Development of rotary heat exchanger model to investigate performance with integrating controller

Abstract

Abstract The heat wheel Considers one of the best heat recovery devices with very high effectiveness, which leads to great savings in energy and operating expenses. This research study a novel dynamic model of a rotary heat exchanger automatically control the temperature of outlet air despite the operating conditions are changed. The model is implemented under MATLAB/SIMULINK environment to investigate the performance of the heat wheel considering the air properties changing during the operation. The transient effect of air-flow rate, inlet air temperature and wheel rotational speed on the output temperature and effectiveness are discussed. The optimum rotational speed of a heat wheel was investigated for different operating conditions. The temperature distribution of air and matrix for one Full cycle of heat wheel were investigated. The model was validated based on data found in previously published experimental work. Results reveal that the effectiveness of the device is inversely proportional to the amount of flow, while it is directly proportional to the rotational wheel speed. The effectiveness is slightly affected by the inlet air temperature.