Heat transfer enhancement with gas-to-gas micro heat exchangers

Abstract

A characterization of gas-to-gas micro heat exchangers has been performed in terms of pressure drop behavior and heat transfer performance. The gas-to-gas micro heat exchangers differ by partition wall material, partition wall thickness and flow arrangement. The pressure drop behavior has been analyzed due to the pressure losses in different sections of the gas-to-gas micro heat exchangers. Increased pressure losses in front of and behind the micro channels have been detected due to modified geometries in the inlet and outlet distribution chambers. The heat transfer performance has been determined in terms of thermal effectiveness. The comparison among different partition wall materials and partition wall thicknesses showed no significant criteria of the influence of thermal conductivity on the thermal effectiveness. An assessment due to an overall heat exchanger effectiveness has been performed to compare the gas-to-gas micro heat exchangers. For this purpose, the overall exergy loss has been calculated by combination of thermal effectiveness and pressure losses. A strong impact of the exergy loss due to pressure drop has been detected which influences the overall exergy loss of the gas-to-gas micro heat exchangers.