CFD Simulation of Flow and Heat Transfer in Airways

Results are presented from a CFD investigation into louvered, corrugated airway designs, commonly employed in high performance heat exchangers. CFD simulations are found to agree within 10% of measured test data, and to reliably predict trends and comparative merits between designs.

The advantages of CFD simulation are demonstrated through the provision of localized flow and heat transfer information, which would be difficult and expensive to obtain via conventional measurement. This localized data has been used to understand the complex mechanisms behind heat exchanger performance. The use of CFD is also demonstrated to offer tangible cost and cycle time benefits when used proactively within the design process.