Experimental investigation of the flow pattern,pressure drop and void fraction of two-phase flow in the corrugated gap of a plate heat exchanger

The two-phase flow in the corrugated gap created by two adjacent plates of a plate heat exchanger was investigated experimentally. One setup consisting of a transparent corrugated gap was used to visualize the two-phase flow pattern and study the local phenomena of phase distribution, pressure drop and void fraction. Saturated two-phase R365mfc and an air-water mixture were used as working fluids.In a second experimental setup, the heat transfer coefficients and the pressure drop inside an industrial plate heat exchanger during the condensation process of R134a are determined. Both experimental setups use the same type of plates, so the experimental results can be connected and a flow pattern model for the condensation in plate heat exchangers can be derived. In this work the results of the flow pattern visualization, the two-phase pressure drop in the corrugated gap and the void fraction analysis by measurement of the electrical capacity are presented. A new pressure drop correlation is derived, which takes into account different flow patterns, that appear during condensation. The mean deviation of the presented pressure drop model compared to the experimental data and data from other experimental works is 18.9%. 81.7% of the calculated pressure drop lies within ±30% compared to the experimental data.     

3D numerical simulation on fluid flow and heat transfer characteristics in multistage heat exchanger with slit fins

In this paper, a numerical investigation is performed for three-stage heat exchangers with plain plate fins and slit fins respectively, with a three-dimensional laminar conjugated model. The tubes are arranged in a staggered way, and heat conduction in fins is considered. In order to save the computer resource and speed up the numerical simulation, the numerical modeling is carried out stage by stage. In order to avoid the large pressure drop penalty in enhancing heat transfer, a slit fin is presented with the strip arrangement of “front coarse and rear dense” along the flow direction. The numerical simulation shows that, compared to the plain plate fin heat exchanger, the increase in the heat transfer in the slit fin heat exchanger is higher than that of the pressure drop, which proves the excellent performance of this slit fin. The fluid flow and heat transfer performance along the stages is also provided.     

Modelluntersuchungen des Wärmeaustausches und Strömungswiderstandes an den Heizflächen mit Diagonalflossen

This paper presents the results of an experimental study on the heat transfer and pressure drop in diagonally finned tube banks. The investigations have been carried out using the napthalene analogy. The performance of a heat exchanger with fins arranged a certain angle to the flow direction with the plain tube heat exchanger have been compared.     

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     

Automatic generation of unstructured grids with Delaunay triangulation and its application

This paper is consisted of two parts. In the first part, a method is described which generates two-dimensional triangle mesh using the Delaunay triangulation criterion. An automatic algorithm was proposed which combines several advantages of the existing methods. Local mesh refinement can also be easily performed with this method. Examples of generated grids were presented for several convex, non-convex and multi-connected domains to demonstrate the effectiveness and feasibility of the proposed method. In the second part, the turbulent heat transfer in an annular space finned by wave-like longitudinal fins was numerical simulated. The proposed technique was adopted to generate the grid in the cross-section. The standard K-ɛ model in conjuction with wall function method was used to simulate the fluid flow and heat transfer in the complex geometry. The discretization of the governing equations was described. The computational results were compared with the authors' test data and the agreement was reasonably good. Received on 9 July 1998     

Genetic algorithm optimization for finned channel performance

Compared to a smooth channel,a finned channel provides a higher heat transfer coefficient;increasing the fin height enhances the heat transfer.However,this heat transfer enhancement is associated with an increase in the pressure drop.This leads to an increased pumping power requirement so that one may seek an optimum design for such systems.The main goal of this paper is to define the exact location and size of fins in such a way that a minimal pressure drop coincides with an optimal heat transfer based on the genetic algorithm.Each fin arrangement is considered a solution to the problem (an individual for genetic algorithm).An initial population is generated randomly at the first step.Then the algorithm has been searched among these solutions and made new solutions iteratively by its functions to find an optimum design as reported in this article.     

Numerical analysis on longitudinal location optimization of vortex generator in compact heat exchangers

In this paper, numerical, curvilinear and turbulent model has been used to investigate the effect of vortex generator's longitudinal displacement on heat transfer and fluid flow in different Reynolds numbers ranging from 500 to 3000. The numerical model has been validated with experimental results of a former study, which is resembled in a particular case. Numerical simulation shows that the vorticity enhancement would increase both Nusselt number and pressure drop. Proposed trend is not constant and the pattern in which parameters change is dependent on Reynolds number. Finally, a conjugated optimization of pressure drop and the Nusselt number has been suggested based on the order of parameter changes. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Performance analysis of wick-assisted heat pipe solar collector and comparison with experimental results

The performance of heat pipe solar collector is investigated theoretically and experimentally. The system employs wick-assisted heat pipe for the heat transfer from the absorber (evaporator) to a heat exchanger (condenser). The heat pipe is made with a copper tube and the evaporator section is finned with aluminium plate. Theoretical model predicts the outlet water from heat exchanger, heat pipe temperature and also the thermal efficiency of solar collector. The results are compared with experimental data.     

A numerical and experimental study to evaluate performance of vascularized cooling plates

The present paper reports on a numerical simulation and experimental validation of fluid flow and conjugate heat transfer characteristics of new vascular channels, whose cross-sections are semi-circular. The numerical analysis covers the Reynolds number range of 30−2000, with a cooling channel volume fraction of 0.04, pressure drop range of 30−10⁵ Pa. Six flow configurations were considered: first, second, and third constructal structures with optimized hydraulic diameters and non-optimized hydraulic diameter for each system size 10 × 10, 20 × 20, and 50 × 50, respectively. The numerical results of the proposed vascular channels show that the channel configurations of the optimized constructs show much lower flow resistance and temperature distribution than those of the non-optimized constructs. It is also shown that the power component in the power-law relationship between mass flow rate and pressure drop decreases as the system size and mass flow rates increase. The numerical results are validated by experimental data, and with the two exhibiting excellent agreement in all cases. The validation study against the experimental data shows that the presented numerical model is a reliable tool for predicting the performance of cooling plates under practical operating conditions and for the design of self healing or cooling system.     

Experimental and numerical heat transfer investigation of an impingement jet array with V-ribs on the target plate and on the impingement plate

The secondary vortex structure of an impingement jet system is enhanced by V-ribs on both the impingement and target plates. Numerical and experimental investigations are conducted to study the flow field and heat transfer resulting from V-rib turbulators in an impingement cooling configuration. Three different cases are tested: V-ribs on both the impingement and target plates (V-rib), V-ribs only on the impingement plate (V-rib-impingement) and V-ribs only on the target plate (V-rib-target). The experiment is carried out on a 9 by 9 inline impingement array test facility. For the transient measurements, narrow band thermochromic liquid crystals (TLC) and thermocouples are applied to obtain the local heat transfer distribution. Pressure taps are used to measure the pressure loss. The numerical simulation is carried out with ANSYS CFX 14, using a steady state Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) approach and the Shear Stress Transport (SST) turbulence model. All studies are done for a Reynolds number range of 15,000 to 35,000. There is a good overall agreement between the experimental and numerical results for the cases studied. The detailed flow field from the numerical simulation is used to understand and complement the phenomena observed in the experiment. The evaluation of the flow field confirms that the V-ribs enhance the secondary flow structure in the impingement system and induce a positive heat flux ratio compared to the baseline case. Both experimental and numerical results show a Nusselt number increase for the V-rib-impingement and V-rib configuration, with a highest Nusselt number ratio of 1.16. Notice that the experiment cannot take the rib part into account due to the invalid 1D semi-infinite wall assumption there, while the CFD simulation allows for the consideration of heat transfer on the rib surface and thus complements the heat flux data on the target plate. Depending on the configuration, the CFD simulation shows a heat flux ratio of 1.06–1.34. The pressure loss of the system is comparable to the case with a smooth impingement plate and a smooth target plate.     

Comparative studies on the effect of duct height on heat transfer and flow behavior between co-angular and co-rotating type finned surface

This paper presents the comparative studies on the effect of duct height on heat transfer and flow behavior between co-angular and co-rotating type finned surface in duct. Experiments were performed to investigate the effect of duct height on heat transfer enhancement of a surface affixed with arrays (7 × 7) of short rectangular plate fins of a co-angular and a co-rotating type pattern in the duct. An infrared imaging system with the camera of TVS 8000 was used to measure the temperature distributions to calculate the local heat transfer coefficients of the representative fin regions. Pressure drop and heat transfer experiments were performed for both types of fin pattern varying the duct to fin height ratio (H _d/H _f) of 2.0–5.0. The friction factor calculated from the pressure drop shows that friction factor decreases with increasing the duct to fin height ratio (H _d/H _f) regardless of fin pattern and this is expected because the larger friction occurs for smaller duct to fin height ratios. Detailed heat transfer distribution gives a clear picture of heat transfer characteristics of the overall surface as well as the influence of the duct height. In addition, different flow behavior and flow structure developed by both patterns were visualized by the smoke flow visualization technique.     

Developing laminar forced convection in eccentric annuli

The paper presents a boundary-layer model describing the laminar forced convection heat transfer in the entry region of eccentric annuli. A finite-difference numerical algorithm is developed for solving this model. Numerical results are presented for the developing velocity profiles and the pressure drop in annuli of radius ratio 0.5 and 0.9 over a dimensionless eccentricity ranged from 0.1 to 0.8. Heat transfer parameters are presented for a fluid of Pr=0.7 under the conditions of an isothermally heated inner wall while the outer wall is kept at the inlet fluid temperature. Received on 18 March 1997     

Turbulent heat transfer characteristics and pressure drop in swirling flow at upstream and downstream of an abrupt expansion

This investigation is aimed at studying the heat transfer characteristics and pressure drop for turbulent airflow in a sudden expansion pipe equipped with propeller swirl generator. The investigation is performed for the Reynolds number ranging from 10,000 to 41,000 under a uniform heat flux condition. The experiments are conducted for three locations for the propeller fan upstream the sudden expansion and three locations downstream the sudden expansion (N = 5 blades and blade angle of 45°). The influences of using a freely rotating propeller on heat transfer enhancement and pressure drop are reported. The experimental results indicate that inserting the propeller downstream of the tube provides considerable improvement of the heat transfer rate higher than inserting the propeller upstream the tube. The increase in pressure drop resulting from using the propeller upstream is found to be higher than the downstream swirler. The maximum performance enhancement for the downstream swirler is about 326% while it is about 213% for upstream one. Correlations for relative mean Nusselt number and enhancement performance are presented for different fan locations and different Reynolds numbers.     

An experimental and three dimensional numerical study on the wind-related heat transfer from a rectangular flat plate model collector flush mounted on the roof of a model house

Experimental and three dimensional numerical work was performed to evaluate the average heat transfer coefficients for forced convection heat transfer from the surface of a rectangular flat plate model collector flush mounted on the roof of a model residential house. Examined parameters are the roof tilt angle, windward and leeward orientations. Experiments were carried out for mass transfer using the naphthalene sublimation technique. The final results were presented in terms of heat transfer parameters using the analogy between heat and mass transfer. Numerical study was performed using Ansys Fluent 6.3. Results of experimental study are in good agreement with that of numerical study. It is observed that heat transfer coefficient decreases very slowly with increasing angle of attack and it can be stated that angle of attack does not have a strong effect on heat transfer coefficients in the range investigated. It is also observed that heat transfer coefficients on the leeward orientation are lower than those of the windward orientation. Flow separation was observed on collector surface in leeward orientation.     

The pressure drop characteristics of air–water bubbling flow for evaporative heat transfer

This paper presents a study on a novel water bubbling layer pressure drop and heat transfer experiment that was conducted to investigate the characteristics of pressure drop of air flow across the water bubbling layer. The attempt was to reduce the pressure drop while maintaining a higher value of the heat transfer coefficient. This type of heat transfer between water and merged tubes has potential application in evaporative cooling. To achieve the goal the pressure drop should be reduced by decreasing the bubble layer thickness through the water pump circulation. Pressure drops of air passing through the perforated plate and the water bubbling layer were measured for different heights of water bubbling layer, hole-plate area ratio of the perforated plate and the air velocity through the holes. Experimental data show that the increase of water bubbling layer height and air velocity both increase the pressure drop while the effect of the hole-plate area ratio of the perforated plate on the heat transfer coefficient is relatively complex. The measurements showed that even at a considerably lower height of water bubbling layer the heat transfer coefficient can exceed 5,000 W/m²-K. The heat transfer coefficients of 30 mm high water bubbling layer are higher than that of other higher water bubbling layers tested in the experiments     

Experimental validation of a two equation RANS transitional turbulence model for compressible microflows

Laminar-to-turbulent flow transition in microchannels can be useful to enhance mixing and heat transfer in microsystems. Typically, the small characteristic dimensions of these devices hinder in attaining higher Reynolds numbers to limit the total pressure drop. This is true especially in the presence of a liquid as a working medium. On the contrary, due to lower density, Reynolds number larger than 2000 can be easily reached for gas microflows with an acceptable pressure drop. Since microchannels are used as elementary building blocks of micro heat exchangers and micro heat-sinks, it is essential to predict under which conditions, the laminar-to-turbulent flow transition inside such geometries can be expected. In this paper, experimental validation of a two equations transitional turbulence model, capable of predicting the laminar-to-turbulent flow transition for internal flows as proposed by Abraham etal. (2008), is presented for the first time for microchannels. This is done by employing microchannels in which Nitrogen gas is used as a working fluid. Two different cross-sections namely circular and rectangular are utilized for numerical and experimental investigations. The inlet mass flow rate of the gas is varied to cover all the flow regimes from laminar to fully turbulent flow. Pressure loss experiments are performed for both cross-sectional geometries and friction factor results from experiments and numerical simulations are compared. From the analysis of the friction factor as a function of the Reynolds number, the critical value of the Reynolds number linked to the laminar-to-turbulent transition has been determined. The experimental and numerical critical Reynolds number for all the tested microchannels showed a maximum deviation of less than 12%. These results demonstrate that the transitional turbulence model proposed by Abraham etal. (2008) for internal flows can be extended to microchannels and proficiently employed for the design of micro heat exchangers in presence of gas flows.     

Pressure drop and heat transfer characteristics of turbulent flow in annular tubes with internal wave-like longitudinal fins

Measured were pressure drop and heat transfer characteristics with uniform axial heat input using air as the working fluid in both the entrance and fully developed regions of annular tubes with wave-like longitudinal fins. Five series of experiments were performed for turbulent flow and heat transfer in the annular tubes with number of waves equal to 4, 8, 12, 16 and 20, respectively. The test tube has a double-pipe structure with the inner blocked tubes as an insertion. The wave-like fins are in the annulus and span its full width. The friction factor and Nusselt number in the fully developed region were obtained. The friction factor and Nusselt number can be well corrected by a power-law correction in the Reynolds number range tested. In order to evaluate the thermal performance of the longitudinal finned tubes over a plain circular tube, comparisons were made under three conditions: (1) identical pumping power; (2) identical pressure drop and (3) identical mass flow. It was found that under the three constraints all the wave-like finned tubes can enhance heat transfer with the tube with wave number 20 being superior. Finally, discussion on the enhancement mechanism is conducted and a general correlation for the fully developed heat transfer is provided, which can cover all the fifty data of the five tubes with a mean deviation of 9.3%.     

Forced convection from an isolated heat source in a channel with porous medium

A numerical study is made of flow and heat transfer characteristics of forced convection in a channel that is partially filled with a porous medium. The flow geometry models convective cooling process in a printed circuit board system with a porous insert.The channel walls are assumed to be adiabatic. Comprehensive numerical solutions are acquired to the governing Navier-Stokes equations, using the Brinkman-Forchheimer-extended Darcy model for the regions of porous media. Details of flow and thermal fields are examined over ranges of the principal parameters; i.e., the Reynolds number Re, the Darcy number Da (≡K/H²), the thickness of the porous substrate S, and the ratio of thermal conductivities R_k (≡k_eff/k). Two types of the location of the porous block are considered. The maximum temperature at the heat source and the associated pressure drop are presented for varying Re, Da, S, and R_k. The results illustrate that as S increases or Da decreases, the fluid flow rate increases. Also, as R_k increases for fixed Da, heat transfer rates are augmented. Explicit influences of Re on the flow and heat transport characteristics are also scrutinized. Assessment is made of the utility of using a porous insert by cross comparing the gain in heat transport against the increase in pressure drop.     

Study on heat transfer and pressure drop characteristics of internal heat exchangers in CO<Subscript>2</Subscript> system under cooling condition

In order to study the heat transfer and pressure drop on four types of internal heat exchangers (IHXs) of a CO₂ system, the experiment and numerical analysis were performed under a cooling condition. The configuration of the IHXs was a coaxial type and a micro-channel type. Two loops on the gas cooler part and the evaporator part were made, for experiment. And the section-by-section method and Hardy-Cross method were used for the numerical analysis. The capacity and pressure drop of the IHX are larger at the micro-channel type than at the coaxial type. When increasing the mass flow rate and the IHX length the capacity and pressure drop increase. The pressure drop of the evaporator loop is much larger than that of the gas cooler loop. The performance of the IHX was affected with operating condition of the gas-cooler and evaporator. The deviations between the experimental result and the numerical result are about ±20% for the micro-channel type and ±10% for the coaxial type. Thus, the new CO₂ heat transfer correlation should be developed to precisely predict a CO₂ heat transfer.     

Experimental and numerical study of developing turbulent flow and heat transfer in convergent/divergent square ducts

 The work reported in this paper is a systematic experimental and numerical study of friction and heat transfer characteristics of divergent/convergent square ducts with an inclination angle of 1^∘ in the two direction at cross section. The ratio of duct length to average hydraulic diameter is 10. For the comparison purpose, measurement and simulation are also conducted for a square duct with constant cross section area, which equals to the average cross section area of the convergent/divergent duct. In the numerical simulation the flow is modeled as being three-dimensional and fully elliptic by using the body-fitted finite volume method and the kɛ turbulence model. The uniform heat flux boundary condition is specified to simulate the electrical heating used in the experiments. The heat transfer performance of the divergent/convergent ducts is compared with the duct with uniform cross section under three constraints (identical mass flow rate, pumping power and pressure drop). The agreement of the experimental and numerical results is quite good except at the duct inlet. Results show that for the three ducts studied there is a weak secondary flow at the cross section, and the circumference distribution of the local heat transfer coefficient is not uniform, with an appreciable reduction in the four corner regions. In addition, the acceleration/deceleration caused by the cross section variation has a profound effect on the turbulent heat transfer: compared with the duct of constant cross section area, the divergent duct generally shows enhanced heat transfer behavior, while the convergent duct has an appreciable reduction in heat transfer performance. Received on 18 September 2000 / Published online: 29 November 2001