Numerical Simulation And Optimization Of Plate-fin Heat Exchanger

Heat exchanger is one of the important accessories of the industrial production equipment,it is the equipment to realize high temperature medium heating low temperature medium or low temperature medium cooling high temperature medium.The plate-fin heat exchanger has been concerned by many scholars because of its outstanding advantages.In order to make the plate-fin heat exchanger more economical,practical,and has higher heat transfer performance,the research of this kind of high performance heat exchanger is more and more urgent.In recent years,with the development of numerical simulation technology,using numerical simulation software to study the heat transfer performance of heat exchanger is becoming more and more mature.Based on the FLUENT numerical simulation software,the numerical simulation of the three layer flow passage of a certain type of the plate-fin heat exchanger is carried out in this paper.By changing the fin parameters of cold side channel,the heat transfer performance of the heat exchanger with different fin height and fin thickness are simulated,and the heat exchangers with different materials are simulated on this basis,to study the effects of fin height,fin thickness and material on heat transfer performance,so that providing theoretical reference for the design and modification of plate-fin heat exchanger.The specific research contents and conclusions are as follows:(1)Based on the original model of the heat exchanger,a three-dimensional model is established,and the cold-hot-cold arrangement is chosen to simulate the three channel flow of the heat exchanger.Compared to single or double channel flow,the heat transfer in hot and cold medium is more uniform and the simulation results are more reliable.(2)Studying the effect of fin height on heat transfer performance.Based on the numerical simulation software,the heat transfer performance of plate-fin heatexchanger with fin height of 3mm,4mm or 5mm were contrasted through analysis.The results show that,in the laminar state,the higher the fin height,the biger the Nusselt number and j,the larger the Reynolds number.And with the increase of Reynolds number and the heat transfer factor decreases.(3)Studying the effect of fin thickness on the heat transfer performance.The FLUENT software was used to simulate the heat transfer performance of plate-fin heat exchanger with fin thickness of 0.1mm,0.2mm or 0.3mm,and the simulation analysis was carried out on five kinds of conditions.It is found that,in the laminar state,the lager the fin thickness,the biger the Nusselt number and j.And the heat transfer factor decreases with the increase of Reynolds number.(4)Studying the effect of material on the heat transfer performance.According to the physical model of the same heat exchanger,the Nu-Re and j-Re curves of plate-fin heat exchanger with fin materials of aluminum,titanium and stainless steel were calculated respectively.It is found that the heat transfer performance of plate-fin heat exchanger with aluminum material is better.The research results of this paper can provide useful references for the simulation and optimization of plate-fin heat exchanger.