Heat pipe heat exchanger for heat recovery in air conditioning

The heat pipe heat exchangers are used in heat recovery applications to cool the incoming fresh air in air conditioning applications. Two streams of fresh and return air have been connected with heat pipe heat exchanger to investigate the thermal performance and effectiveness of heat recovery system. Ratios of mass flow rate between return and fresh air of 1, 1.5 and 2.3 have been adapted to validate the heat transfer and the temperature change of fresh air. Fresh air inlet temperature of 32–40 °C has been controlled, while the inlet return air temperature is kept constant at about 26 °C. The results showed that the temperature changes of fresh and return air are increased with the increase of inlet temperature of fresh air. The effectiveness and heat transfer for both evaporator and condenser sections are also increased to about 48%, when the inlet fresh air temperature is increased to 40 °C. The effect of mass flow rate ratio on effectiveness is positive for evaporator side and negative for condenser side. The enthalpy ratio between the heat recovery and conventional air mixing is increased to about 85% with increasing fresh air inlet temperature. The optimum effectiveness of heat pipe heat exchanger is estimated and compared with the present experimental data. The results showed that the effectiveness is close to the optimum effectiveness at fresh air inlet temperature near the fluid operating temperature of heat pipes.     

Optimum temperatures in a shell and tube condenser with respect to exergy

This paper focuses on evaluation of the optimum cooling water temperature during condensation of saturated water vapor within a shell and tube condenser, through minimization of exergy destruction. First, the relevant exergy destruction is mathematically derived and expressed as a function of operating temperatures and mass flow rates of both vapor and coolant. The optimization problem is defined subject to condensation of the entire vapor mass flow and it is solved based on the sequential quadratic programming (SQP) method. The optimization results are obtained at two different condensation temperatures of 46 °C and 54 °C for an industrial condenser. As the upstream steam mass flow rates increase, the optimal inlet cooling water temperature and exergy efficiency decrease, whereas exergy destruction increases. However, the results are higher for optimum values at a condensation temperature of 54 °C, compared to those when the condensation temperature is 46 °C. For example, when the steam mass flow rate is 1 kg/s and the condensation temperature increases from 46 °C to 54 °C, the optimal upstream coolant temperature increases from 16.78 °C to 25.17 °C. Also, assuming an ambient temperature of 15 °C, the exergy destruction decreases from 172.5 kW to 164.6 kW. A linear dependence of exergy efficiency on dimensionless temperature is described in terms of the ratio of the temperature difference between the inlet cooling water and the environment, to the temperature difference between condensation and environment.     

Second law analysis on the heat transfer of the horizontal concentric tube heat exchanger

In the present study, the theoretical and experimental results of the second law analysis on the heat transfer and flow of a horizontal concentric tube heat exchanger are presented. The experiments setup are designed and constructed for the measured data. Hot water and cold water are used as working fluids. The test runs are done at the hot and cold water mass flow rates ranging between 0.02 and 0.20 kg/s and between 0.02 and 0.20 kg/s, respectively. The inlet hot water and inlet cold water temperatures are between 40 and 50 °C, and between 15 and 20 °C, respectively. The effects of the inlet conditions of both working fluids flowing through the heat exchanger on the heat transfer characteristics, entropy generation, and exergy loss are discussed. The mathematical model based on the conservation equations of energy is developed and solved by the central finite difference method to obtain temperature distribution, entropy generation, and exergy loss. The predicted results obtained from the model are validated by comparing with the present measured data. There is reasonable agreement from the comparison between predicted results and those from the measured data.     

Effect of an interfacial shear stress on steam condensation in the presence of a noncondensable gas in a vertical tube

Experimental and analytical studies were performed to examine local condensation heat transfer coefficients in the presence of a noncondensable gas inside a vertical tube. The experimental data for pure steam and steam/nitrogen mixture bypass modes were compared to study the effects of noncondensable nitrogen gas on annular film condensation phenomena. The condenser tube had a relatively small inner diameter of 13 mm. The experimental results demonstrated that the local heat transfer coefficients increased as the inlet steam flow rate increased and the inlet nitrogen mass fraction decreased. The results obtained using steam/nitrogen mixtures with a low inlet nitrogen mass fraction were similar to those obtained using pure steam. Therefore, the effects of noncondensable gas on steam condensation were weak in the small-diameter condenser tube because of interfacial shear stress. A new correlation based on dimensionless shear stress and noncondensable gas mass fraction variables was developed to evaluate the condensation heat transfer coefficient inside a vertical tube with noncondensable gas, irrespective of the condenser tube diameter. A theoretical model using a heat and mass transfer analogy and simple models using four empirical correlations were developed and compared with the experimental data obtained under various experimental conditions. The predictions of the theoretical model and the simple model based on a new correlation were in good agreement with the experimental results.     

Visualization on flow patterns during condensation of R410A in a vertical rectangular channel

The visualization experiments on HFC R410A condensation in a vertical rectangular channel （14.34mm hydraulic diameter, 160mm length） were investigated. The flow patterns and heat transfer coefficients of condensation in the inlet region were presented in this paper. Better heat transfer performance can be obtained in the inlet region, and flow regime transition in other regions of the channel was also observed. Condensation experiments were carried out at different mass fluxes （ from 1.6 kg/h to 5.2 kg/h） and at saturation temperature 28~ C. It was found that the flow patterns were mainly dominated by gravity at low mass fluxes. The effects of interfacial shear stress on condensate fluctuation are significant for the film condensation at higher mass flux in vertical flow, and con- sequently, the condensation heat transfer coefficient increases with the mass flux in the experimental conditions, The drop formation and growth process of condensation were also observed at considerably low refrigerant vapor flow rate.     

Heat Transfer Enhancement during Condensation in Smooth Tubes with Helical Wire Inserts

This study investigates the heat transfer characteristics of a horizontal tube-in-tube heat exchanger with a helical wire inserted in the inner tube. The influence of the pitch (or helix angle) of the wire on the heat transfer performance and pressure drop during condensation (having all other geometric parameters the same) was investigated experimentally. Tests were conducted for condensing refrigerants R22, R134a, and R407C at an average saturation temperature of 40°C, with mass fluxes ranging from 300–800 kg/m²s and with vapor qualities ranging from 0.85–0.95 at condenser inlet to 0.05–0.15 at condenser outlet. Measurements were made for three helical wire-inserted tubes with different pitches of 5, 7.77, and 11 mm. The local and average heat transfer coefficients were compared not only with the measured data of a smooth tube, but also with the results of micro-fin tubes. The tube with a helical wire pitch of 5 mm inserts was found to have the highest enhancement factor, which can be elucidated by the extension of the annular flow regime. Heat transfer coefficient correlations for helical wire inserts were deduced, and they predicted the experimental data to within 20%.     

Thermal performance and pressure drop of the helical-coil heat exchangers with and without helically crimped fins

In the present study, the thermal performance and pressure drop of the helical-coil heat exchanger with and without helical crimped fins are studied. The heat exchanger consists of a shell and helically coiled tube unit with two different coil diameters. Each coil is fabricated by bending a 9.50 mm diameter straight copper tube into a helical-coil tube of thirteen turns. Cold and hot water are used as working fluids in shell side and tube side, respectively. The experiments are done at the cold and hot water mass flow rates ranging between 0.10 and 0.22 kg/s, and between 0.02 and 0.12 kg/s, respectively. The inlet temperatures of cold and hot water are between 15 and 25 °C, and between 35 and 45 °C, respectively. The cold water entering the heat exchanger at the outer channel flows across the helical tube and flows out at the inner channel. The hot water enters the heat exchanger at the inner helical-coil tube and flows along the helical tube. The effects of the inlet conditions of both working fluids flowing through the test section on the heat transfer characteristics are discussed.     

Exergoeconomic analysis of condenser type heat exchangers

In this study, an exergoeconomic analysis of condenser type parallel flow heat exchangers is presented. Exergy losses of the heat exchanger and investment and operation expenses related to this are determined with functions of steam mass flow rate and water exit temperature at constant values of thermal power of the heat exchanger at 75240 W, cold water mass flow rate and temperature. The inlet temperature of water is 18 °C and exit temperatures of water are varied from 25 °C to 36 °C. The values of temperature and pressure of saturated steam in the condenser are given to be T_con=47 ° C and P_con=10.53 kPa. Constant environment conditions are assumed. Annual operation hour and unit price of electrical energy are taken into account for determination of the annual operation expenses. Investment expenses are obtained according to the variation of heat capacity rate and logarithmic mean temperature difference and also heat exchanger dimension determined for each situation. The present analysis is hoped to be useful in determining the effective parameters for the most appropriate exergy losses together with operating conditions and in finding the optimum working points for the condenser type heat exchangers.     

Development of an integrated membrane condenser system with LNG cold energy for water recovery from humid flue gases in power plants

This paper investigates a detailed thermodynamic analysis of a modular-type membrane condenser system where a cooler or condenser is connected in series upstream of the membrane condenser module. A coolant circulates inside the cooler/condenser to cool down the industrial flue gas up to saturation conditions. The analysis covers water recovery rate and energy requirement for different combinations of flue gas humidity, flow rate, and temperature. Additionally, a case study is included which considers a practical industrial exhaust flue gas where the constituents of the flue gas with volumetric ratio and the feed parameters are referred from the literature. The case study investigated the utilization of cold energy obtained by LNG regasification facility as a cooling power source for the water vapor recovery process. A detailed heat transfer analysis based on the heat exchanger model is performed to determine the required mass flow rate of cooling water and natural gas. It is concluded that, the water self-sufficiency of a power plant can be achieved if the mass flow rate of the −50 °C natural gas which is entering the membrane condenser is kept around 0.3 kg s⁻¹ for every 1  kg s⁻¹ flow rate of the 168 °C flue gas.     

Fast pyrolysis of Douglas fir by using tilted-slide reactor and characteristics of biocrude-oil fractions

A tilted-slide fast pyrolyzer was designed for the large-scale production of biocrude-oil. Woody biomass (Douglas fir) was fed into the reactor under different experimental conditions, including reaction temperature and biomass feeding rate, in order to study the biocrude-oil yield and its characteristics. One spray type condenser was used to condense the biocrude-oil by direct contact heat transfer and three shell and tube type condensers were used to collect biocrude-oil by indirect contact heat transfer. The highest biocrude-oil yield (61.9 wt.%) was obtained at 490 °C and a feeding rate of 12.5 kg/h, with most biocrude-oil was collected in the spray type condenser. The characteristics of the biocrude-oils obtained from each condenser were scrutinized and compared, and GC/MS analysis was also conducted to ascertain the chemical components of the biocrude-oil thus obtained.     

Heat transfer coefficients under dry- and wet-surface conditions for a spirally coiled finned tube heat exchanger

In the present study, the average tube-side and air-side heat transfer coefficients in a spirally coiled finned tube heat exchanger under dry- and wet-surface conditions are experimentally investigated. The test section is a spiral-coil heat exchanger, which consists of six layers of concentric spirally coiled tube. Each tube is fabricated by bending a 9.6-mm outside diameter straight copper tube into a spiral coil of four turns. Aluminium fins with thickness 0.6 mm and outside diameter 28.4 mm are placed helically around the tube. The chilled water and the hot air are used as working fluids. The test runs are done at the air and water mass flow rates ranging between 0.02 and 0.2 kg/s and between 0.04 and 0.25 kg/s, respectively. The inlet-air and -water temperatures are between 35 and 60 °C and between 10 and 35 °C, respectively. The effects of the inlet conditions of both working fluids flowing through the heat exchanger on the heat transfer coefficients are discussed. New correlations based on the data gathered during this work for predicting the tube-side and air-side heat transfer coefficients for the spirally coiled finned tube heat exchanger are proposed.     

Entropy generation of vapor condensation in the presence of a non-condensable gas in a shell and tube condenser

This article investigates the entropy production of condensation of a vapor in the presence of a non-condensable gas in a counter-current baffled shell and one-pass tube condenser. The non-dimensional entropy number is derived with respect to heat exchange between the bulk fluid and condensate, as well as heat exchange between the condensate and coolant. Numerical results show that heat transfer from the condensate to the coolant has a dominant role in generating entropy. For example, at an air mass flow rate of 330 kg/h, 93.4% of the total entropy generation is due to this source. The resultant profiles during the condensation process indicate that a higher air mass flow rate leads to a lower rate of entropy production. For example, as the air mass flow rate increases from 330 kg/h to 660 kg/h and 990 kg/h, the total entropy generation decreases from 976 J/s K to 904 and 857.2 J/s K, respectively. By introducing a new parameter called the condensation effectiveness, a correlation is also developed for predictions of the entropy number, and an illustrative example is presented.     

EHD Augmented Convective Boiling: Flow Regimes and Enhanced Heat Transfer

This work investigates the influence of electrohydrodynamics (EHD) on the flow and heat transfer during convective boiling of HFE7000. A unique tube-and-shell heat exchanger has been constructed with heated water flowing on the shell side and a saturated mixture of refrigerant flowing within the tube side. The heat exchanger is novel in that it allows full visual access to the flow in the inner tube while being both thermally and electrically conductive. This permits observation of the two-phase flow regimes, which is not possible with metallic test sections. In this work the influence of EHD on the flow regimes and subsequent overall heat transfer is investigated for fixed inlet refrigerant mass flux of 100 kg/m²-s, inlet quality of 3%, and wall superheat of approximately 11.5°C. For these conditions the applied voltage across a concentric inner electrode and the outer wall of the tube was varied between 0 kV and 10 kV at 60 Hz AC. In particular, this work focuses on quantifying the level of overall enhancement that is achievable with EHD for this heat exchanger. This is done in the context of the additional heat extracted by the working fluid in the heat exchanger compared with the field-free case and the additional power penalties required to do so. Heat transfer enhancements of up to 1.8 -fold were realized in this heat exchanger. Even so, there were hydraulic power increases as well as electrical power required to achieve the heat transfer enhancement. It was found that the electrical power was the dominant penalty and that an overall enhancement of 40 times more heat power extracted than input required was achieved. Finally, a proportional–integral–derivative (PID) control system has been utilized in conjunction with a high-voltage amplifier in order to accurately control the heat transfer rate of the heat exchanger. To our knowledge this is the first solid-state control system of this type for a two-phase heat exchanger.     

Experimental study of a solid adsorption cooling system using flat-tube heat exchangers as adsorption bed

In this paper, a solid adsorption cooling system with silica gel as the adsorbent and water as the adsorbate was experimentally studied. To reduce the manufacturing costs and simplify the construction of the adsorption chiller, a vacuum tank was designed to contain the adsorption bed and evaporator/condenser. Flat-tube type heat exchangers were used for adsorption beds in order to increase the heat transfer area and improve the heat transfer ability between the adsorbent and heat exchanger fins. Under the standard test conditions of 80 °C hot water, 30 °C cooling water, and 14 °C chilled water inlet temperatures, a cooling power of 4.3 kW and a coefficient of performance (COP) for cooling of 0.45 can be achieved. It has provided a specific cooling power (SCP) of about 176 W/(kg adsorbent). With lower hot water flow rates, a higher COP of 0.53 can be achieved.     

Effect of coil-wire insert on heat transfer enhancement and pressure drop of the horizontal concentric tubes

In the present study, the heat transfer characteristics and the pressure drop of the horizontal double pipe with coil-wire insert are investigated. The inner and outer diameters of the inner tube are 8.92 and 9.52 mm, respectively. The coiled wire is fabricated by bending a 1 mm diameter of the iron wire into a coil with a coil diameter of 7.80 mm. Cold and hot water are used as working fluids in the shell side and tube side, respectively. The test runs are performed at the cold and hot water mass flow rates ranging between 0.01 and 0.07 kg/s, and between 0.04 and 0.08 kg/s, respectively. The inlet cold and hot water temperatures are between 15 and 20 °C, and between 40 and 45 °C, respectively. The effect of the coil pitch and relevant parameters on heat transfer characteristics and pressure drop are considered. Coil-wire insert has significant effect on the enhancement of heat transfer especially on laminar flow region. Non-isothermal correlations for the heat transfer coefficient and friction factor are proposed. There is reasonable agreement between the measured data and predicted results.     

Experimental investigation of condensation of hydrocarbon refrigerants (R600a) in a horizontal smooth tube

In this study, the experimental results of the condensing heat transfer coefficients of R600a, a hydrocarbon refrigerant, in a horizontal smooth copper tube with an inner diameter of 4 mm and outer diameter of 6 mm are presented at different vapor quality and different mass fluxes during condensation under annular flow conditions, by adjusting the desired vapor qualities at the test area. A specially-designed sight glass has been fitted to the inlet and outlet of the test tube to identify the flow type by naked eye after the inlet vapor quality of the refrigerant to be fed to the test area during the test is adjusted in the system. Thanks to a new method developed in the measuring system, the condensing heat transfer coefficients could be calculated by measuring the difference value (T_s − T_w) directly from the data collection unit. The experimental findings have shown that the condensing heat transfer coefficients drops down with reduction in vapor quality and the coefficient rises with the increase in the mass flux at constant vapor quality. A correlation has been developed from the data obtained. The condensing heat transfer coefficients obtained from the experimental study were seen to be consistent by ± 20% with the correlations developed by Shah, Travis and Cavallini–Zecchin.     

Direct contact condensation in packed beds

A diffusion driven desalination process was recently described where a very effective direct contact condenser with a packed bed is used to condense water vapor out of an air/vapor mixture. A laboratory scale direct contact condenser has been fabricated as a twin tower structure with two stages, co-current and countercurrent. Experiments have been operated in each stage with respective saturated air inlet temperatures of 36, 40 and 43 °C. The temperature and humidity data have been collected at the inlet and exit of the packed bed for different water to air mass flow ratios that vary between 0 and 2.5. A one-dimensional model based on conservation principles has been developed, which predicts the variation of temperature, humidity, and condensation rate through the condenser stages. Agreement between the model and experiments is very good. It is observed that the countercurrent flow stage condensation effectiveness is significantly higher than that for the co-current stage. The condensation heat and mass transfer rates were found to decrease when water blockages occur within the packed bed. Using high-speed digital cinematography, it was observed that this problem can occur at any operating condition, and is dependent on the packing surface wetting characteristics. This observation is used to explain the requirement for two different empirical constants, depending on packing diameter, suggested by Onda for the air side mass transfer coefficient correlation.     

Experimental and computational evolution of a shell and tube heat exchanger as a PCM thermal storage system

A combined experimental and numerical study has been designed to study thermal behavior and heat transfer characteristics of Paraffin RT50 as a phase change material (PCM) during constrained melting and solidification processes inside a shell and tube heat exchanger. A series of experiments are conducted to investigate the effects of increasing the inlet temperature of the heat transfer fluid (HTF) on the charging and discharging processes of the PCM. The computations are based on an iterative, finite-volume numerical procedure that incorporates a single-domain enthalpy formulation for simulation of the phase change phenomenon. The molten front at various times of process has been studied through a numerical simulation. The experimental results show that by increasing the inlet HTF temperature from T_H = 70 °C to 75 and 80 °C, theoretical efficiency in charging and discharging processes rises from 81.1% to 88.4% and from 79.7% to 81.4% respectively.     

Experimental Investigation of Heat Transfer and Resistance Characteristics of a Finned Oval-Tube Heat Exchanger With Different Air Inlet Angles

The air inlet flow direction is not orthogonal to the heat exchanger surface in many cases. To study the performance of the heat transfer and pressure drop of a heat exchanger with different air inlet angles, this paper shows the experimental system about a finned oval-tube heat exchanger inclined toward the air incoming flow direction. The heat transfer and pressure drop characteristics of four air inlet angles (90°, 60°, 45°, and 30°) are studied separately for the Reynolds number ranging from 1300 to 13000 in this study. The experimental correlations of Nusselt number and resistance coefficient of the air side are acquired. The results show that the overall heat transfer coefficients become smaller and smaller with the decrease of the air inlet angles, while the pressure drops have significant changes. The heat transfer performances of the heat exchanger under the three inclined air inlet angles are worse than that at 90°. Among the three inclined angles, the performance at 45° is the best under identical mass flow rate criterion and at low Reynolds number under identical pressure drop criterion; that at 60° is the best at large Reynolds under identical pressure drop criterion. Finally, some conclusions are attained about the effects of the air inlet angles on the heat transfer and pressure drop performance of the finned oval-tube heat exchanger.     

Experimental study on heat transfer augmentation in a double pipe heat exchanger utilizing jet vortex flow

This paper examines experimentally the effect of jet vortex technology on enhancing the heat transfer rate within a double pipe heat exchanger by supplying the heat exchanger with water at different vortex strengths. A vortex generator with special inclined holes with different inlet angles was designed, manufactured, and integrated within the heat exchanger. In this study, four levels of Reynolds number for hot water in the annulus (Re_h) were used, namely, 10,000; 14,500; 18,030; and 19,600. Similarly, four levels of Reynolds number for cold water in the inner tube (Re_c) were used, namely, 12,000; 17,500; 22,500; and 29,000. As for the inlet flow angle (θ), four different levels were selected, namely, 0°, 30°, 45°, and 60°. The temperature along the heat exchanger was measured utilizing 34 thermocouples installed along the heat exchanger. It was found that increasing the inlet flow angle (θ) and/or the Reynolds number results in an increase in the local Nusselt number, the overall heat transfer coefficient, and the ratio of friction factor. It is revealed that the percentage increase in the average Nusselt number due to swirl flow compared to axial flow was 10%, 40%, and 82% for an inlet flow angle of 30°, 45°, and 60°, respectively.