Thermal and flow analysis for the optimization of a parallel flow heat exchanger

평행류 열교환기의 열.유동 해석 및 최적화

The present paper examines the thermal and flow characteristics of a parallel flow heat exchanger and investigates the effects of the parameters on thermal performance by defining the flow nonuniformity. Thermal performance of a parallel flow heat exchanger is maximized by the optimization using Newton's searching method. The flow nonuniformity is chosen as an object function. The parameters such as the locations of separator, inlet, and outlet are expected to have a large influence on thermal performance of a parallel flow heat exchanger. The effect of these parameters are quantified by flow nonuniformity. The results show that the optimal locations of inlet and outlet are 19.73 mm and 10.9 mm, respectively. It is also shown that the heat transfer increases by 7.6% and the pressure drop decreases by 4.7%, compared to the reference model.