Comparison of Louvered Plate-Fin Heat Exchangers Made via Additive Manufacturing

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Bichnevicius ◽  
David Saltzman ◽  
Stephen Lynch
Keyword(s):  
Heat Transfer ◽  
Surface Roughness ◽  
Additive Manufacturing ◽  
Heat Exchanger ◽  
Heat Exchangers ◽  
Pressure Loss ◽  
Heat Exchanger Design ◽  
Side Pressure ◽  
Geometric Deviations ◽  
Manufacturing Techniques

Additive manufacturing (AM) can enable complex and novel designs that are otherwise infeasible with traditional metal manufacturing techniques. In low-volume production scenarios, particularly for specialized applications which can benefit from customized designs, traditional metal manufacturing techniques may be limited by costs associated with tooling. The ability to produce novel designs is particularly interesting in heat exchanger (HX) design where performance is often largely based on the achievable geometry. However, consequences of the AM process such as surface roughness, deviation from specified dimensions, and defects such as cracks and voids could also affect HX performance. These effects may vary between identically designed AM parts based on AM machine settings. The goal of this work is to gain a better understanding of the performance variations across several different implementations of the same heat exchanger design. More specifically, the objective of this work is to experimentally compare the thermal and hydraulic performances of a traditionally manufactured, stamped-aluminum aircraft oil cooler and three geometrically equivalent, additively manufactured counterparts. Compared to the traditionally manufactured heat exchanger, the AM HXs exhibited significantly higher air-side pressure loss and higher heat transfer despite having nominally similar geometries. Between AM HXs, there were slight differences in surface roughness characteristics based on optimal profilometry measurements. In addition, the thickness of the air-side fins varied as much as 15 percent between the AM HXs. The net effect, without the contribution of each cause clear, was higher air-side pressure loss and slightly higher heat transfer for the AM HX with thicker fins. This study indicates that functional heat exchangers built using AM vary in performance even when the same digital model is used to print them, and that AM HXs as a group perform considerably differently than their traditional counterparts. Thus, there is a need to account for anticipated surface roughness, geometric deviations, and potential defects when designing HXs. Proper consideration could result in improved thermal performance for future heat exchangers.

Modified Manifold-Microchannel Heat Exchangers Fabricated Based on Additive Manufacturing: Experimental Characterization

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
William C. Yameen ◽  
Nathan A. Piascik ◽  
Andrew K. Miller ◽  
Riccardo C. Clemente ◽  
Jingru Z. Benner ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Heat Transfer ◽  
Additive Manufacturing ◽  
Heat Exchanger ◽  
Pressure Drop ◽  
Heat Flow ◽  
Heat Exchangers ◽  
Original Design ◽  
Flow Rates ◽  
Side Pressure ◽  
Manifold Microchannel

Abstract In this study, the additive manufacturing technique has been utilized to fabricate air-water heat exchangers for the application of thermoelectric power plants. Additive manufacturing is a powerful fabrication method that has enabled fabrication of complex geometries that are either challenging or impossible to fabricate based on conventional techniques. Three manifold-microchannel heat exchangers with different interior designs were fabricated by additive manufacturing and from stainless steel. The heat exchangers were tested at different air flow rates and different inlet water temperatures. One heat exchanger was designed and fabricated based on an original design of the manifold-microchannel heat exchanger. Two other heat exchangers were designed with some modifications compared to the original design. In one modified heat exchanger, cylindrical pin arrays were considered on air manifold walls in order to enhance air disturbance, and thus, increase heat transfer between water and air. The second modified heat exchanger contained same pins and also had microchannels in the perpendicular orientation compared to the original design in the outlet manifolds. This design modification was done in order to reduce air-side pressure drop in the heat exchanger. The heat transfer characteristics along with air-side pressure drop were measured and compared with the original design of the manifold-microchannel heat exchanger. Results indicated that the heat flow rate, convection heat transfer coefficient, and pressure drop did not significantly change in modified heat exchangers. For air Reynolds number between around 800 and 4,000, the heat flow rates obtained in the original heat exchanger (type A) and for 50° C water inlet temperature were between 63.9 and 228 W for the lowest and the highest air flow rates, respectively. For the same inlet water temperature, these heat flow rates were between 64.2 and 211 W for the lowest and the highest air flow rates and in one of the modified heat exchangers (type B), respectively. Similarly, while the highest air-side pressure drop in the original heat exchanger was 3458 Pa, this property was measured at 3525 (type B) and 3884 (type C) for the two modified heat exchangers.

scholarly journals Performance Analysis and Design Optimization of Shell and Tube Heat Exchangers

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
praveen math
Keyword(s):  
Heat Transfer ◽  
Heat Exchanger ◽  
Heat Exchangers ◽  
Pressure Loss ◽  
Fluid Flows ◽  
Hot Water ◽  
Flow Conditions ◽  
Shell Side ◽  
Shell And Tube ◽  
Side Flow

Abstract Shell and Tube heat exchangers are having special importance in boilers, oil coolers, condensers, pre-heaters. They are also widely used in process applications as well as the refrigeration and air conditioning industry. The robustness and medium weighted shape of Shell and Tube heat exchangers make them well suited for high pressure operations. The aim of this study is to experiment, validate and to provide design suggestion to optimize the shell and tube heat exchanger (STHE). The heat exchanger is made of acrylic material with 2 baffles and 7 tubes made of stainless steel. Hot fluid flows inside the tube and cold fluid flows over the tube in the shell. 4 K-type thermocouples were used to read the hot and cold fluids inlet and outlet temperatures. Experiments were carried out for various combinations of hot and cold water flow rates with different hot water inlet temperatures. The flow conditions are limited to the lab size model of the experimental setup. A commercial CFD code was used to study the thermal and hydraulic flow field inside the shell and tubes. CFD methodology is developed to appropriately represent the flow physics and the procedure is validated with the experimental results. Turbulent flow in tube side is observed for all flow conditions, while the shell side has laminar flow except for extreme hot water temperatures. Hence transition k-kl-omega model was used to predict the flow better for transition cases. Realizable k- epsilon model with non-equilibrium wall function was used for turbulent cases. Temperature and velocity profiles are examined in detail and observed that the flow remains almost uniform to the tubes thus limiting heat transfer. Approximately 2/3 rd of the shell side flow does not surround the tubes due to biased flow contributing to reduced overall heat transfer and increased pressure loss. On the basis of these findings an attempt has been made to enhance the heat transfer by inducing turbulence in the shel l side flow. The two baffles were rotated in opposite direction to each other to achieve more circulation in the shell side flow and provide more contact with tube surface. Various positions of the baffles were simulated and studied using CFD analysis and th e results are summarized with respect to heat transfer and pressure loss.

Impact of an Anisotropic Fin Surface Design on the Thermal-Hydraulic Performance of a Plain-Fin-and-Tube Heat Exchanger

2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rong Yu ◽  
Andrew D. Sommers ◽  
Nicole C. Okamoto ◽  
Koushik Upadhyayula
Keyword(s):  
Heat Transfer ◽  
Heat Exchanger ◽  
Pressure Drop ◽  
Heat Exchangers ◽  
Hydraulic Performance ◽  
Normal Operation ◽  
Surface Design ◽  
Tube Heat Exchanger ◽  
Silane Coating ◽  
Side Pressure

In this study, we have explored the effectiveness of heat exchangers constructed using anisotropic, micro-patterned aluminum fins to more completely drain the condensate that forms on the heat transfer surface during normal operation with the aim of improving the thermal-hydraulic performance of the heat exchanger. This study presents and critically evaluates the efficacy of full-scale heat exchangers constructed from these micro-grooved surfaces by measuring dry/wet air-side pressure drop and dry/wet air-side heat transfer data. The new fin surface design was shown to decrease the core pressure drop of the heat exchanger during wet operation from 9.3% to 52.7%. Furthermore, these prototype fin surfaces were shown to have a negligible effect on the heat transfer coefficient under both dry and wet conditions while at the same time reducing the wet airside pressure drop thereby decreasing fan power consumption. That is to say, this novel fin surface design has shown the ability, through improved condensate management, to enhance the thermal-hydraulic performance of plain-fin-and-tube heat exchangers used in air-conditioning applications. This paper also presents data pertaining to the durability of the alkyl silane coating.

scholarly journals Plate heat exchanger design software for industrial and educational applications

2017 ◽  
Vol 71 (5) ◽  
pp. 439-449
Author(s):  
Nikola Zlatkovic ◽  
Divna Majstorovic ◽  
Mirjana Kijevcanin ◽  
Emila Zivkovic
Keyword(s):  
Heat Transfer ◽  
Heat Exchanger ◽  
Heat Exchangers ◽  
Plate Heat Exchanger ◽  
Heat Transfer Area ◽  
Transfer Coefficients ◽  
Plate Heat ◽  
Two Fluids ◽  
Heat Exchanger Design ◽  
Educational Applications

Plate heat exchanger is a type of heat exchanger that uses corrugated metal plates to transfer heat between two fluids. The plate corrugations are designed to achieve turbulence across the entire heat transfer area thus producing the highest possible heat transfer coefficients while allowing close temperature approaches. Subsequently, this leads to a smaller heat transfer area, smaller units and in some cases, fewer heat exchangers. In this work, an application for thermal and hydraulic computations of plate heat exchangers had been developed using Sharp Develop, an open source programming platform. During the development process, several literature methods and correlations for calculation of heat transfer coefficient and pressure drop in a plate heat exchanger have been tested and the selected four methods: Martin, VDI, Kumar and Coulson and Richardson have been incorporated into the software. The structure of the software is visually presented through several windows: a window for inserting input data, windows for showing the results of computation by each of the methods, a window for showing comparative analysis of the most important computation results obtained by all of the used methods and a help window for demonstrating the working principle of plate heat exchanger.

Comparison of Additively Manufactured Louvered Plate-Fin Heat Exchangers

2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Bichnevicius ◽  
David Saltzman ◽  
Stephen Lynch
Keyword(s):  
Heat Transfer ◽  
Surface Roughness ◽  
Pressure Drop ◽  
Heat Transfer Rate ◽  
Heat Exchangers ◽  
Transfer Rate ◽  
Print Quality ◽  
Side Pressure ◽  
Oil Cooler ◽  
Fin Thickness

Abstract Additive manufacturing (AM) enables improved heat exchanger (HX) designs where performance is based on the achievable geometry. However, consequences of the AM process that affect HX performance such as increased surface roughness, dimensional tolerance issues, and defects like cracks may vary among identically designed AM parts due to AM machine settings. This paper experimentally compares the thermal and hydraulic performance of three AM HXs built using a traditionally manufactured, stamped aluminum oil cooler design. The AM HXs exhibited significantly higher air-side pressure drop and higher heat transfer rate than the traditional HX in large part due to increased AM surface roughness. Among AM HXs, one AM HX had notably higher heat transfer rate and air-side pressure drop due to poor print quality on the thin air-side fin features. The fin thickness among AM HXs also varied by about 15%, and there were only slight differences in surface roughness. This study indicates that functional HXs built using AM vary in performance even when the same digital model is used to print them and that AM HXs as a group can perform considerably differently than their traditional counterparts.

A Review of Micro Heat Exchanger Flow Physics, Fabrication Methods and Applications

2001 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. Jerry Bowman ◽  
Daniel Maynes
Keyword(s):  
Heat Transfer ◽  
Heat Exchanger ◽  
Design Optimization ◽  
Heat Exchangers ◽  
Review Of The Literature ◽  
Fourth Section ◽  
The Third ◽  
Heat Exchanger Design ◽  
Micro Heat Exchanger ◽  
The Subject

Abstract A review of the literature in the area of micro heat exchangers is presented to provide a concise overview of the recent advances in this field of study. The review is divided into six sections. The first section reviews research focused on understanding friction and heat transfer in microchannels. The second section deals with heat exchanger design, optimization and comparison studies. The third section deals with fabrication methods used for constructing micro heat exchangers. The fourth section reviews applications of micro heat exchangers. The last two sections of the paper deal with miscellaneous topics and other reviews on the subject. The total review focuses on advances made after the early 1990’s.

Numerical Simulation of the Flow Boiling Heat Transfer Performance of R134a in a Microchannel Evaporator With Louvered Fins

2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
Justin J. Gossard ◽  
Andrew D. Sommers
Keyword(s):  
Heat Transfer ◽  
Heat Exchanger ◽  
Pressure Drop ◽  
Heat Exchangers ◽  
Flow Boiling ◽  
Control Volume ◽  
Cooling Capacity ◽  
Heat Exchanger Design ◽  
Microchannel Tubes ◽  
Louvered Fins

The need for more compact and more efficient heat exchangers in the aerospace, automotive, and HVAC&R industries has led to the development of heat exchangers that utilize minichannel or microchannel tubes coupled with louvered fins. Minichannel and microchannel heat exchangers exhibit enhanced heat transfer with a minimal increase in pressure drop over conventional round tube, plain fin heat exchangers often with a significant reduction in the required refrigeration charge and overall heat exchanger size. This paper presents the development and validation of a finite volume, steady-state evaporator model to be used as an aid in heat exchanger design and analysis. The model focuses on evaporator geometries that include minichannel and microchannel tubes with louvered fins and headers. Multiple published correlations provide the user with options for calculating the air-side and refrigerant-side heat transfer and pressure drops within the control volume. Once the model was validated, it was then briefly used to study the effects of maldistribution of refrigerant within the inlet headers on the cooling capacity and refrigerant side pressure drop.

Best Strategies for the Development of a Holistic Porosity Model of a Heat Exchanger for Aero Engine Applications

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. Yakinthos ◽  
D. Misirlis ◽  
Z. Vlahostergios ◽  
M. Flouros ◽  
S. Donnerhack ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Heat Transfer ◽  
Heat Exchanger ◽  
Heat Exchangers ◽  
Pressure Loss ◽  
Engine Performance ◽  
Operational Parameters ◽  
Tubular Heat Exchanger ◽  
Tube Heat Exchanger ◽  
Aero Engine ◽  
Porosity Model

In an attempt to manage CFD computations in aero engine heat exchanger design, this work presents the best strategies and the methodology used to develop a holistic porosity model, describing the heat transfer and pressure drop behavior of a complex profiled tubular heat exchanger for aero engine applications. Due to the complexity of the profile tube heat exchanger geometry and the very large number of tubes, detailed CFD computations require very high CPU and memory resources. For this reason the complex heat exchanger geometry is replaced in the CFD computations by a simpler porous medium geometry with predefined pressure loss and heat transfer. The present work presents a strategy for developing a holistic porosity model adapted for heat exchangers, which is capable to describe their macroscopic heat transfer and pressure loss average performance. For the derivation of the appropriate pressure loss and heat transfer correlations, CFD computations and experimental measurements are combined. The developed porosity model is taking into consideration both streams of the heat exchanger (hot and cold side) in order to accurately calculate the inner and outer pressure losses, in relation to the achieved heat transfer and in conjunction with the selected heat exchanger geometry, weight and operational parameters. For the same heat exchanger, RAM and CPU requirement reductions were demonstrated for a characteristic flow passage of the heat exchanger, as the porosity model required more than 80 times less computational points than the detailed CFD model. The proposed porosity model can be adapted for recuperation systems with varying heat exchanger designs having different core arrangements and tubes sizes and configurations, providing an efficient tool for the optimization of the heat exchangers design and leading to an increase of the overall aero engine performance.

Air-Side Heat Transfer Performance of Louver Fin and Multitube Heat Exchanger for Direct Methanol Fuel Cell Cooling Application

2014 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Hie Chan Kang ◽  
Hyejung Cho ◽  
Jin Ho Kim ◽  
Anthony M. Jacobi
Keyword(s):  
Heat Transfer ◽  
Heat Exchanger ◽  
Pressure Drop ◽  
Heat Exchangers ◽  
Direct Methanol Fuel Cell ◽  
Heat Transfer Performance ◽  
Transfer Performance ◽  
Side Pressure ◽  
Direct Methanol ◽  
Methanol Fuel Cell

The present work is performed to evaluate the heat transfer performance of a heat exchanger used in a direct methanol fuel cell. Because of material constraints and performance requirements, a louver fin heat exchanger is modified for use with conventional microchannel tubes and also with multiple small-diameter tubes (called multitubes). Prototype heat exchangers are tested, and the air-side heat transfer, pressure drop, and fan power are measured in a wind tunnel and simulated using a commercial code. The air-side pressure drop and heat transfer coefficient of the multitubes show similar trends to those of the flat-tube heat exchanger if the contact resistance is negligible. The tube spacing of the prototype multitube heat exchangers has a small effect on the pressure drop and heat transfer, but it has a profound effect on the air-side heat transfer performance because of the contact resistance between the tubes and louver fins. The air-side pressure drop agrees well with an empirical correlation for flat tubes.

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