Optimal distribution of metal foam inserts in a double-pipe heat exchanger

Abstract

Purpose In the present research, a numerical investigation is carried out to study the fluid flow and heat transfer in a double-pipe, counter-flow heat exchanger exploiting metal foam inserts partially in both pipes. The purpose of this study is to achieve the optimal distribution of a fixed volume of metal foam throughout the pipes which provides the maximum heat transfer rate with the minimum pressure drop increase. Design/methodology/approach The governing equations are solved using the finite volume method. The metal foams are divided into different number of parts and positioned at different locations. The number of metal foam parts, their placements and their volume ratios in each pipe are sought to reach the optimal conditions. The four-piece metal foam with optimized placement and partitioning volume ratios is selected as the best layout. The effects of the permeability of metal foam on the Nusselt number, the performance evaluation criteria (PEC) and the overall heat transfer coefficient are investigated. Findings It was observed that the heat transfer rate, the overall heat transfer coefficient and the effectiveness of the heat exchanger can be improved as high as 69, 124 and 9 per cent, respectively, while the highest value of PEC is 1.36. Practical implications Porous materials are widely used in thermo-fluid systems such as regenerators, heat sinks, solar collectors and heat exchangers. Originality/value Having less pressure drop than fully filled heat exchangers, partially filled heat exchangers with partitioned metal foams distributed optimally enhance heat transfer rate more economically.

Pressure drop and heat transfer characteristics in 60° Chevron plate heat exchanger using Al2O3, GNP and MWCNT nanofluids

“…Literature survey suggests that fluid flow in PHE becomes turbulent at extremely low Reynolds number due to geometrical complexity (Ajeel et al , 2019; Arasteh et al , 2019). Hence, after importing the meshing into Ansys Fluents 15, the energy equation and k-epsilon model along with standard wall functions are used in computation.…”

Pressure drop and heat transfer characteristics in 60° Chevron plate heat exchanger using Al2O3, GNP and MWCNT nanofluids

“…Literature survey suggests that fluid flow in PHE becomes turbulent at extremely low Reynolds number due to geometrical complexity (Ajeel et al , 2019; Arasteh et al , 2019). Hence, after importing the meshing into Ansys Fluents 15, the energy equation and k-epsilon model along with standard wall functions are used in computation.…”

A novel trussed fin-and-elliptical tube heat exchanger with periodic cellular lattice structures

“…During the past decades, the heat transfer phenomenon in CMs has received considerable attention. CMs have considerable applications in advanced thermal dissipation management systems, such as compact heat exchangers (Arasteh et al, 2019;Buonomo et al, 2020;Huisseune et al, 2015;Kotresha and Gnanasekaran, 2020;Sertkaya et al, 2012), thermal energy storages (Xu et al, 2020;Yang et al, 2019), electronics heat sinks (Li et al, 2021a(Li et al, , 2021b, and fuel cells (Dukhan and Hmad, 2022;Vazifeshenas et al, 2020), due to their high surface-to-volume ratio (SA:V) (from about 500 to over 10000 m 2 /m 3 ), highly conducting lattice frameworks, ultra-low weight with high strength characteristics and ability to create tortuous flow-paths to promote mixing and disturbance of the fluid flow. Consequently, the three-dimensional vortices, such as horseshoe and arch-shaped vortex, caused by the tortuous path followed by a fluid passing through the CM further augment heat transfer Fin-andelliptical tube heat exchanger (Kim et al, 2005;Liang et al, 2022).…”

Performance of a double-pipe heat exchanger with different met-al foam arrangements

“…where . The formula of the average Nussle number on the outer surface of the inner cylinder is [15] The pressure drop in the annular stream was calculated from [12] The friction factor (f) was calculated for the cold air stream from [13] The effectiveness of the double-pipe heat exchanger (E) was estimated from [1] (18)…”

Pressure drop and heat transfer characteristics in 60° Chevron plate heat exchanger using Al2O3, GNP and MWCNT nanofluids

“…Literature survey suggests that fluid flow in PHE becomes turbulent at extremely low Reynolds number due to geometrical complexity (Ajeel et al , 2019; Arasteh et al , 2019). Hence, after importing the meshing into Ansys Fluents 15, the energy equation and k-epsilon model along with standard wall functions are used in computation.…”

A novel trussed fin-and-elliptical tube heat exchanger with periodic cellular lattice structures

“…During the past decades, the heat transfer phenomenon in CMs has received considerable attention. CMs have considerable applications in advanced thermal dissipation management systems, such as compact heat exchangers (Arasteh et al, 2019;Buonomo et al, 2020;Huisseune et al, 2015;Kotresha and Gnanasekaran, 2020;Sertkaya et al, 2012), thermal energy storages (Xu et al, 2020;Yang et al, 2019), electronics heat sinks (Li et al, 2021a(Li et al, , 2021b, and fuel cells (Dukhan and Hmad, 2022;Vazifeshenas et al, 2020), due to their high surface-to-volume ratio (SA:V) (from about 500 to over 10000 m 2 /m 3 ), highly conducting lattice frameworks, ultra-low weight with high strength characteristics and ability to create tortuous flow-paths to promote mixing and disturbance of the fluid flow. Consequently, the three-dimensional vortices, such as horseshoe and arch-shaped vortex, caused by the tortuous path followed by a fluid passing through the CM further augment heat transfer Fin-andelliptical tube heat exchanger (Kim et al, 2005;Liang et al, 2022).…”

Performance of a double-pipe heat exchanger with different met-al foam arrangements

“…where . The formula of the average Nussle number on the outer surface of the inner cylinder is [15] The pressure drop in the annular stream was calculated from [12] The friction factor (f) was calculated for the cold air stream from [13] The effectiveness of the double-pipe heat exchanger (E) was estimated from [1] (18)…”

Pressure drop and heat transfer characteristics in 60° Chevron plate heat exchanger using Al2O3, GNP and MWCNT nanofluids

“…Literature survey suggests that fluid flow in PHE becomes turbulent at extremely low Reynolds number due to geometrical complexity (Ajeel et al , 2019; Arasteh et al , 2019). Hence, after importing the meshing into Ansys Fluents 15, the energy equation and k-epsilon model along with standard wall functions are used in computation.…”

A novel trussed fin-and-elliptical tube heat exchanger with periodic cellular lattice structures

“…During the past decades, the heat transfer phenomenon in CMs has received considerable attention. CMs have considerable applications in advanced thermal dissipation management systems, such as compact heat exchangers (Arasteh et al, 2019;Buonomo et al, 2020;Huisseune et al, 2015;Kotresha and Gnanasekaran, 2020;Sertkaya et al, 2012), thermal energy storages (Xu et al, 2020;Yang et al, 2019), electronics heat sinks (Li et al, 2021a(Li et al, , 2021b, and fuel cells (Dukhan and Hmad, 2022;Vazifeshenas et al, 2020), due to their high surface-to-volume ratio (SA:V) (from about 500 to over 10000 m 2 /m 3 ), highly conducting lattice frameworks, ultra-low weight with high strength characteristics and ability to create tortuous flow-paths to promote mixing and disturbance of the fluid flow. Consequently, the three-dimensional vortices, such as horseshoe and arch-shaped vortex, caused by the tortuous path followed by a fluid passing through the CM further augment heat transfer Fin-andelliptical tube heat exchanger (Kim et al, 2005;Liang et al, 2022).…”

Performance of a double-pipe heat exchanger with different met-al foam arrangements

“…where . The formula of the average Nussle number on the outer surface of the inner cylinder is [15] The pressure drop in the annular stream was calculated from [12] The friction factor (f) was calculated for the cold air stream from [13] The effectiveness of the double-pipe heat exchanger (E) was estimated from [1] (18)…”