Homogenization Method: A Way to Improve Finite Element Analysis on Brazed Heat Exchangers

To obtain quantitative Finite Element Analysis (FEA) results is becoming a necessity in order to reduce development time and consequently project development cost. To this view a methodology has been developed to simulate brazed thermal exchangers for structural analysis.

Brazed thermal exchangers are complex systems made of tubes and fins, presenting intricate geometric details. The modeling of such systems for structural analysis can quickly become very tricky in terms of finite element model size if all the details are taken into account. For these reasons, a homogenization method has been developed for these exchangers to simplify their modeling while retaining their right dynamic behavior.

This paper will describe the homogenization method applied on heat exchanger brazed cores. Then, some numerical results will show the efficiency of this method to predict the dynamic behavior of such products and the leading benefits obtained in project development.