Numerical investigation on flow and heat transfer characteristics of supercritical methane–ethane mixture in a straight channel

Abstract

Printed Circuit Heat Exchanger (PCHE) is considered as a promising heat exchanger for offshore Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) production due to its compactness and high efficiency. To reveal the flow and heat transfer performance of real component nature gas mixture in PCHE, numerical study was conducted to obtain flow and heat transfer characteristics of supercritical methane–ethane mixture in a straight channel of PCHE. The influence of operating parameters including inlet temperature, mass flux and outlet pressure are investigated. The simulation results show that heat transfer coefficient and pressure drop increase with the increase of inlet temperature and mass flux, and decrease with the increase of outlet pressure. The overall variation tendency of heat transfer coefficient and pressure drop in supercritical methane–ethane mixture flow was similar to those in supercritical methane flow, but there still exists some difference due to their different physical properties. For the value of heat transfer coefficient, supercritical methane flow is about 7% larger than that of supercritical methane–ethane mixture flow. And for frictional pressure drop, supercritical methane flow is much larger by about 12%. Finally, new correlations were proposed for supercritical methane–ethane mixture flow, which are helpful for a more accurate flow and heat transfer calculation in PCHE designing for natural gas.