Work

Thermo-Hydraulic Performance of Pillow-Plate Heat Exchangers with Streamlined Secondary Structures: A Numerical Analysis

Year: 2025

Type: conference-paper

Abstract: Pillow-plate heat exchangers (PPHEs) represent a viable alternative to conventional shell-and-tube and plate heat exchangers. The waviness of their channels intensifies fluid mixing in the boundary layers and facilitates heat transfer. Applying secondary surface structuring can further enhance the overall thermo-hydraulic performance of PPHEs, thus increasing their competitiveness against conventional heat exchangers. In this work, streamlined secondary structures applied on the PPHE surface were studied numerically to explore their potential in enhancing near-wall fluid mixing. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations of single-phase turbulent flow in the inner PPHE channel were performed and pressure drop, heat transfer coefficients, and overall thermo-hydraulic efficiency were determined. The simulation results clearly demonstrate a favourable influence of secondary structuring on the heat transfer performance of PPHEs.

Source: Systems and Control Transactions

DOI: 10.69997/sct.178665

Authors: Reza Afsahnoudeh, Julia Riese, Eugeny Y. Kenig

Institution: Paderborn University

Language: English

Topic: Heat Transfer and Optimization

Subfield: Mechanical Engineering

Field: Engineering

Domain: Physical Sciences

SDG: Affordable and clean energy

Open Access status: diamond

Funder: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft