Cross-Scale Simulation Study of Porous Medium Heat Exchangers Based on Reliable Cell Selection

Yiqiang Liang, Jun Zhang, Yu Liu (), Mingrui Sun and Yongchen Song ()
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Yiqiang Liang: Key Laboratory of Ocean Energy Utilization and Energy Conservation of Ministry of Education, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian 116024, China
Jun Zhang: Key Laboratory of Ocean Energy Utilization and Energy Conservation of Ministry of Education, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian 116024, China
Yu Liu: Key Laboratory of Ocean Energy Utilization and Energy Conservation of Ministry of Education, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian 116024, China
Mingrui Sun: Key Laboratory of Ocean Energy Utilization and Energy Conservation of Ministry of Education, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian 116024, China
Yongchen Song: Key Laboratory of Ocean Energy Utilization and Energy Conservation of Ministry of Education, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian 116024, China

Energies, 2025, vol. 18, issue 13, 1-18

Abstract: This study compares the heat transfer and pressure drop of three cell structures, namely Kelvin cells (KCs), ellipsoidal Kelvin cells (EKCs), and body-centered cubic (BCC) structures, at the cell scale in order to identify the superior configuration. Then, we conducted numerical simulations on the heat exchangers based on porous media, and evaluate their comprehensive performance. It is shown that KCs have a superior heat transfer. Their volumetric heat transfer coefficient (h V ) is more than 50% higher than that of EKCs and more than 100% higher than that of BCC structures. EKCs exhibit a lower pressure drop. In the heat exchanger performance optimization study, the Kelvin structure demonstrated significant heat transfer characteristics. Simulation data show that the heat transfer performance at the hot end of the Kelvin heat exchanger (KCHE) is enhanced by more than 40% compared to the conventional plate-fin structure (FHE), but its flow channel pressure drop characteristics show a significant nonlinear increase. It is noteworthy that the improved Kelvin heat exchanger (EKCHE), optimized by introducing elliptic cell topology, maintains heat transfer while keeping the pressure loss increase within 1.22 times that of the conventional structure. The evaluation of the heat transfer and pressure drop characteristics is consistent for both scales. In addition, the EKC configuration exhibits a superior overall heat transfer capacity. To summarize, this work proposes a systematic numerical framework encompassing cell unit screening through heat exchanger design, offering valuable guidance for the structured development and analysis of porous media heat exchangers in relevant engineering domains.

Keywords: heat exchangers; forced convection heat transfer; porous structure; cross-scale simulation; computational fluid dynamics (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: 2025
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