Experimental Investigation of Newtonian and Non-Newtonian Liquid Fow in Wavy and Straight Mini Channel cross Flow Plate Heat Exchanger

Abstract

In this research, an experimental study was performed regarding the heat transfer performance and pressure drop specifications of a Newtonian fluid and a non-Newtonian fluid. To this end, laminar flow of the deionized (DI) water and the aqueous solution containing 0.2 wt.% carboxyl methyl cellulose (CMC) were used as the Newtonian fluid and the non-Newtonian fluid, respectively, in wavy and straight mini-channel cross-flow heat exchangers (CFHE). Each mini-channel cross-flow plate heat exchanger (MCFPHE) was made of three copper plates for the hot and cold sides, which contain 27 mini-channels in parallel. The mini-channel CFHE was examined for Reynolds numbers (Re) in the range of 200 to 1800 and the hot-side inlet temperature was between 40 °C and 50 °C while the cold-side temperature varied in the range of 10 °C to 20 °C. The thermal and rheological properties of the non-Newtonian fluid were investigated. The results showed that for both fluids, the thermal performance of the wavy mini-channel is more than that of the straight mini-channel and, although the pressure drop was intensified, its effect is low at high Re values