Numerical study on flow and heat transfer performance of serpentine parallel flow channels in a high voltage heater system

Abstract

In this study, a high voltage heater system with a size of 310 mm ? 210 mm ? 60 mm has been numerically studied and experimentally verified to explore the influence of the cavity structure on the flow and heat transfer performance. The response surface model and analysis of variance are used to determine the influence of the length of the mainstream area of the inlet, Lin, the length of the mainstream area of the outlet, Lout, the length of the parallel flow channel, Lch, and the single channel width, W, on the flow heat transfer, and ultimately find the best structural plan. The results show that the structural parameters of the parallel flow channel are significantly more important than those of the mainstream area, with the width and length of the parallel single channel being the primary and secondary structural parameters, respectively. The optimization scheme obtained by the NGSA-II algorithm can simultaneously meet the requirements of heat transfer and flow uniformity. Specifically, compared with the original model, the flow distribution uniformity coefficient, S, and the inlet/outlet pressure drop, Ptotal, decreased by 53.49% and 19.52%, respectively, while the average heat transfer coefficient increased by 28.05%.