Minimum Irreversibility Criteria for Heat Exchanger Configurations

1999 ◽  
Vol 121 (4) ◽  
pp. 241-246 ◽  
Author(s):  
F. E. M. Saboya ◽  
C. E. S. M. da Costa

From the second law of thermodynamics, the concepts of irreversibility, entropy generation, and availability are applied to counterflow, parallel-flow, and cross-flow heat exchangers. In the case of the Cross-flow configuration, there are four types of heat exchangers: I) both fluids unmixed, 2) both fluids mixed, 3) fluid of maximum heat capacity rate mixed and the other unmixed, 4) fluid of minimum heat capacity rate mixed and the other unmixed. In the analysis, the heat exchangers are assumed to have a negligible pressure drop irreversibility. The Counterflow heat exchanger is compared with the other five heat exchanger types and the comparison will indicate which one has the minimum irreversibility rate. In this comparison, only the exit temperatures and the heat transfer rates of the heat exchangers are different. The other conditions (inlet temperatures, mass flow rates, number of transfer units) and the working fluids are the same in the heat exchangers.

2015 ◽  
Vol 799-800 ◽  
pp. 665-670
Author(s):  
Karthik Silaipillayarputhur

This paper compares the transient thermal performance between counter and parallel cross flow heat exchangers subjected to time varying inlet mass flow rates and inlet temperatures that hasn’t been previously discussed in the available literature. Specifically the transient performance of 2 pass and 3 pass cross flow heat exchangers is discussed in this paper. In the present study the energy balance equations for the hot and cold fluids and the heat exchanger wall were solved using an implicit central finite difference method. Representative values of NTU were considered, and the NTU’s of the heat exchanger were assumed to be uniformly distributed among the heat exchanger passes. Other physically significant parameters such as the capacity rate ratio and the convection heat transfer resistance ratio were systematically varied. A detailed summary based on the observations has been presented.


2006 ◽  
Vol 129 (9) ◽  
pp. 1268-1276 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ahmad Fakheri

This paper provides the solution to the problem of defining thermal efficiency for heat exchangers based on the second law of thermodynamics. It is shown that corresponding to each actual heat exchanger, there is an ideal heat exchanger that is a balanced counter-flow heat exchanger. The ideal heat exchanger has the same UA, the same arithmetic mean temperature difference, and the same cold to hot fluid inlet temperature ratio. The ideal heat exchanger’s heat capacity rates are equal to the minimum heat capacity rate of the actual heat exchanger. The ideal heat exchanger transfers the maximum amount of heat, equal to the product of UA and arithmetic mean temperature difference, and generates the minimum amount of entropy, making it the most efficient and least irreversible heat exchanger. The heat exchanger efficiency is defined as the ratio of the heat transferred in the actual heat exchanger to the heat that would be transferred in the ideal heat exchanger. The concept of heat exchanger efficiency provides a new way for the design and analysis of heat exchangers and heat exchanger networks.


Author(s):  
Shuang-Ying Wu ◽  
Xiao-Feng Yuan ◽  
You-Rong Li ◽  
Wen-Zhi Cui ◽  
Liao Quan

In this paper, the concept of exergy transfer effectiveness is put forward firstly and the expressions involving relevant variables for the exergy transfer effectiveness, the heat transfer units number and the ratio of cold and hot fluids heat capacity rate have been derived for the high and low temperature heat exchangers. Taking the parallel flow, counter flow and cross flow heat exchangers as examples, the numerical results of exergy transfer effectiveness are given and the comparison of exergy transfer effectiveness with heat transfer effectiveness is analyzed.


Heat exchangers are prominent industrial applications where engineering science of heat transfer and Mass transfer occurs. It is a contrivance where transfer of energy occurs to get output in the form of energy transfer. This paper aims at finding a solution to improve the thermal performance in a heat exchanger by using passive method techniques. This experimental and numerical analysis deals with finding the temperature outlets of cold and hot fluid for different mass flow rates and also pressure drop in the tube and the annular side by adding an elliptical leaf strip in the pipe at various angles. The single elliptical leaf used in experiment has major to minor axes ratios as 2:1 and distance of 50 mm between two leaves are arranged at different angular orientations from 0 0 to 1800 with 100 intervals. Since it’s not possible to find the heat transfer rates and pressure drops at every orientation of elliptical leaf so a generalized regression neural network (GRNN) prediction tool is used to get outputs with given inputs to avoid experimentation. GRNN is a statistical method of determining the relationship between dependent and independent variables. The values obtained from experimentation and GRNN nearly had precise values to each other. This analysis is a small step in regard with encomiastic approach for enhancement in performance of heat exchangers


Author(s):  
Kiran Lankalapalli ◽  
Ahmed ElSawy ◽  
Stephen Idem

A steady state sensible performance analysis of multi-pass cross-flow finned-tube heat exchangers is reported. The investigation considers various flow circuiting, such as counter cross-flow, parallel cross-flow, and cross-flow where the tube-side flow is in parallel. A previously developed matrix approach is used to evaluate the heat exchanger performance in each tube pass. The equations required to model the thermal performance of these configurations are presented, and the thermal performance is compared for each type of flow circuiting. Thereafter a parametric study on cross-flow heat exchanger performance is performed by varying physically significant parameters such as number of transfer units (NTU) and capacity rate ratios, and the graphical results for each type of flow circuiting are presented both for both two-pass and three-pass arrangements. A consistent criterion is proposed for each case, wherein increasing the NTU beyond a certain threshold value does not significantly improve heat exchanger thermal performance.


Author(s):  
Karthik Silaipillayarputhur ◽  
Stephen A. Idem

The transient performance of a multi-pass cross flow heat exchanger subjected to temperature and mass flow rate perturbations, where the heat exchanger flow circuiting is neither parallel flow nor counter flow, is considered in this work. A detailed numerical study was performed for representative single-pass, two-pass, and three-pass heat exchangers. Numerical predictions were obtained for cases where the minimum capacity rate fluid was subjected to a step change in inlet temperature in absence of mass flow rate perturbations. Likewise, numerical predictions were obtained for the heat exchangers operating initially at steady state, where a step mass flow rate change of the minimum capacity rate fluid was imposed in the absence of any fluid temperature perturbations. The transient performance of this particular heat exchanger configuration subjected to these temperature and flow disturbances has not been discussed previously in the available literature. In the present study the energy balance equations for the hot and cold fluids and the heat exchanger wall were solved using an implicit central finite difference method. A parametric study was conducted by varying the dimensionless quantities that govern the transient response of the heat exchanger over a typical range of values. Because of the storage of energy in the heat exchanger wall, and finite propagation times associated with the inlet perturbations, the outlet temperatures of both fluids do not respond instantaneously. The results are compared with previously published transient performance predictions of multi-pass counter flow and parallel flow heat exchangers.


2003 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tony D. Chen

Air-cooled heat exchangers with three tube rows are commonly seen in domestic air-conditioning systems. The analytical solutions of heat exchanger effectiveness for three-row plate fin-and-tube heat exchangers with alternating circuitries have been derived and expressed explicitly in terms of heat capacity ratio and number of transfer units in the recent study. These set of exact solutions serve as a basic tool in designing heat exchanger circuitry to its most accurate possible effectiveness. Comparison of plate-fin-tube heat exchanger effectiveness between airside unmixed and mixed for three-row configurations shows that the effectiveness could be different from 0.3 to 2.4% for the NTUs (Number of Thermal Units) range from 1.0 to 3.0. On the other hand, the result of the comparison of effectiveness between identical and alternating circuiting for 3-row crossflow heat exchangers shows that alternating circuiting could have less effectiveness than identical circuiting from 0.4 to 8.8% in the NTUs range from 1.0 to 3.0. Nevertheless, alternating circuit has its benefit for lower NTU cases, result shows that it could have 1.7 to 0.1% advantages over identical flow arrangement for 2-row heat exchangers with NTUs range from 1.0 to 2.0.


2006 ◽  
Vol 129 (3) ◽  
pp. 282-290 ◽  
Author(s):  
Luben Cabezas-Gómez ◽  
Hélio Aparecido Navarro ◽  
José Maria Saiz-Jabardo

A thorough study of the thermal performance of multipass parallel cross-flow and counter-cross-flow heat exchangers has been carried out by applying a new numerical procedure. According to this procedure, the heat exchanger is discretized into small elements following the tube-side fluid circuits. Each element is itself a one-pass mixed-unmixed cross-flow heat exchanger. Simulated results have been validated through comparisons to results from analytical solutions for one- to four-pass, parallel cross-flow and counter-cross-flow arrangements. Very accurate results have been obtained over wide ranges of NTU (number of transfer units) and C* (heat capacity rate ratio) values. New effectiveness data for the aforementioned configurations and a higher number of tube passes is presented along with data for a complex flow configuration proposed elsewhere. The proposed procedure constitutes a useful research tool both for theoretical and experimental studies of cross-flow heat exchangers thermal performance.


Author(s):  
Tianyi Gao ◽  
James Geer ◽  
Bahgat Sammakia

Heat exchangers are important facilities that are widely used in heating, ventilating, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems. For example, heat exchangers are the primary units used in the design of the heat transfer loops of cooling systems for data centers. The performance of a heat exchanger strongly influences the thermal performance of the entire cooling system. The prediction of transient phenomenon of heat exchangers is of increasing interest in many application areas. In this work, a dynamic thermal model for a cross flow heat exchanger is solved numerically in order to predict the transient response under step changes in the fluid mass flow rate and the fluid inlet temperature. Transient responses of both the primary and secondary fluid outlet temperatures are characterized under different scenarios, including fluid mass flow rate change and a combination of changes in the fluid inlet temperature and the mass flow rate. In the ε-NTU (number of transfer units) method, the minimum capacity, denoted by Cmin, is the smaller of Ch and Cc. Due to a mass flow rate change, Cmin may vary from one fluid to another fluid. The numerical procedure and transient response regarding the case of varying Cmin are investigated in detail in this study. A review and comparison of several journal articles related to the similar topic are performed. Several sets of data available in the literatures which are in error are studied and analyzed in detail.


2019 ◽  
Vol 23 (Suppl. 4) ◽  
pp. 1113-1121
Author(s):  
Stanislaw Lopata ◽  
Pawel Oclon

To increase the efficiency, elliptical tubes are often used in cross-flow heat exchangers. For these kinds of heat exchangers the flow field in the tubes exhibits irregularities. Therefore, various flow regimes can be observed: the turbulent, the transitional, and even the laminar one. Therefore, applying typical turbulence models for numerical calculations may cause significant errors, when flow in the heat exchanger tubes is in the transitional or laminar regime. Hence, the average values of flow velocities and temperature in heat exchanger tubes can be calculated incorrectly. The paper presents empirical verification of applying the basic two-equation turbulence models for a transitional flow of water in an elliptical pipe of a heat exchanger.


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