Experimental Investigation on Fluid Flow Maldistribution in Plate-Fin Heat Exchangers

Jiao, Anjun; Li, Yanzhong; Chen, Chunzheng; Zhang, Rui

doi:10.1080/01457630304028

Cited by 35 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 8 publications

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“…Furthermore, they reported that the flow inside header was important from the dividing and recombining point of view rather than the flow characteristics inside the header. Anjun et al [6] studied the combined effects of inlet header angle and mass flow rate on flow maldistribution to optimize the design of plate fin heat exchanger. Their results concluded that optimum performance can be obtained for an inlet angle of 45˚.…”

Section: Proceedings Of the Asme 2009 7th International Conference Onmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evaluation of a Tapered Header Configuration to Reduce Flow Maldistribution in Minichannels and Microchannels

Dharaiya

Radhakrishnan

Kandlikar

2009

ASME 2009 7th International Conference on Nanochannels, Microchannels and Minichannels

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In designing a heat exchanger, it is generally assumed that the fluid is uniformly distributed through the heat exchanger core. In reality, the flow distribution is rarely uniform due to inlet and outlet header designs and flow velocity changes in the headers. The flow distribution through a plate-fin heat exchanger (straight Z-type flow) with parallel microchannels and minichannels is studied by using a Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) code FLUENT. It was found that the flow maldistribution is quite severe with constant cross-sectional area headers. A modified header design with tapered cross-section was employed and the flow and pressure distributions were investigated using the CFD model. Further, a mathematical model was used to study the effect of the tapered headers on the pressure difference available for each channel across its inlet and outlet ends. The pressure difference across each channel is responsible for the actual flow rate through the channel. Results from the CFD were compared with the model predictions.

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Section: Proceedings Of the Asme 2009 7th International Conference Onmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evaluation of a Tapered Header Configuration to Reduce Flow Maldistribution in Minichannels and Microchannels

Dharaiya

Radhakrishnan

Kandlikar

2009

ASME 2009 7th International Conference on Nanochannels, Microchannels and Minichannels

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Correlations of flow maldistribution parameters in an air cooled heat exchanger

Habib¹,

Ben‐Mansour²,

Said³

et al. 2007

Numerical Methods in Fluids

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SUMMARYThe present paper provides correlations of flow maldistribution parameters in air-cooled heat exchangers. The flow field in the inlet header was obtained through the numerical solution of the governing partial differential equations including the conservation equations of mass and momentum in addition to the equations of the turbulence model. The results were obtained for different number of nozzles of 2-4, different inlet flow velocities of 1-2.5 m/s and different nozzle geometries in addition to incorporation of a second header. The results are presented in terms of mass flow rate distributions in the tubes of the heat exchanger and their standard deviations. The results indicate that the inlet flow velocity has insignificant influence on maldistribution while the nozzle geometry shape has a slight effect. Also, the results indicate that reducing the nozzle diameter results in an increase in the flow maldistribution. A 25% increase is obtained in the standard deviation as a result of decreasing the diameter by 25%. Increasing the number of nozzles has a significant influence on the maldistribution. A reduction of 62.5% in the standard deviation of the mass flow rate inside the tubes is achieved by increasing the number of nozzles from 2 to 4. The results indicate that incorporating a second header results in a significant reduction in the flow maldistribution. A 50% decrease in the standard deviation is achieved as a result of incorporation of a second header of seven holes. It is also found that the hole-diameter distribution at the exit of the second header has a slight influence on the flow maldistribution. Correlations of the flow maldistribution in terms of the investigated parameters are presented.

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Distribution characteristics of liquid in spiral-wound heat exchanger under sloshing conditions

Zheng

Jiang

Wang

et al. 2020

J Therm Anal Calorim

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Experimental Investigation on Fluid Flow Maldistribution in Plate-Fin Heat Exchangers

Cited by 35 publications

References 8 publications

Evaluation of a Tapered Header Configuration to Reduce Flow Maldistribution in Minichannels and Microchannels

Evaluation of a Tapered Header Configuration to Reduce Flow Maldistribution in Minichannels and Microchannels

Correlations of flow maldistribution parameters in an air cooled heat exchanger

Distribution characteristics of liquid in spiral-wound heat exchanger under sloshing conditions

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