Study on thermal-hydraulic characteristics of hybrid heat exchangers with interpolated etched plates

Abstract

The Supercritical carbon dioxide (S-CO2) Brayton cycle can be used to recover the exhaust heat energy of marine diesel engines. The hybrid heat exchanger is one of the potential solutions for heat exchange between flue gas and S-CO2, but there is no good design theory and design method at present. The traditional hybrid heat exchanger has an one-to-one correspondence between the fin and the etched plate. However, under special requirements, it is necessary to insert etched plates in the hybrid heat exchanger to improve the thermalhydraulic characteristics. In this study, four CFD models of the hybrid heat exchangers with interpolated etched plates were established. When the total mass flow rate and the total mass velocity are constant, the thermalhydraulic characteristics of the hybrid heat exchanger are analyzed by Fluent. The results show that regardless of the constant mass flow rate or the constant mass velocity, inserting etched channels into the hybrid heat exchanger will increase the total heat transfer coefficient. When the total mass flow rate of the cold and hot fluids is unchanged, the heat transfer coefficient and pressure drop of the etched channel decrease with the increase of the inserted etched channel. When the total mass velocity of the hybrid heat exchanger is unchanged, the insertion of the etched channel causes the pressure drop and the convective heat transfer coefficient of the fin channel to increase. Meanwhile, the pressure drop and convective heat transfer coefficient of the etched channels are reduced, but the total heat transfer coefficient is increased. The study can provide guidance for the design of the hybrid heat exchangers.