• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.30 no.8 s.251
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• pp.741-748
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• 2006

This paper numerically investigates the effects of pass arrangement on the flow distribution characteristics and the performance of a multi-pass multi-branch heat exchanger. Four cases of pass arrangement (2, 4, 6, 8 pass) are chosen to select a proper pass arrangement. A JF factor is used as an evaluation characteristic value to consider the heat transfer and the pressure drop. The present results indicate that 4-pass heat exchanger shows the best performance, and the design parameters in 4-pass heat exchanger are optimized. The design parameters are the locations of the inlet, outlet and separator, and are optimized using a response surface methodology. The JF factor of the optimum model is increased by about 9.3%, compared to that of the reference model (2-pass heat exchanger).

• Proceedings of the SAREK Conference
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• 2006.06a
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• pp.737-742
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• 2006

This paper numerically investigates to evaluate the performance according to the number of passes and the inlet/outlet diameter in a multi-pass multi-branch heat exchanger. A JF factor is used as an evaluation characteristic value to consider the heat transfer rate and the pressure drop simultaneously. It estimates the performance according to the number of passes and the inlet diameter of the reference heat exchanger. When the ratio of the inlet diameter to the header height is about 0.5, the optimum number of passes is selected along with the inlet diameter.