The usual thermal design and rating methods [1, 2] for heat exchangers neglect axial wall heat conduction in the separating walls and external shells of recuperators and in the solid matrix of regenerators. This may lead to undesirable undersizing. In this paper a simplified model is developed for the fast estimation of axial wall conduction effects in counterflow, parallel flow and mixed-mixed cross-flow recuperators. The dispersion model [3] is used to describe the performance deterioration of the exchanger with an effective fluid dispersion Peclet number for the correction of the heat transfer coefficients or mean temperature difference. The method is tested against analytical and numerical calculations for counterflow and parallel flow with good results. It is also shown how the method can be adapted to thermal regenerators and the related thermal calculation methods [1, 2]. An alternative approach is suggested for the consideration of lateral heat conduction resistance in the solid matrix.
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