A Computational Approach to Conjugate Heat Transfer between Two Fluids in Plate Heat Exchangers of Arbitrary Geometry

摘要

This paper describes a computational technique, to be used in conjunction with advanced multi-block CFD codes, for the simultaneous prediction of flow and temperature fields in a unitary cell of a plate heat exchanger, taking also heat conduction in the plates into account. It can be applied to a broad range of geometries, including all the configurations which can be obtained by alternately stacking plates of two types bearing laterally-periodic furrows of arbitrary profile; the fluids flowing on the two sides, of each plate may have different physical properties and flow rates, including both parallel-flow and counter-flow conditions. This approach can be particularly useful for the assessment of conjugate (conduction-convection) effects and for the case of a strong coupling between the flow and thermal fields (e.g., variable-property fluids). Predictions were validated against local and overall experimental heat transfer results obtained by liquid crystal thermography in corrugated-undulated heat exchanger models; examples of applications to more complex and general configurations are also presented.