Numerical Improvement Using Flow and Heat Transfer Calculations of the Zigzag Geometry for Carbon Dioxide PCHEs

Bo Wang, Jiafei Shen, Jindong Cheng and Yaliang Wang
Additional contact information
Bo Wang: School of Energy and Power Engineering, University of Shanghai for Science and Technology, Shanghai 200093, China
Jiafei Shen: School of Energy and Power Engineering, University of Shanghai for Science and Technology, Shanghai 200093, China
Jindong Cheng: School of Energy and Power Engineering, University of Shanghai for Science and Technology, Shanghai 200093, China
Yaliang Wang: School of Energy and Power Engineering, University of Shanghai for Science and Technology, Shanghai 200093, China

Energies, 2022, vol. 15, issue 8, 1-16

Abstract: A printed circuit heat exchanger (PCHE) is an efficient and compact heat exchanger that can work under high temperature and high pressure. For Z-shaped channel PCHEs, the corner structure could enhance heat transfer at the expense of increasing the flow resistance. In order to optimize the structural design and control the pressure loss caused by the corner, a three-dimensional numerical simulation using ICEM and Fluent is conducted to study the flow and heat transfer characteristics of carbon dioxide in a PCHE by inserting straight sections (offset distance 0.5–4 mm) or arc segments (radius of curvature 0.5–4 mm) at the zigzag corners of conventional Z-shaped channels. The overall performance of the PCHEs with different structures was compared based on the comprehensive evaluation factor. The results show that the pressure loss of the PCHE can be significantly reduced by inserting straight sections and arc segments at the zigzag corners, with the mass flow rate varying from 100 to 400 kg/(m 2 s). The greater the offset distance of the straight sections or curvature radius of the arc segments are, the more significant the effect is, but the heat transfer performance will be weakened at the same time. The comprehensive performance of the PCHE was the best when the curvature radius of the arc segment inserted at the zigzag corner was 4 mm.

Keywords: printed circuit heat exchanger; Z-shaped channel; carbon dioxide; optimize; zigzag corner; comprehensive evaluation factor (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/15/8/2831/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/15/8/2831/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jeners:v:15:y:2022:i:8:p:2831-:d:792778

Access Statistics for this article

Energies is currently edited by Ms. Agatha Cao

More articles in Energies from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().