An Analytical and Numerical Study of the Influence of Non-Uniform Inlet Velocity Distribution on Heat Exchanger Performance

971845

05/19/1997

Event
1995 Vehicle Thermal Management Systems Conference and Exhibition
Authors Abstract
Content
In this paper an analytical and numerical study was conducted on the influence of a Non-uniform fluid inlet flow distribution on a phase-change heat exchanger. The analytical results show that the heat transfer will deteriorate as compared to the case where the inlet velocity distribution is uniform, and the degree of deterioration will decrease when the number of heat transfer units is increased. The numerical results indicated that there is more heat transfer deterioration when the fluid of the small heat capacity fluid is Non-uniformly distributed than when the fluid of the large heat capacity is Non-uniformly distributed with the same heat capacity rate ratio. A new concept of heat exchanger design is studied where the rearrangement of heat transfer area compensates for the effect of fluid flow maldistribution. This concept has the potential to enhance the heat transfer performance of automotive heat exchangers.
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DOI
https://doi.org/10.4271/971845
Pages
7
Citation
Zhou, S., Lloyd, J., and Guo, Z., "An Analytical and Numerical Study of the Influence of Non-Uniform Inlet Velocity Distribution on Heat Exchanger Performance," SAE Technical Paper 971845, 1997, https://doi.org/10.4271/971845.
Additional Details
Publisher
Published
May 19, 1997
Product Code
971845
Content Type
Technical Paper
Language
English