Optimal design of multistage two-dimensional cellular-cored sandwich panel heat exchanger

Abstract

For a two-dimensional (2D) cellular-cored sandwich panel heat exchanger, there exists an optimum cell size to achieve the maximum heat transfer with the prescribed pressure drop when the length is fixed and the two plates are isothermal. However, in engineering design, it is difficult to find 2D cellular materials with the ideal cell size because the cell size selected must be from those commercially available, which are discrete, not continuous. In order to obtain the maximum heat dissipation, an innovative design scheme is proposed for the sandwich panel heat exchanger which is divided into multiple stages in the direction of fluid flow where the 2D cellular material in each stage has a specific cell size. An analytical model is presented to evaluate the thermal performance of the multistage sandwich panel heat exchanger when all 2D cellular materials have the same porosity. Also, a new parameter named equivalent cell size (ECS) is defined, which is dependent on the cell size and length of cellular material in all stages. Results show that the maximum heat dissipation design of the multistage sandwich panel heat exchanger can be converted to make the ECS equal to the optimal cell size of the single-stage exchanger.