Transient heat transfert in coflow heat exchanger

More than ever before, dynamic investigation techniques are becoming widely used in the control systems, parameter implementation and state estimators. Indeed, dynamical models describing the response of process systems that are subject to disturbances play a vital role in controlling and optimising these systems. Recently developed in literature, the method of step response analysis provides a promising means towards solving some of the problems associated with the characterisation of transient response of heat exchangers. In Abdelghani-Idrissi et al. (Int J Heat Mass Transfer 44:3721–3730, 2001), authors present analytical expressions of fluids temperatures response time of counter-current heat exchanger when hot fluid step change is applied in the internal tube. This paper describes the extension of this technique to a coflow heat exchanger for which the exact solution of its mathematical model is unavailable.     

Radiant heat gain from indoor heat sources

A new parameter, equivalent emissivity, ε_e, is introduced to reflect radiant feature of the surface of a heat source with different shapes and different temperatures in an air conditioned room. Radiant heat gain from medium- or low-surface-temperature equipment and from commonly used light fixtures and the occupant are examined and analyzed in detail. The main affecting factors are also examined. In addition, the percentages of radiant heat gain are presented under different temperatures.     

Determination of heat transfer correlations for plate-fin-and-tube heat exchangers

This paper presents a numerical method for determining heat transfer coefficients in cross-flow heat exchangers with extended heat exchange surfaces. Coefficients in the correlations defining heat transfer on the liquid- and air-side were determined using a non-linear regression method. Correlation coefficients were determined from the condition that the sum of squared fluid temperature differences at the heat exchanger outlet, obtained by measurements and those calculated, achieved minimum. Minimum of the sum of the squares was found using the Levenberg-Marquardt method. The outlet temperature of the fluid leaving the heat exchanger was calculated using the mathematical model describing the heat transfer in the heat exchanger. Since the conditions at the liquid-side and those at the air-side are identified simultaneously, the derived correlations are valid in a wide range of flow rate changes of the air and liquid. This is especially important for partial loads of the exchanger, when the heat transfer rate is lower than the nominal load. The correlation for the average heat transfer coefficient on the air-side based on the experimental data was compared with the correlation obtained from numerical simulation of 3D fluid and heat flow, performed by means of the commercially available CFD code. The numerical predictions are in good agreement with the experimental data.     

Turbulent heat transfer for pipe flow with uniform heat generation

An Analytic solution is presented of the problem of turbulent heat transfer in pipes with internal heat generation and insulated wall by applying a recently-developed eddy conductivity model. The results agree closely with available experimental data for a wide range of Prandtl number (0.02–10.5).     

Evaporator critical heat flux in the double-wall artery heat pipe

The fact that heat is transferred into a heat pipe through the liquid-saturated evaporator wick gives rise to the so-called boiling limit on the heat pipe capacity. The composite nature of the double-wall artery heat pipe (DWAHP) wick structure makes the prediction of the evaporator superheat (Δ T_crit) and the critical radial heat flux (q_r) very difficult. The effective thermal conductivity of the wick, the effective radius of critical nucleation cavity, and the nucleation superheat, which are important parameters for double-wall wick evaporator heat transfer, have been evaluated based on the available theoretical models. Empirical correlations are used to corroborate the experimental results of the 2 m DWAHP. A heat choke mounted on the evaporator made it possible to measure the evaporator external temperatures, which were not measured in the previous tests. The high values of the measured evaporator wall temperatures are explainable with the assumption of a thin layer of vapor blanket at the inner heating surface. It has been observed that partial saturation of the wick (lean evaporator) causes the capillary limit to drop even though it may be good for efficient convective heat transfer through the wick. The 2 m long copper-water heat pipe had a peak performance of 1850 W at 23 W/cm² with a horizontal orientation.     

Predict the temperature distribution in gas-to-gas heat pipe heat exchanger

A theoretical model has been developed to investigate the thermal performance of a continuous finned circular tubing of an air-to-air thermosyphon-based heat pipe heat exchanger. The model has been used to determine the heat transfer capacity, which expresses the thermal performance of heat pipe heat exchanger. The model predicts the temperature distribution in the flow direction for both evaporator and condenser sections and also the saturation temperature of the heat pipes. The approach used for the present study considers row-by-row heat-transfer in evaporator and condenser sections of the heat pipe heat exchanger.     

Concepts and realization of microstructure heat exchangers for enhanced heat transfer

Microstructure heat exchangers have unique properties that make them useful for numerous scientific and industrial applications. The power transferred per unit volume is mainly a function of the distance between heat source and heat sink—the smaller this distance, the better the heat transfer. Another parameter governing for the heat transfer is the lateral characteristic dimension of the heat transfer structure; in the case of microchannels, this is the hydraulic diameter. Decreasing this characteristic dimension into the range of several 10s of micrometers leads to very high values for the heat transfer rate.

Another possible way of increasing the heat transfer rate of a heat exchanger is changing the flow regime. Microchannel devices usually operate within the laminar flow regime. By changing from microchannels to three dimensional structures, or to planar geometries with microcolumn arrays, a significant increase of the heat transfer rate can be achieved.

Microheat exchangers in the form of both microchannel devices (with different hydraulic diameters) and microcolumn array devices (with different microcolumn layouts) are presented and compared. Electrically heated microchannel devices are presented, and industrial applications are briefly described.     

Investigation of flow and heat transfer in corrugated-undulated plate heat exchangers

 An experimental and numerical investigation of heat transfer and fluid flow was conducted for corrugated-undulated plate heat exchanger configurations under transitional and weakly turbulent conditions. For a given geometry of the corrugated plates the geometrical characteristics of the undulated plates, the angle formed by the latter with the main flow direction, and the Reynolds number were made to vary. Distributions of the local heat transfer coefficient were obtained by using liquid-crystal thermography, and surface-averaged values were computed; friction coefficients were measured by wall pressure tappings. Overall heat transfer and pressure drop correlations were derived. Three-dimensional numerical simulations were conducted by a finite-volume method using a low-Reynolds number k–ɛ model under the assumption of fully developed flow. Computed flow fields provided otherwise inaccessible information on the flow patterns and the mechanisms of heat transfer enhancement. Received on 5 February 1999     

Three-dimensional numerical investigation of heat transfer for plate fin heat exchangers

In the present study, the potential of rectangular fins with 30° and 90° angle and 10 mm offset from the horizontal direction for heat transfer enhancement in a plate fin heat exchanger is numerically evaluated with conjugated heat transfer approach. The rectangular fins are mounted on the flat plate channel. The numerical computations are performed by solving a steady, three-dimensional Navier–Stokes equation and an energy equation by using Fluent software program. Air is taken as working fluid. The study is carried out at Re = 400 and inlet temperatures, velocities of cold and hot air are fixed as 300, 600 K and 1.338, 0.69 m/s, respectively. Colburn factor j versus Re design data is presented by using Fluent. The results show that the heat transfer is increased by 10 % at the exit of channel with fin angle of 30° when compared to channel without fin for counter flow. The heat transfer enhancement with fins of 30° and 90° for different values of Reynolds number with 300, 500 and 800 and for varying fin heights, fin intervals and also temperature distributions of fluids on the top and bottom surface of the channel are investigated for parallel and counter flow.     

Laminar mixing and heat transfer for constant heat flux boundary condition

In a recent paper we have investigated mixing and heat transfer enhancement in a mixer composed of two circular rods maintained vertically in a cylindrical tank. The rods and tank can rotate around their revolution axes while their surfaces were maintained at a constant temperature. In the present study we investigate the differences in the thermal mixing process arising from the utilization of a constant heat flux as a boundary condition. The study concerns a highly viscous fluid with a high Prandtl number for which this chaotic mixer is suitable. By solving numerically the flow and energy equations, and using different statistical tools we characterize the evolution of the fluid temperature and its homogenization. Fundamental differences are reported between these two modes of heating or cooling: while the mixing with an imposed temperature results in a homogeneous temperature field, with a fixed heat flux we observe a constant difference between the maximal and minimal temperatures that establish in the fluid; the extent of this difference is governed by the efficiency of the mixing protocol.     

Numerical simulation of turbulent heat transfer from perforated plate-fin heat sinks

Excessive heat from microelectronic components is essential to remove to increase the reliability of the system. In this paper, various types of perforations in the form of small channels such as square, circular, triangular and hexagonal cross sections are introduced and thermal performances are compared to improve the cooling performance of heat sink. The governing equations are solved by adopting a control volume based finite element method with an unstructured non-uniform grid system. Flow and heat transfer characteristics are presented for Reynolds numbers from 2 × 10⁴ to 4 × 10⁴ based on the fin length and Prandtl number is taken as Pr = 0.71. RANS based k-ε turbulence model is used to predict the turbulent flow parameters. The predicted results are validated by the previously published experimental data and in reasonable agreement with the experiment. Results show that fins having circular perforations have better thermal and fluid dynamic performances than the other types of fins considered here.     

Three-dimensional numerical analysis of heat and mass transfer in heat pipes

A three-dimensional finite-element numerical model is presented for simulation of the steady-state performance characteristics of heat pipes. The mass, momentum and energy conservation equations are solved for the liquid and vapor flow in the entire heat pipe domain. The calculated outer wall temperature profiles are in good agreement with the experimental data. The estimations of the liquid and vapor pressure distributions and velocity profiles are also presented and discussed. It is shown that the vapor flow field remains nearly symmetrical about the heat pipe centerline, even under a non-uniform heat load. The analytical method used to predict the heat pipe capillary limit is found to be conservative.