CFD Simulation of Flow Distribution in the Header of Plate-Fin Heat Exchangers

✍ Scribed by K. L. Wasewar; S. Hargunani; P. Atluri; K. Naveen

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2007
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 245 KB
• Volume: 30
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0930-7516
• DOI: 10.1002/ceat.200700180

✦ Synopsis

Abstract

The flow distribution through a plate‐fin heat exchanger is studied by using a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) code, FLUENT. The flow distribution through any heat exchanger affects its performance. In designing a heat exchanger, it is assumed that the fluid is uniformly distributed through the heat exchanger core. In practice, however, it is impossible to distribute fluid uniformly, because of an improper inlet configuration, imperfect design, and a complex heat transfer process. The CFD simulation of the flow distribution in the header of a conventional plate‐fin heat exchanger is presented. It is found that the flow maldistribution is very serious in the y‐direction of the header. A modified header is proposed and simulated using CFD. The modified header configuration has a more uniform flow distribution than the conventional header configuration. Hence, the efficiency of the modified heat exchanger is seen to be higher than that of the conventional heat exchanger.