Abstract
In the present study, the heat transfer performance of dimpled double-pipe heat exchangers for fuel cells that are utilized as cooling systems of fuel cells was studied. In addition, to comparatively analyze the heat transfer performance of dimpled double-pipe heat exchanger for fuel cells, plain double-pipe heat exchangers were also studied. Experimental results were derived on changes in the Reynolds numbers of the cooling water flowing in dimpled and plain double-pipe heat exchangers and changes in the heat flux of the air. Thereafter, to verify the reliability of the experimental results, the theoretical overall heat transfer coefficients and the experimental overall heat transfer coefficients were comparatively analyzed and the following results were derived. The heat transfer rate lost by the hot air and that of the heat transfer rate obtained by the cooling water were well balanced. The experiments of plain double-pipe heat exchangers and dimpled double-pipe heat exchangers were conducted under normal conditions and the theoretical overall heat transfer coefficient and the experimental overall heat transfer coefficient coincided well with each other. In both plain double-pipe heat exchangers and dimpled double-pipe heat exchangers, heat transfer rates increased as the cooling water flow velocity increased. Under the same experimental conditions, the heat transfer performance of dimpled double-pipe heat exchangers was shown to be higher by 1.2 times than that of plain double-pipe heat exchangers.