Dimensionless-Performance of Counter-Cross-Flow Heat-Exchanger
摘要
The paper considers dimensionless presentation of counter-cross-flow heat-exchanger operating at steady-state and subjected to sensible-heat-transfer. The capability of heat-exchanger is evaluated through dimensionless-parameters such as temperature-ratio, capacity-rate-ratio, number-of-transfer-units and heat-exchanger-effectiveness. Equations for heat-exchanger were developed using previously recognized matrix-approach. By solving equations, capability of heat-exchanger was estimated. The outcomes are presented as ready to use dimensionless-tables. For versatility, both heat-exchanger input and output are presented in dimensionless-form. It is evident from results that at about NTU = 4.0, the maximum performance starts to saturate. This indicates that there is little benefit to expanding heat-exchanger’s surface area above a certain threshold. Similarly, lower capacity-rate-ratios result in better performance. From results, engineers can optimize heat-exchangers by having a thorough understanding of capability during the design phase. Also in industries, load on heat-exchanger fluctuates with changes in production rate. The heat-exchanger’s inlet conditions may fluctuate as plant load-changes. Engineers typically leave such changes to be handled by the control system. However, this is only feasible if heat-exchanger can handle such variations. The engineers will benefit from tables created in this study since they offer a full understanding of heat-exchanger equipment’s capabilities.