Numerical Investigation on the Flow and Heat Transfer Characteristics of Supercritical Liquefied Natural Gas in an Airfoil Fin Printed Circuit Heat Exchanger

As a new kind of highly compact and efficient micro-channel heat exchanger, the printed circuit heat exchanger (PCHE) is a promising candidate satisfying the heat exchange requirements of liquefied natural gas (LNG) vaporization at low and high pressure. The effects of airfoil fin arrangement on hea...

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Main Authors: Zhongchao Zhao, Kai Zhao, Dandan Jia, Pengpeng Jiang, Rendong Shen
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2017-11-01
Series:Energies
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/10/11/1828
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spelling doaj-1be43ec8453b4338be93ad1ebd63c1ff2020-11-24T21:15:23ZengMDPI AGEnergies1996-10732017-11-011011182810.3390/en10111828en10111828Numerical Investigation on the Flow and Heat Transfer Characteristics of Supercritical Liquefied Natural Gas in an Airfoil Fin Printed Circuit Heat ExchangerZhongchao Zhao0Kai Zhao1Dandan Jia2Pengpeng Jiang3Rendong Shen4School of Energy and Power, Jiangsu University of Science and Technology, Zhenjiang 210000, ChinaSchool of Energy and Power, Jiangsu University of Science and Technology, Zhenjiang 210000, ChinaSchool of Energy and Power, Jiangsu University of Science and Technology, Zhenjiang 210000, ChinaSchool of Energy and Power, Jiangsu University of Science and Technology, Zhenjiang 210000, ChinaSchool of Energy and Power, Jiangsu University of Science and Technology, Zhenjiang 210000, ChinaAs a new kind of highly compact and efficient micro-channel heat exchanger, the printed circuit heat exchanger (PCHE) is a promising candidate satisfying the heat exchange requirements of liquefied natural gas (LNG) vaporization at low and high pressure. The effects of airfoil fin arrangement on heat transfer and flow resistance were numerically investigated using supercritical liquefied natural gas (LNG) as working fluid. The thermal properties of supercritical LNG were tested by utilizing the REFPROF software database. Numerical simulations were performed using FLUENT. The inlet temperature of supercritical LNG was 121 K, and its pressure was 10.5 MPa. The reference mass flow rate of LNG was set as 1.22 g/s for the vertical pitch Lv = 1.67 mm and the staggered pitch Ls = 0 mm, with the Reynolds number of about 3750. The SST k-ω model was selected and verified by comparing with the experimental data using supercritical liquid nitrogen as cold fluid. The airfoil fin PCHE had better thermal-hydraulic performance than that of the straight channel PCHE. Moreover, the airfoil fins with staggered arrangement displayed better thermal performance than that of the fins with parallel arrangement. The thermal-hydraulic performance of airfoil fin PCHE was improved with increasing Ls and Lv. Moreover, Lv affected the Nusselt number and pressure drop of airfoil fin PCHE more obviously. In conclusion, a sparser staggered arrangement of fins showed a better thermal-hydraulic performance in airfoil fin PCHE.https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/10/11/1828printed circuit heat exchangerairfoil finsupercritical liquefied natural gas (LNG)thermal-hydraulic performance
collection DOAJ
language English
format Article
sources DOAJ
author Zhongchao Zhao
Kai Zhao
Dandan Jia
Pengpeng Jiang
Rendong Shen
spellingShingle Zhongchao Zhao
Kai Zhao
Dandan Jia
Pengpeng Jiang
Rendong Shen
Numerical Investigation on the Flow and Heat Transfer Characteristics of Supercritical Liquefied Natural Gas in an Airfoil Fin Printed Circuit Heat Exchanger
Energies
printed circuit heat exchanger
airfoil fin
supercritical liquefied natural gas (LNG)
thermal-hydraulic performance
author_facet Zhongchao Zhao
Kai Zhao
Dandan Jia
Pengpeng Jiang
Rendong Shen
author_sort Zhongchao Zhao
title Numerical Investigation on the Flow and Heat Transfer Characteristics of Supercritical Liquefied Natural Gas in an Airfoil Fin Printed Circuit Heat Exchanger
title_short Numerical Investigation on the Flow and Heat Transfer Characteristics of Supercritical Liquefied Natural Gas in an Airfoil Fin Printed Circuit Heat Exchanger
title_full Numerical Investigation on the Flow and Heat Transfer Characteristics of Supercritical Liquefied Natural Gas in an Airfoil Fin Printed Circuit Heat Exchanger
title_fullStr Numerical Investigation on the Flow and Heat Transfer Characteristics of Supercritical Liquefied Natural Gas in an Airfoil Fin Printed Circuit Heat Exchanger
title_full_unstemmed Numerical Investigation on the Flow and Heat Transfer Characteristics of Supercritical Liquefied Natural Gas in an Airfoil Fin Printed Circuit Heat Exchanger
title_sort numerical investigation on the flow and heat transfer characteristics of supercritical liquefied natural gas in an airfoil fin printed circuit heat exchanger
publisher MDPI AG
series Energies
issn 1996-1073
publishDate 2017-11-01
description As a new kind of highly compact and efficient micro-channel heat exchanger, the printed circuit heat exchanger (PCHE) is a promising candidate satisfying the heat exchange requirements of liquefied natural gas (LNG) vaporization at low and high pressure. The effects of airfoil fin arrangement on heat transfer and flow resistance were numerically investigated using supercritical liquefied natural gas (LNG) as working fluid. The thermal properties of supercritical LNG were tested by utilizing the REFPROF software database. Numerical simulations were performed using FLUENT. The inlet temperature of supercritical LNG was 121 K, and its pressure was 10.5 MPa. The reference mass flow rate of LNG was set as 1.22 g/s for the vertical pitch Lv = 1.67 mm and the staggered pitch Ls = 0 mm, with the Reynolds number of about 3750. The SST k-ω model was selected and verified by comparing with the experimental data using supercritical liquid nitrogen as cold fluid. The airfoil fin PCHE had better thermal-hydraulic performance than that of the straight channel PCHE. Moreover, the airfoil fins with staggered arrangement displayed better thermal performance than that of the fins with parallel arrangement. The thermal-hydraulic performance of airfoil fin PCHE was improved with increasing Ls and Lv. Moreover, Lv affected the Nusselt number and pressure drop of airfoil fin PCHE more obviously. In conclusion, a sparser staggered arrangement of fins showed a better thermal-hydraulic performance in airfoil fin PCHE.
topic printed circuit heat exchanger
airfoil fin
supercritical liquefied natural gas (LNG)
thermal-hydraulic performance
url https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/10/11/1828
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