Affiliation:
1. Central South University
Abstract
This paper mainly explores the numerical simulation of flow and temperature fields in the shell-side of the radial heat pipe heat exchangers (HPHE), using CFD software-FLUENT. Field synergy principle is applied to analyze heat and mass transfer mechanism of heat exchangers; also, the influence of the variation of principle constructor parameters of heat exchangers on the field synergy effect and heat exchange performance has been studied. It has been found that better performance of heat exchangers is achieved with better field synergy effect; in the context of increasing transverse and longitudinal tube pitches within certain values of data, the heat transfer coefficient decreases as synergy angle increases. Variation of fin height has little effect on synergy angle, but it would decrease the heat transfer coefficient at unit pressure drop (k/Δp) as it increases; as fin pitch increases, the synergy angle first decreases and then grows, while k/Δp first increases and then decreases. The optimal ranges of heat exchanger structure parameters values were found.
Publisher
Trans Tech Publications, Ltd.