Abstract
Comparative study has been performed with various channel cross-sectional shapes and channel configurations of a zigzag printed circuit heat exchanger (PCHE), which has been considered as a heat exchanging device for the gas turbine based generation systems. Three-dimensional Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes equations and heat transfer equations are solved to analyze conjugate heat transfer in the zigzag channels. The shear stress transport model with a low Reynolds number wall treatment is used as a turbulence closure. The global Nusselt number, Colburn j-factor, effectiveness, and friction factor are used to estimate the thermal–hydraulic performance of the PCHE. Four different shapes of channel cross section (semicircular, rectangular, trapezoidal, and circular) and four different channel configurations are tested to determine their effects on thermal–hydraulic performance. The rectangular channel shows the best thermal performance but the worst hydraulic performance, while the circular channel shows the worst thermal performance. The Colburn j-factor and friction factor are found to be inversely proportional to the Reynolds number in cold channels, while the effectiveness and global Nusselt number are proportional to the Reynolds number.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
McCormack D (2001) The application of printed circuit heat exchanger technology in the pebble bed modular reactor demonstration plant. In: ASME turbo expo 2001, Louisiana, USA, 2001-GT-0473
Dewson SJ, Grady C (2003) HEATRIC workshop at MIT, Cambridge, MA, USA
Southall D, Dewson SJ (2010) Innovative compact heat exchangers. In: ICAPP10, San Diego, CA, USA, Paper 10300
Bier W, Keller W, Linder G, Seidel D, Schubert K (1990) Manufacturing and testing of compact micro heat exchangers with high volumetric heat transfer coefficients. ASME Dyn Syst Control Div (Publ) DSC 19:189–197
Ishizuka T, Kato Y, Muto Y, Nikitin K, Tri NL, Hashimoto H (2005) Thermal–hydraulic characteristics of a printed circuit heat exchanger in a supercritical CO2 loop. In: The 11th international topical meeting on nuclear reactor thermal–hydraulics, pp 218–232
Ngo L, Kato Y, Nikitin K, Tsuzuki N (2006) New printed circuit heat exchanger with S-shaped fins for hot water supplier. Exp Thermal Fluid Sci 30(8):811–819
Oh C, Kim E, Sharake R, Patterson M (2009) Effect of channel configurations for tritium transfer in printed circuit heat exchangers. In: International congress on advances in nuclear power plants, Paper-9146
Kim IH, No HC, Lee JI, Jeon BG (2010) Thermal–hydraulic behavior in a deteriorated turbulent heat transfer for a gas-cooled reactor. Nucl Eng Des 240:783–795
Oh CH, Kim ES, Sherman S, Kim JH, No HC (2008) Application of gamma code coupled with turbomachinery models for high temperature gas-cooled reactors. In: 12th international symposium on transport phenomena and dynamics of rotating machinery (ISROMAC12), Honolulu, Hawaii, ISROMAC12-2008-20224
Kim DE, Kim MH, Cha JE, Kim SO (2008) Numerical investigation on thermal-hydraulic performance of new printed circuit heat exchanger model. Nucl Eng Des 238:3269–3276
Nikitin K, Kato Y, Ngo L (2006) Printed circuit heat exchanger thermal-hydraulic performance in supercritical CO2 loop. Int J Refrig 29:807–814
Pra F, Tochon P, Mauget C, Fokkens J, Willemsen S (2008) Promising designs of compact heat exchangers for modular HTRs using the Brayton cycle. Nucl Eng Des 238:3160–3173
Lee S-M, Kim K-Y (2012) Optimization of zigzag flow channels of a printed circuit heat exchanger for nuclear power plant application. J Nucl Sci Technol 238(3):343–351
Hesselgreaves JE (2001) Compact heat exchanger selection, design and operation, 1st edn. PERGAMON an imprint of Elsevier Science
CFX-11.0 Solver Theory, Ansys Inc. (2006)
Menter FR (1994) Two-equation Eddy-viscosity turbulence models for engineering applications. AIAA J 32(8):1598–1605
Bardina JE, Huang PG, Coakley T (1997) turbulence modeling validation. In: 28th AIAA fluid dynamics conference, Snow Village, Colorado, USA, AIAA Paper 1997–2121
Acknowledgments
This work was supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) Grant (No. 20090083510) funded by the Korean government (MEST) through Multi-phenomena CFD Engineering Research Center. The authors gratefully acknowledge this support.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Lee, SM., Kim, KY. Comparative study on performance of a zigzag printed circuit heat exchanger with various channel shapes and configurations. Heat Mass Transfer 49, 1021–1028 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00231-013-1149-4
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00231-013-1149-4