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CFD Simulation of Flow Distribution in the Header of Plate‐Fin Heat Exchangers
Author(s) -
Wasewar K. L.,
Hargunani S.,
Atluri P.,
Naveen K.
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
chemical engineering and technology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.403
H-Index - 81
eISSN - 1521-4125
pISSN - 0930-7516
DOI - 10.1002/ceat.200700180
Subject(s) - header , plate fin heat exchanger , heat exchanger , computational fluid dynamics , plate heat exchanger , mechanics , shell and tube heat exchanger , mechanical engineering , micro heat exchanger , heat transfer , heat spreader , fin , fluent , engineering , materials science , thermodynamics , computer science , physics , computer network
The flow distribution through a plate‐fin heat exchanger is studied by using a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) code, FLUENT. The flow distribution through any heat exchanger affects its performance. In designing a heat exchanger, it is assumed that the fluid is uniformly distributed through the heat exchanger core. In practice, however, it is impossible to distribute fluid uniformly, because of an improper inlet configuration, imperfect design, and a complex heat transfer process. The CFD simulation of the flow distribution in the header of a conventional plate‐fin heat exchanger is presented. It is found that the flow maldistribution is very serious in the y ‐direction of the header. A modified header is proposed and simulated using CFD. The modified header configuration has a more uniform flow distribution than the conventional header configuration. Hence, the efficiency of the modified heat exchanger is seen to be higher than that of the conventional heat exchanger.