Energy and exergy analyses of tube banks in waste heat recovery applications

Abstract

In this study, energy and exergy analyses have been investigated numerically for unsteady cross-flow over heated circular cylinders. Numerous simulations were conducted varying the number of inline tubes, inlet velocity, dimensionless pitch ratios and Reynolds number. Heat leakage into the domain is modeled as a source term. Numerical results compare favorably to published data in terms of Nusselt number and pressure drop. It was found that the energy efficiency varies between 72% and 98% for all cases, and viscous dissipation has a very low effect on the energy efficiency for low Reynolds number cases. The exergy efficiency ranges from 40-64%, and the entropy generation due to heat transfer was found to have a significant effect on exergy efficiency. The results suggest that exergy efficiency can be maximized by choosing specific pitch ratios for various Reynolds numbers. The results could be useful in designing more efficient heat recovery systems, especially for low temperature applications.