A comparative study on thermo-fluid characteristics of free and wall-bounded cross-flow heat exchangers

Abstract

In recent years, wall-bounded cross-flow heat exchangers have gained significant attention for battery cooling applications. Due to similarities in geometry, these systems are often evaluated based on the heat and flow knowledge of free cross-flow heat exchangers. To determine the reliability of this assumption, this study performs a numerical comparison of the thermo-fluid behavior of wall-bounded and free cross-flow heat exchangers. Both heat exchangers have similar dimensions, with transverse and longitudinal pitch ratios of 2.074 and 1.037, respectively, and are investigated at a Reynolds number of 40000 using the Unsteady Reynolds-Averaged Navier–Stokes (URANS) method. It is observed that the k−kl−ω transition model provides the most accurate predictions of the flow field when compared to available experimental data. The results suggest that for wall-bounded heat exchangers with an aspect ratio of 2 or larger, the flow behavior in the central flow region resembles that of a free heat exchanger, but with varying magnitudes due to the increase in velocity in the core region to counterbalance the reduction near the walls. The area-averaged mean Nusselt number from 2D and 3D models for free heat exchangers shows no significant difference compared to wall-bounded heat exchangers. However, there are considerable differences in the local Nusselt number distributions in the angular and spanwise directions. Overall, it is determined that certain conditions must be satisfied to ensure that applying the thermo-fluid characteristics of a free cross-flow heat exchanger to wall-bounded cross-flow heat exchangers in battery thermal management systems is accurate.