Experimental and numerical studies on the thermal-hydraulic performance of a novel airfoil fins printed circuit heat exchanger

Abstract

The novel airfoil fins (AFFs) printed circuit heat exchanger (PCHE) has excellent thermal-hydraulic performance, while experimental investigations about this PCHE are few. The overall thermal-hydraulic performance of the novel AFFs PCHE is tested in this study and compared with that of the straight channels PCHE and the zigzag channels PCHE under identical experimental conditions. The mechanisms of the performance difference among the three PCHEs are numerically analysed. The new Nusselt number (Nu) and Fanning friction factor (f) correlations of supercritical CO2 in the novel AFFs PCHE are proposed. The results indicate that the overall heat transfer coefficient of the novel AFFs PCHE is higher than that of the straight channels PCHE, while the pressure drop of the novel AFFs PCHE is lower than that of the zigzag channels PCHE. The performance evaluation criteria (PEC) of the novel AFFs PCHE is 6.6–15.5% higher than that of the straight channels PCHE and is 12.8–27.8% higher than that of the zigzag channels PCHE, which indicates that the comprehensive performance of the novel AFFs PCHE is the best. The relative errors between the Nu and f predicted by the new thermal-hydraulic correlations and the Nu and f calculated from the experimental and numerical data are within ±20%. The correlations obtained in this work are useful to design and optimize the novel AFFs PCHE.