Performance of thermofluidic characteristics of recuperative wavy-plate heat exchangers

Abstract

The present work aims at investigating the influences of the geometric parameters of wavy plates on heat transfer and fluid flow characteristics of a recuperative wavy-plate heat exchanger numerically. The effects of the wavy amplitude, plate pitch, plate thickness, plate length, plate height, and wavelength on the thermofluidic characteristics are examined in the ranges from 0 mm to 10 mm, 5 mm to 15 mm, 0.5 mm to 2 mm, 500 mm to 3500 mm, 200 mm to 600 mm, and 25 mm to 200 mm, respectively. Air is utilized as working fluids for both the hot and cold sides, and the corresponding Reynolds number ranges from 700 to 8000. The present simulation method is first verified by a set of experimental data, followed by a high accurate meshing scheme to minimize the effect of the meshing on the simulation results. The 3D velocity, pressure, and temperature profiles are examined to describe the in-depth fluid flow and heat transfer behaviors in the wavy plate heat exchanger. The phenomena of fluid flow and heat transfer in the wavy plate heat exchanger are analyzed and discussed in detail. Correlations for predicting the Nusselt number and friction factor of the wavy plate heat exchanger are developed with the predictive capability of 98.09% for Nusselt number and 97. 38% for friction factor to be within a ± 10% deviation of the simulation results.