High Performance Woven Mesh Heat Exchange

摘要

Woven mesh structures, consisting of bonded laminates of plain-weave conductive screens or three-dimensional orthogonal weaves are described. A mathematical model of the thermal performance of such a mesh, deployed as a heat exchange surface shows that the effective conductance of a thin, porous heat exchange matrix is proportional to the square root of the product of the specific surface area, effective thermal conductivity and mesh heat transfer coefficient. Geometric equations show that these porous matrices can be fabricated to have a wide range of porosity and specific surface area. Furthermore, a highly anisotropic thermal conductivity vector can be achieved, with the in-plane effective thermal conductivity ranging to 78.5% of the filament material values. Measurements of pressure drop and overall heat transfer rate are reported and used to develop correlation equations of mesh friction factor and Colburn j-factor as a function of coolant properties, mesh characteristics and flow rate through the mesh. Experiments with air and water show that mesh heat transfer coefficients and friction actors are comparable to those achieved with other expanded materials. However, high specific surface area coupled with high effective thermal conductivity result in exchange matrices that out-perform other exchange matrix configurations.