On Partially Corrugated Ducts in Heat Exchangers
In this paper the concept of partially corrugated ducts for heat exchanger applications is discussed. The main idea is that using partially corrugated ducts instead of ducts with continuous corrugation provides a method to achieve a better balance between heat transfer enhancement and increased pressure drop penalty. The origin of the work stems from rotary regenerative heat exchangers. The present paper focuses on this matter and numerical results (based on CFD) as well as preliminary experimental heat transfer data (overall), available mass transfer results are used to support the discussions and conclusions. It is found that partially corrugated ducts might be an alternative to ducts with continuous corrugation in some cases and then present a way to control the thermal hydraulic balance. How to take advantage of the increased pressure drop is discussed briefly.