Design and Manufacture of a Heat Exchanger for Industrial Fast Axial Flow CO_2 Lasers

摘要

The aim of this paper is the thermal analysis of the fast axial flow (FAF) CO_2 laser and propositin of a complete algorithm of the heat exchanger design for this type of laser. Selection of an appropriate heat exchanger for the FAF CO_2 laser, while enhancing heat exchange performance, causes less pressure drop and flow reduction. Based on the design of an industrial 1000W CO_2 laser various types of heat exchangers were compared with each other and plane-finned tube heat exchanger was found to be the appropriate cooling system for the FAF CO_2 laser. Finally, a compact plane-tube finned type heat exchanger, with full geometric profile and arrangement of the pipes was designed and manufactured. Moreover, the flow velocity field of the gas mixture at separator plates within the heat exchanger has been simulated and optimized using finite element method. The results show that the optimum height of separator plates is 34 cm to achieve maximum output flow velocity.