Title

Performance of gas-to-gas micro-heat exchangers

Document Type

Article

Date of Original Version

5-1-2009

Abstract

Heat transfer performance of two-stream parallel and counter-flow gas-to-gas micro-heat exchangers are investigated numerically. Flow passages are plane channels with heights in the range of 10-100 μm and selected lengths of 12.7 mm and 25.4 mm. Numerical methodology is based on the arbitrary-Lagrangian-Eulerian method. Computations were performed to find the effects of capacity ratio, channel height, and length on the heat transfer characteristics of micro-heat exchangers. To results are presented in the form of temperature contours, bulk temperatures, total temperatures, and heat flux variation along the channel. It was found that the temperature inversion occurs under certain conditions. Also, the effectiveness and the number of transfer units approach and the estimation of the heat exchange rate were discussed. The range of parameters where the predicted effectiveness agrees with the numerical result were investigated. Copyright © 2009 by ASME.

Publication Title, e.g., Journal

Journal of Heat Transfer

Volume

131

Issue

5

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