors are examined by using simulated experimental data. The effects of the number and the locations of the temperature measurement points are discussed.     

Inverse Natural Convection Problem with Radiation in Rectangular Enclosure

Inverse thermal problem is applied to natural convective flow with radiative heat transfer. The bottom wall temperature in the 2-D cavity domain is estimated by using gas temperature measurements in the flow field. The inverse problem is solved through a minimization of an objective function using the conjugate gradient method with adjoint problem. The effects of functional form of bottom wall temperature profile, the number and the position of measurement points, and the measurement errors are investigated and discussed. The conjugate gradient method is found to work well in estimating the bottom wall temperature, even when natural convection with radiation phenomena is involved.     

The effect of global cross flows on the flow field and local heat transfer performance of miniature centrifugal fans

Centrifugal fans are often integrated into thermal management solutions for a range of applications. Consequently, centrifugal fan designs can be subjected to varying environmental conditions, many of which can alter fan performance characteristics and ultimately influence the heat transfer performance of the cooling solution. Global cross flows are a commonly encountered practical operating condition, particularly in the cooling of electronics. Air-cooled electronic enclosures often incorporate miniature centrifugal fans to maintain reliable component operating temperatures at a local level, while larger system level fans are used to simultaneously control the ambient temperature within the enclosure. This type of operating condition has been investigated by introducing a uniform crossing air flow above a centrifugal fan inlet. Two scaled miniature centrifugal fan designs were selected to fundamentally assess the influence on local velocity field and heat transfer performance. This was achieved experimentally using Particle Image Velocimetry, and a combined infrared and heated-thin-foil technique developed for the accurate measurement of local heat transfer coefficients. the introduction of a crossing air flow above the fan inlet indirectly reduced both the local and global thermal performance of the centrifugal fan, and the resultant distorted inflow shifted the surface heat transfer distribution at the fan outlet from an axisymmetric to asymmetric profile. However, strategic positioning of components relative to a centrifugal fan can maintain the average component heat transfer coefficient at a similar level to a case without any cross flow. Results also indicate issues associated with the implementation of miniature centrifugal fan designs into crossing air flow environments, with reductions in thermal performance of over 30% observed.     

Turbulent forced convection with sinusoidal variation of inlet temperature between two parallel-plates

The thermal entry region heat transfer due to turbulent forced convection, subjected to a sinusoidally varying inlet temperature is solved by employing a hybrid numerical-analytical solution technique under linear variation of wall temperature and constant wall temperature as boundary condition and is verified with the experimental results. The analytical solution of the problem is obtained through extending the generalized integral transform technique. An experimental set-up was built and used in order to validate the employed mathematical modeling. Analytical solutions are compared with the experimental findings. Satisfactory agreement is obtained between theoretically and experimentally determined heat transfer characteristics for different axial positions along the channel. Heat transfer characteristics of flow have been determined for linear wall temperature and constant wall temperature boundary conditions. Results obtained from the analytical-numerical solution technique and experimental studies have been presented in graphical and tabular forms.     

Two-phase flow instability for boiling in a microchannel heat sink

The present study explores experimentally the two-phase flow instability in a microchannel heat sink with 15 parallel microchannels. The hydraulic diameter for each channel is 86.3 μm. Flow boiling in the present microchannel heat sink demonstrates significantly different two-phase flow patterns under stable or unstable conditions. For the stable cases bubble nucleation, slug flow and slug or annular flows appear sequentially in the flow direction. On the other hand, forward or reversed slug/annular flows appear alternatively in every channel. Moreover, the length of bubble slug may oscillate for unstable cases with reversed flow demonstrating the suppressing effect of pressure field for bubble growth. It is found that the magnitude of pressure drop oscillations may be used as an index for the appearance of reversed flow. A stability map on the plane of inlet subcooling number versus phase change number is established. A very narrow region for stable two-phase flow or mild two-phase flow oscillations is present near the line of zero exit quality.     

Theoretical analysis of film condensation heat transfer inside vertical mini triangular channels

An analytical model is presented for predicting film condensation of vapor flowing inside a vertical mini triangular channel. The concurrent liquid-vapor two-phase flow field is divided into three zones: the thin liquid film flow on the sidewall, the condensate flow in the corners, and the vapor core flow in the center. The model takes into account the effects of capillary force induced by the free liquid film curvature variation, interfacial shear stress, interfacial thermal resistance, gravity, axial pressure gradient, and saturation temperatures. The axial variation of the cross-sectional average heat transfer coefficient of steam condensing inside an equilateral triangular channel is found to be substantially higher than that inside a round tube having the same hydraulic diameter, in particular in the entry region. This enhancement is attributed to the extremely thin liquid film on the sidewall that results from the liquid flow toward the channel corners due to surface tension. The influences of the inlet vapor flow rates, the inlet subcooling, and the channel size on the heat transfer coefficients are also examined.     

Extended Graetz problem for combined electroosmotic and pressure-driven flows in narrow confinements with thick electric double layers

Heat transfer characteristics of thermally developing, pressure-gradient aided electroosmotic flows through narrow fluidic confinements, with step-change in the wall temperature, are critically analyzed by going beyond thin electrical double layer (EDL) approximations that are otherwise routinely invoked in the literature. By employing a semi-analytical formalism, our analysis demonstrates that thick EDL considerations, consistent with the possibilities of having the characteristic EDL thickness comparable to the channel hydraulic radius, may alter the thermal transport characteristics to a significant extent, as compared to the corresponding characteristics obtained under thin EDL limits. The unique features of the resulting heat transfer characteristics stem mainly from the non-trivial effects of viscous dissipation under such physical conditions, and from its intrinsic difference with the Joule heating effects, as emphasized upon. In addition to the volumetric heat generation sources, the effects of the relative strengths of the flow actuation mechanisms and thermal Peclet number on the thermal entrance length, liquid temperature profile and the local Nusselt number are discussed through a detailed parametric study. The thermally fully developed state is analyzed here as a limiting condition of the developing flow regime.     

矩形冷却通道内超临界RP-3航空煤油对流传热数值研究

对超临界压力下RP-3航空煤油在内截面宽为4mm、高为4mm、固体壁面厚为1mm、加热段长度为500mm的水平矩形冷却通道内的对流传热特性进行了数值模拟研究。分析了通道内速度场的分布规律,讨论了热流密度、压力、进口温度对传热的影响。计算结果表明:当主流温度处于拟临界温度附近时,流体物性参数变化剧烈,导致传热系数降低,传热出现恶化。在超临界压力下,较低的热流密度、增大压力、降低进口流体温度或提高质量流速均有利于改善冷却通道内的传热性能。     

Subcooled flow boiling heat transfer of R-407C and associated bubble characteristics in a narrow annular duct

An experiment is conducted here to investigate how the channel size affects the subcooled flow boiling heat transfer and the associated bubble characteristics of refrigerant R-407C in a horizontal narrow annular duct with the gap of the duct fixed at 1.0 and 2.0 mm. The measured boiling curves indicate that the temperature overshoot at ONB is relatively significant for the subcooled flow boiling of R-407C in the duct. Besides, the subcooled flow boiling heat transfer coefficient increases with a reduction in the duct gap, but decreases with an increase in the inlet liquid subcooling. Moreover, raising the heat flux imposed on the duct can cause a significant increase in the boiling heat transfer coefficients. However, the effects of the refrigerant mass flux and saturated temperature on the boiling heat transfer coefficient are slighter. Visualization of the subcooled flow boiling processes in the duct reveals that the bubbles are suppressed to become smaller and less dense by raising the refrigerant mass flux and inlet subcooling. Raising the imposed heat flux, however, produces positive effects on the bubble population, coalescence and departure frequency. Meanwhile, the present heat transfer data for R-407C are compared with the R-134a data measured in the same duct and with some existing correlations. We also propose empirical correlations for the present data for the R-407C subcooled flow boiling heat transfer and some quantitative bubble characteristics such as the mean bubble departure diameter and frequency and the active nucleation site density.     

Inverse analysis for estimating the unsteady inlet temperature distribution for two-phase laminar flow in a channel

An inverse thermal problem was considered for two-phase laminar flow in a parallel plate duct. The inlet temperature, which varies temporally as well as spatially, was estimated when measured temperatures were available at downstream of the duct. In the present study, the problem is solved through a minimization of an objective function by using two regularization methods, i.e., the iterative conjugate gradient method (CGM) and the Tikhonov regularization method (TRM). The effects of the functional form of inlet temperature profile, the number of the measurement points and the measurement errors are investigated and discussed. The computational accuracy and efficiency of these two regularization method are compared and discussed.     

Determination of temperature wall functions for high Rayleigh number flows using asymptotics: A systematic approach

This paper presents a systematic approach to determine temperature wall functions for high Rayleigh number flows using asymptotics. An asymptotic analysis of the flow and heat transfer in the near wall region forms the basis for the development of the wall functions. Appropriate normalization of the variables followed by asymptotic matching of the temperature gradients of the inner and outer layers in the overlap region leads to a logarithmic temperature profile as a wall function that has undetermined constants. A key classification that has been made in the present study is the introduction of (1) The direct problem and (2) The inverse problem. The former means that temperature profiles, either from experiments or Direct Numerical Simulations (DNS), are available and the wall function problem finally reduces to one of determining certain constants in a general wall function formula. More radical and of more interest, is the inverse problem. The idea behind this it is that when a temperature profile can be recast into a Nusselt–Rayleigh correlation, it should be perfectly possible for one to start from a Nusselt–Rayleigh correlation and end up with a wall function for temperature. This approach again will have undetermined constants that can be calibrated from either experimental or DNS data. The main advantage of using the inverse problem is the dispensation of the need to measure temperatures accurately within the boundary layer. For both the direct and inverse problems, a graded treatment to determine the constants is presented. The treatment at its highest level will result in a parameter estimation problem that can be posed as an optimization problem. The optimization problem is then solved by state of the art techniques like Levenberg–Marquardt algorithm and Genetic algorithms (GA) and the solutions are compared. While for the direct problem, the approach is illustrated for the infinite channel problem (a simple flow), for the inverse problem, the approach is elucidated for the Rayleigh–Bénard problem (a complex flow). Finally, a blending procedure to arrive at a universal temperature profile that is valid in the viscous sublayer, buffer and the overlap layers is suggested. The key ideas of (1) using optimization techniques for determining the constants in the wall function and (2) obtaining wall functions from the Nusselt numbers by the inverse approach are expected to be useful for a wide class of problems involving natural convection.     

Finite element simulation of MHD combined convection through a triangular wavy channel

The present paper implements the analysis of magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) combined convective flow and heat transfer characteristics through a triangular wavy vertical channel using the Galerkin weighted residual finite element method. The flow enters at the bottom and exits from the top surface. The wavy vertical walls are at constant temperature and the cold flow enters the channel from the inlet. The numerical model is based on a 2D Navier–Stokes incompressible flow and energy equation. The effects of Grashof number, Reynolds number and Prandtl number on flow and thermal fields are investigated. The variation of local Nusselt number along the vertical walls for the mentioned parameters is also presented. The study reveals that the flow as well as thermal field strongly depends on the aforesaid parameters.     

Numerical study of the inlet/outlet arrangement effect on microchannel heat sink performance

In this study, fluid flow and heat transfer in microchannel heat sinks are numerically investigated. The three-dimensional governing equations for both fluid flow and heat transfer are solved using the finite-volume scheme. The computational domain is taken as the entire heat sink including the inlet/outlet ports, inlet/outlet plenums, and microchannels. The particular focus of this study is the inlet/outlet arrangement effects on the fluid flow and heat transfer inside the heat sinks.The microchannel heat sinks with various inlet/outlet arrangements are investigated in this study. All of the geometric dimensions of these heat sinks are the same except the inlet/outlet locations. Because of the difference in inlet/outlet arrangements, the resultant flow fields and temperature distributions inside these heat sinks are also different under a given pressure drop across the heat sink. Using the averaged velocities and fluid temperatures in each channel to quantify the fluid flow and temperature maldistributions, it is found that better uniformities in velocity and temperature can be found in the heat sinks having coolant supply and collection vertically via inlet/outlet ports opened on the heat sink cover plate. Using the thermal resistance, overall heat transfer coefficient and pressure drop coefficient to quantify the heat sink performance, it is also found these heat sinks have better performance among the heat sinks studied. Based on the results from this study, it is suggested that better heat sink performance can be achieved when the coolant is supplied and collected vertically.     

Pulsating flow and convective heat transfer in a cavity with inlet and outlet sections

This paper deals with the study of 2-D, laminar, pulsating flow inside a heated rectangular cavity with different aspect ratios. The cooling liquid (water with temperature dependent viscosity and thermal conductivity) comes and leaves the cavity via inlet and outlet ports. The flow topology is characterised by the large recirculation regions that exist at inner corners of the cavity. These low velocity regions cause the heat transfer to be small when compared, for instance, to that of a straight channel. We study the effect that a prescribed pulsation at the inlet port has on the cavity heat transfer. This pulsating boundary condition, of the unsteady Poiseuille type, is described by its frequency and the amplitude of the pressure gradient. The time averaged Reynolds number of the flow, based on the hydraulic diameter of the inlet channel, is 100 and we consider that the dimensionless pulsation frequency (Strouhal number) varies in the range from 0.0 to 0.4. We show that the prescribed pulsation enhances heat transfer in the cavity and that the mechanism that causes this enhancement appears to be the periodic change in the recirculation flow pattern generated by the pulsation. Regarding the quantitative extent of heat transfer recovery, we find that appropriate selection of the pulsation parameters allows for the cavity to behave like a straight channel that is the configuration with the highest Nusselt number.