CFD analysis andheat transfer characteristics of printed circuit heat exchanger

Abstract

This paper aims to investigate the cubical fins and the thermal-hydraulic characteristics in a Printed Circuit Heat Exchanger (PCHE). The working fluid is considered a supercritical LNG. The outcomes show that the thermal-hydraulic performance is enhanced using the cubical fins comparing it to the straight channel. The maximum and minimum difference of Nu/Eu between the cubical fins channel and the straight channel were 71.7% and 64.8% respectively. It is noticed that the pressure drop and Heat Transfer coefficient are increasedsimultaneously with increasing the mass flux.Using Ansys Fluent 15.0, numerical optimization isperformed to examine and analyzethe influence of the sparser staggered arrangement. The computed results show that this type of arrangement improves the thermal-hydraulic efficiency of the cubical fins in a PCHE. A comparison between the straight fins arrangement and the staggered fins arrangement is reported. It has been noticed that the velocity of the LNG flow in the cubical fins channel is increased along the length of the PCHE, and decreased byincreasing the vertical separation LV. The side effect of the vertical separation LV on the PCHE’s efficiency was more evident than that of the staggered arrangement LS. Finally, afeasibility study is performed to inspect the power consumption of the new design.