Microchannel structure optimization and experimental verification of a plate heat exchanger

作者：Chen, Chaomeng; Yang, Shu^*; Pan, Minqiang^*

来源：International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer, 2021, 175: 121385.

DOI：10.1016/j.ijheatmasstransfer.2021.121385

• Heat exchanger
• Microchannel
• Optimizing
• Heat transfer
• Performance evaluation

Under the same working conditions, the optimal design of the heat exchanger is to have the highest heat transfer efficiency with the lowest pump power consumption. In order to achieve this goal, this paper optimized the microchannel element and microchannel array structure of a plate heat exchanger based on the configuration theory of maximum heat transfer efficiency and minimum flow resistance. At the same time, three contrast structures were designed under the same constraints. The heat and mass transfer performance of the optimized structure (OPTS) and the three comparison structures (CS) were studied through experiments. Three evaluation criteria were used for comparative analysis, namely, heat transfer coefficient per unit volume, pump power consumption and comprehensive efficiency evaluation criteria. The experimental results show that, considering the amount of heat transfer and pump power consumption, the OPTS has the best comprehensive heat and mass transfer performance. Within the scope of the study, the comprehensive efficiency of the OPTS can be up to 2.81 times of the CS.