Heat Transfer and Entropy Generation Analysis of an Intermediate Heat Exchanger in ADS

The intermediate heat exchanger for enhancement heat transfer is the important equipment in the usage of nuclear energy. In the present work, heat transfer and entropy generation of an intermediate heat exchanger (IHX) in the accelerator driven subcritical system (ADS) are investigated experimentally. The variation of entropy generation number with performance parameters of the IHX is analyzed, and effects of inlet conditions of the IHX on entropy generation number and heat transfer are discussed. Compared with the results at two working conditions of the constant mass flow rates of liquid lead-bismuth eutectic (LBE) and helium gas, the total pumping power all tends to reduce with the decreasing entropy generation number, but the variations of the effectiveness, number of transfer units and thermal capacity rate ratio are inconsistent, and need to analyze respectively. With the increasing inlet mass flow rate or LBE inlet temperature, the entropy generation number increases and the heat transfer is enhanced, while the opposite trend occurs with the increasing helium gas inlet temperature. The further study is necessary for obtaining the optimized operation parameters of the IHX to minimize entropy generation and enhance heat transfer.     

换热器传递有效度

通过阐述效率法在工业炉余热回收换热器的热力学性能分析中的局限性,提出了一个新的评价换热器热力学性能的概念——传递有效度,得到了一般计算式。讨论了传热单元数、冷热流体热容量比和流型对换热器传递有效度的影响,并把换热器传递有效度和效率以及换热器无因次熵产数进行了比较。     

Comparative Study of Thermal Performance of Parallel Plate and Rectangular Microchannel Counter Flow Heat Exchangers

This paper is aimed at comprehensive investigations of the thermal performance of parallel plate and rectangular microchannel counter flow heat exchangers based on axial conduction, number of transfer units, and non-dimensional power density. The geometrical parameters of the two configurations are optimized for a given heat transfer rate, effectiveness, and pressure drop. A reduced order model of rectangular micro channel counter flow heat exchanger is developed in which it is transformed into a hydrodynamically and thermally equivalent parallel plate micro heat exchanger. To improve the accuracy of the model, correction factors obtained from detailed computational fluid dynamics model are introduced. Various factors affecting the dimensionless power density of both the counter flow micro heat exchangers are studied. It is found that the axial conduction plays an important role on the performance of rectangular channel counter flow micro heat exchanger. In the limiting case where the channel aspect ratio tends to zero, the dimensionless power density of rectangular channel is found to approach that of a parallel plate counter flow micro heat exchanger.     

换热器系统的热力学性能评价

引入可用能损率这一指标对串联组合的换热器系统的热力学性能进行了 分析和评价,得到了换热器系统可用能损率的一般计算式,讨论了换热器系统的总流动趋势、冷热流体热容量流率比、传热单元数及单台换热器的流型、传热有效度和数目等对换热器系统可用能损率的影响。     

Performance of Counterflow,Parallel Plate Heat Exchangers under Laminar Flow Conditions

Multilayered heat exchangers were analyzed theoretically and their heat transfer characteristics were clarified. The problem was treated as a two-dimensional, conjugated one with three phases-two fully developed laminar flows and the exchanger wall. From numerical results, the exchanger effectiveness was found to be definitely influenced by the following parameters: Graetz number, heat capacity flow rate ratio, dimensionless wall thickness, and conductance ratios between fluid and wall and between both fluids. Examination of mixed-mean temperature distributions in the exchanger showed that longitudinal wall conduction significantly reduces exchanger effectiveness in the low-Graetz-number region. Experimental results were in fairly good agreement with theoretical predictions.     

Conflation of ε-Ntu and EGM design methods for heat exchangers with uniform wall temperature

This paper conflates two heat exchanger design approaches – the ε-N_tu (effectiveness–number of transfer units) and the EGM (entropy generation minimization) – focusing on heat exchangers with uniform wall temperature, i.e. condensers and evaporators. An algebraic formulation which expresses the dimensionless rate of entropy generation as a function of the heat exchanger geometry (number of transfer units), the thermal-hydraulic characteristics (friction factor and Colburn j-factor), and the operating conditions (heat transfer duty, core velocity, surface temperature, and fluid properties) is derived. It is shown that there does exist a particular number of transfer units which minimizes the dimensionless rate of entropy generation. An algebraic expression for the optimum heat exchanger effectiveness, based on the working conditions, heat exchanger geometry and fluid properties, is also presented. The theoretical analysis led to the conclusion that a high effectiveness heat exchanger design does not necessarily provide the best thermal-hydraulic performance.     

Analysis of a Parallel-Flow Heat Exchanger with a Heat Source

In this work, a modified analysis of a parallel-flow plate heat exchanger that takes into account a volumetrically uniform heat source in the hot fluid is presented. New expressions for the number of transfer units (NTU) and effectiveness of the heat exchanger are derived. These expressions are verified against the conventional effectiveness–NTU relations in the limit of zero heat source rate. This situation is of interest in applications such as the ammonia–water absorption absorber heat exchanger where a heat source is generated in the solution side. The model studies two cases based on the minimum and maximum heat capacities of the hot fluid. The results show that the number of transfer units and the effectiveness of the heat exchanger are the same for both cases. The analysis is applied to the absorber heat exchanger. Expressions of effectiveness and number of transfer units of a counterflow heat exchanger with a heat source in the hot fluid stream are also given from minimum and maximum heat capacities points of view.     

Effectiveness–NTU Relations for Counterflow Heat Exchangers: The Effect of Kinetic Energy Variation and Heat Leak From Outside

The effectiveness–number of transfer units (NTU) relations are useful data for designing and performance evaluation of heat exchangers with fluids having considerable variation in velocities in the presence of heat leak. In this article, the closed-form (benchmark) solutions for counterflow heat exchangers, when the heat leak is either on the hot or cold side of the heat exchanger in the presence of kinetic energy variation, are presented. It was found that the effectiveness depends on NTU and fluid capacity ratio along with six other dimensionless variables that reflect the magnitude and axial distribution of the kinetic energy and heat leak on the hot and cold sides of the heat exchanger. The results are also presented in a graphical form exhibiting the variation of effectiveness of the heat exchanger with the already-mentioned parameters. It was demonstrated that when the dimensionless heat leak and kinetic energy terms approach zero, the solution reduces to the classical effectiveness–NTU relations for counterflow heat exchangers.     

Second Law Efficiency Analysis of Heat Exchangers

Analytical analysis of unbalanced heat exchangers is carried out to study the second law thermodynamic performance parameter through second law efficiency by varying length‐to‐diameter ratio for counter flow and parallel flow configurations. In a single closed form expression, three important irreversibilities occurring in the heat exchangers—namely, due to heat transfer, pressure drop, and imbalance between the mass flow streams—are considered, which is not possible in first law thermodynamic analysis. The study is carried out by giving special influence to geometric characteristics like tube length‐to‐diameter dimensions; working conditions like changing heat capacity ratio, changing the value of maximum heat capacity rate on the hot stream and cold stream separately and fluid flow type, i.e., laminar and turbulent flows for a fully developed condition. Further, second law efficiency analysis is carried out for condenser and evaporator heat exchangers by varying the effectiveness and number of heat transfer units for different values of inlet temperature to reference the temperature ratio by considering heat transfer irreversibility. Optimum heat exchanger geometrical dimensions, namely length‐to‐diameter ratio can be obtained from the second law analysis corresponding to lower total entropy generation and higher second law efficiency. Second law analysis incorporates all the heat exchanger irreversibilities. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Heat Trans Asian Res; Published online in Wiley Online Library ( wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/htj ). DOI 10.1002/htj.21109     

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In this study, fully developed laminar flow and convective heat transfer in an internally finned tube heat exchanger are investigated numerically. The flow is assumed to be both hydrodynamically and thermally developed with uniform outside wall temperature. Parameters of the thickness, length, and number of fins and thermal conductivity ratio between fin and working fluid are varied to obtain the friction factor as well as Nusselt number. The results show that the heat transfer improves significantly if more fins are used; however, the pressure drop turns out to be large in this heat exchanger. In addition, it is found that the emergence of closed-loop isotherms between the areas of two neighboring fins leads to heat transfer enhancement in the internally finned tube. When the fin number is smaller than 14, there appears a maximum Nusselt number at about 0.8 of the dimensionless fin length. Finally, an experiment is conducted to verify the numerical results.     

Experimental Study of Heat Transfer Enhancement for Fluid Flow Inside Annulus with Spiral Wires

The evaluation of heat transfer and pressure drop in a water flow inside an annulus of a double concentric-tube heat exchanger with spiral wires inserts was carried out. Three spiral wires with a constant pitch and different wire diameter were tested for a Reynolds number from 1500 to 5500 and a Prandtl number from 5 to 8. The results obtained showed that the spiral wires increased the heat transfer and the pressure drop in comparison with a fluid flow inside a smooth annulus. From the heat transfer point of view, this increase was proportional to the wire diameter but the effect decreases when the Reynolds number increases. General empirical correlations based on dimensionless parameters to calculate the convective heat transfer coefficient and friction factor were developed with an uncertainty of ±6.1% and ±7.6%, respectively, when these estimates were compared against experimental data. The empirical correlations developed were also compared with the estimates calculated by empirical correlations proposed by other researchers, resulting in a good agreement with these values. After the validation analysis, it was demonstrated that the new equations developed provide a good and reliable tool for the design of double concentric-tube heat exchangers with spiral wires inserted inside annulus.     

Performance of Counterflow Microchannel Heat Exchangers Subjected to External Heat Transfer

This article analyzes the effect of external heat transfer on the thermal performance of counterflow microchannel heat exchangers. Equations for predicting the axial temperature and the effectiveness of both fluids as well as the heat transferred between the fluids, while operating under external heating or cooling conditions, are provided in this article. External heating may decrease and increase the effectiveness of the hot and cold fluids, respectively. External cooling may improve and degrade the effectiveness of the hot and cold fluids, respectively. For unbalanced flows, the thermal performance of the microchannel heat exchanger subjected to external heat transfer depends on the fluid with the lowest heat capacity. At a particular number of transfer units (NTU), the effectiveness of both the fluids increased with decrease in heat capacity ratio when the hot fluid had the lowest heat capacity. When the cold fluid had the lowest heat capacity, the effectiveness of both fluids increased with decrease in heat capacity ratio at low values of NTU but at high values of NTU the effectiveness increased with increase in heat capacity ratio. A term called the “performance factor” has been introduced in this article to assess the relative change in effectiveness due to external heat transfer.     

一种监测换热器污垢的新方法

在考虑污垢对换热器传热性能影响的基础上,提出换热器当量总污垢热阻和污垢函数的概念,并给出换热器当量总污垢热阻的监测方法,讨论了换热流型、传热有效度ε和冷热流体热容量率比R对换热器当量总污垢热阻的影响。     

Detection of Fouling in a Cross-Flow Heat Exchanger Using Wavelets

Detection of fouling in a heat exchanger experiencing perfect steady-state conditions is not very difficult. But the challenge is to detect fouling when all inputs (inlet temperature of the fluids and the mass flow rates) are simultaneously varying. In this paper it has been considered that the mass flow rates can vary in a ratio of 2, and that the inlet temperatures can vary by about ±20%. This first approach is dedicated to show the feasibility of using the wavelet transform. It has been considered that getting simulated data is the best way. In fact, it is then possible to introduce an arbitrary fouling factor. Thus, in the first part of the paper the model of the heat exchanger is presented. It is developed using Simulink. The validation is carried out on an electrical heater, for which it is possible to find an analytical solution for transient states. It is also shown that steady states are accurately computed over a large range of the number of transfer units and heat capacity rate ratios. Then a brief overview of the wavelet transform is given. Then basic examples show that the wavelet transform can help to find the trend of time series. It is then applied to the analysis of the “wavelet-transformed” effectiveness of the heat exchanger. This analysis is carried out on a sliding observation window (to be able to detect fouling on-line). It is shown that fouling is detected at a very early stage.     

Numerical Simulation of Re-Entry Flow: Heat Flux Evaluation

Abstract

The problem of heat transfer in a four channel plate heat exchanger involving the effect of unsymmetrical heat transfer in the outer two channels is studied analytically and experimentally. An energy balance over a control volume yields the governing system of differential equations that has been solved exactly for the cases of parallel flow and counterflow to give the temperature distribution in the channels. The results show that zero or even reversed heat flow may be obtained at the middle plate of the heat exchanger. Expressions for the heat exchanger efficiency and the log-mean temperature difference correction factor in terms of the heat capacity rate ratio and the number of transfer units are presented. Experiments carried out with a counterflow plate heat exchanger show reasonable agreement between the experimentally observed and the theoretically calculated efficiencies and mean driving temperature differences.     

Experimental exergy and entransy analyses on designed and fabricated crossflow heat exchanger

A crossflow heat exchanger (CFHEx) is designed and fabricated in a workshop. For designing this heat exchanger (HEx), the number of passes, frontal areas, HEx volumes, heat transfer areas, free-flow areas, ratios of minimum free-flow area to frontal area, densities, mass flow rates of flowing fluids, maximum/minimum heat capacities, heat capacity ratio, outlet temperatures of hot/cold fluids, average temperatures, mass velocities, Reynolds numbers, and convective heat transfer coefficients are evaluated by considering Colburn/friction factors. After fabrication of the HEx, effectiveness, exergy destruction, entransy dissipation, entransy dissipation-based thermal resistance, entransy dissipation number, and entransy effectiveness for hot/cold fluids sides are found at different flow rates and inlet temperatures of fluids. By experimental results, optimum operating conditions are found, which gives maximum effectiveness and entransy effectiveness but minimum rates of exergy destruction, entransy dissipation, entransy dissipation-based thermal resistance, and entransy dissipation number for the fabricated CFHEx. This study is concluded as follows: minimum exergy destruction and entransy dissipation rates (ie, 3.061 kJ/s·K and 1125.44 kJ·K/s, respectively) are found during experiment 2. Maximum entransy effectiveness of hot/cold fluids (ie, 0.689/0.21) is achieved in experiment 1. Moderate values of entransy dissipation number (ie, 4.689), entransy dissipation-based thermal resistance (ie, 0.04 s·K/J), exergy destruction (ie, 3.845 kJ/s·K), and entransy dissipation (ie, 1374.04 kJ·K/s) rates are found during experiment 1. Maximum effectiveness (ie, 0.4) for the fabricated HEx is also obtained through experiment 1. After comparative analyses, it is found that experiment 1 provides optimum results, which shows the best performance of the fabricated HEx.     

Effects of Distributor Configuration on Flow Maldistribution in Plate-Fin Heat Exchangers

In this paper, an original concept of a design that adds a complementary fluid cavity in the distributor is presented. The experimental investigation of the effects of distributor configuration parameter on the fluid flow maldistribution in the plate-fin heat exchanger is completed. The correlation of the dimensionless flow maldistribution parameter and the Reynolds number is obtained under different distributor configuration parameters. The experimental studies prove that the performance of flow distribution in heat exchangers can be effectively improved by the optimum design of the distributor's configuration parameter. The ratio of the maximum velocity and the minimum velocity in the channels of the plate-fin heat exchanger can drop from 2.57–3.66 to 2.08–2.81 for various Reynolds numbers. The conclusions are of great significance on the optimum structure design of the plate-fin heat exchangers and can effectively improve the performance of the heat exchangers.     

热能储存过程的热经济学性能评价

从以热力学第二定律为基础的热经济学角度出发,对一个湿热热能储存过程进行了热经济分析,并提出了一个评价热能储存过程热经济生性能的指标－储存单位热能的净收益,讨论了传热单元数,无因次充热时间以及加热气流和被加热液体的热容量之比等参数对其性的影响,结果表明,对热能储存过程存在一最佳的传热单元数和无因次充热时间,在传热单元数较大时,还存在一最佳的加热气流与被加热液休的热容量之比。     

Thermal Performance of Coiled Square Tubes at Large Temperature Differences for Heat Exchanger Application

In many heat exchanger applications, working fluid inside the tubes is subjected to considerable temperature changes. Coiled tubes are used widely in heat exchanger applications due to the enhanced heat transfer rate caused by secondary flows. This study examines the thermal performance of three configurations of coiled tubes of square cross-section, namely, in-plane, helical, and conical coiled tubes, subjected to a large temperature difference between the fluid and the wall and compares it with that of a straight tube of identical cross-section area and length. The concept of figure of merit (FoM) is introduced to compare the heat transfer performance of the various configurations tested. The results indicate that FoM increases as the wall temperature is increased. In addition, the combination of temperature-induced buoyant flow and curvature-induced secondary flow significantly affects the flow behavior and heat transfer performance inside the tubes. The coil pitch in helical and conical tubes has an adverse effect on the heat transfer performance due to shift in vortices generation. The in-plane spiral tube operates at a higher wall temperature and lower Reynolds number, which gives rise to a higher FoM. The highest Nusselt number is obtained for the in-plane spiral tube at higher wall temperature and higher Reynolds number, which shows potential for practical applications.     

考虑污垢时换热器热力学性能的评价

在分析污垢对换热器传热性能影响的基础上,在考虑污垢时采用Ｙｏｎｇ损率这一指标对换热器的热力学性能进行了评价,讨论了传热数和冷热流体热容量率比对其性能的影响,并把结果与不考虑污垢时的情况进行了比较,得到了一些有益的结论。