TY - JOUR
T1 - Numerical investigation and design optimization of a novel polymer heat exchanger with ogive sinusoidal wavy tube
AU - Kang, Heeseung
AU - Han, Ukmin
AU - Lim, Hongyoung
AU - Lee, Hoseong
AU - Hwang, Yunho
N1 - Funding Information:
This research was supported by the program of Korea Institute of Energy Technology Evaluation and Planning ( KETEP , No. 20198510010040 ), and by the program of the National Research Foundation of Korea . ( NRF-2020R1C1C1011195 ).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2020
PY - 2021/2
Y1 - 2021/2
N2 - In this paper, a novel polymer bare-tube heat exchanger (BTHX) with an ogive tube shape and a sinusoidal wavy channel is proposed and investigated for the liquid-to-gas application. The thermal-hydraulic performance of the proposed polymer BTHX is calculated using a validated computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation model, and the performance is optimized by setting nine independent design variables. A selective-series CFD method with an approximation-assisted optimization technique is developed for the multi-objective optimization to reduce the computational time. As a result, the thermal-hydraulic performance of the optimized novel polymer BTHX shows 91.5% and 134.9% of that of the target aluminum louvered-fin micro-channel heat exchanger (MCHX), respectively. This is mainly due to the improved air-side heat transfer coefficient of the proposed polymer BTHX by 70.2% compared to the target aluminum MCHX. Compared to the recent teardrop-shaped polymer BTHX, the thermal-hydraulic performance of the proposed BTHX is significantly improved. Regarding the polymer thermal conductivity, it is found that the thermal performance degradation can be minimized with at least 8.0 W∙m−1∙K−1 of the thermal conductivity. The flow field of the proposed polymer BTHX is also discussed and shows that the unique structure of the sinusoidal wavy tube can reduce the air-side pressure drop and promote the mixing of the air flow, thereby improving the air-side convective heat transfer.
AB - In this paper, a novel polymer bare-tube heat exchanger (BTHX) with an ogive tube shape and a sinusoidal wavy channel is proposed and investigated for the liquid-to-gas application. The thermal-hydraulic performance of the proposed polymer BTHX is calculated using a validated computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation model, and the performance is optimized by setting nine independent design variables. A selective-series CFD method with an approximation-assisted optimization technique is developed for the multi-objective optimization to reduce the computational time. As a result, the thermal-hydraulic performance of the optimized novel polymer BTHX shows 91.5% and 134.9% of that of the target aluminum louvered-fin micro-channel heat exchanger (MCHX), respectively. This is mainly due to the improved air-side heat transfer coefficient of the proposed polymer BTHX by 70.2% compared to the target aluminum MCHX. Compared to the recent teardrop-shaped polymer BTHX, the thermal-hydraulic performance of the proposed BTHX is significantly improved. Regarding the polymer thermal conductivity, it is found that the thermal performance degradation can be minimized with at least 8.0 W∙m−1∙K−1 of the thermal conductivity. The flow field of the proposed polymer BTHX is also discussed and shows that the unique structure of the sinusoidal wavy tube can reduce the air-side pressure drop and promote the mixing of the air flow, thereby improving the air-side convective heat transfer.
KW - Bare-tube heat exchanger
KW - Multi-objective optimization
KW - Polymer heat exchanger
KW - Selective-series CFD
KW - Sinusoidal wavy channel
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85097685318&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.ijheatmasstransfer.2020.120785
DO - 10.1016/j.ijheatmasstransfer.2020.120785
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85097685318
VL - 166
JO - International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer
JF - International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer
SN - 0017-9310
M1 - 120785
ER -