Experimental and Numerical Simulations of Flow and Heat Transfer in Heat Exchanger Elements Using Liquid Crystal Thermography

Experimental and numerical investigation of heat transfer and fluid flow were conducted for classic heat exchanger elements (flat plate with fin-tubes in-line, staggered and with vortex generators) and corrugated-undulated ducts under transitional and weakly turbulent conditions. The dependence of average heat transfer and pressure drop on Reynolds number and geometrical parameters was investigated. Distributions of local heat transfer coefficient were obtained by using liquid crystal thermography and surface-averaged values were computed. Three-dimensional numerical simulations were conducted by a finite-volume method using a low-Reynolds number k-e model under the assumption of fully deve…