Artigo
Thermal performance of multipass parallel and counter-cross-flow heat exchangers
Fecha
2007-03-01Registro en:
Journal of Heat Transfer-transactions of the Asme. New York: Asme-amer Soc Mechanical Eng, v. 129, n. 3, p. 282-290, 2007.
0022-1481
10.1115/1.2430719
WOS:000245457400005
Autor
Universidade de São Paulo (USP)
Universidade Estadual Paulista (Unesp)
Univ coruna
Resumen
A thorough study of the thermal performance of multipass parallel cross-flow and counter-cross-flow heat exchangers has been carried out by applying a new numerical procedure. According to this procedure, the heat exchanger is discretized into small elements following the tube-side fluid circuits. Each element is itself a one-pass mixed-unmixed cross-flow heat exchanger. Simulated results have been validated through comparisons to results from analytical solutions for one- to four-pass, parallel cross-flow and counter-cross-flow arrangements. Very accurate results have been obtained over wide ranges of NTU (number of transfer units) and C* (heat capacity rate ratio) values. New effectiveness data for the aforementioned configurations and a higher number of tube passes is presented along with data for a complex flow configuration proposed elsewhere. The proposed procedure constitutes a useful research tool both for theoretical and experimental studies of cross-flow heat exchangers thermal performance.