Micro heat exchanger

Micro heat exchangers, Micro-scale heat exchangers, or microstructured heat exchangers are heat exchangers in which (at least one) fluid flows in lateral confinements with typical dimensions below 1 mm. The most typical such confinement are microchannels, which are channels with a hydraulic diameter below 1 mm. Microchannel heat exchangers can be made from metal, ceramic,[1] and even low-cost plastic.[2] Microchannel heat exchangers can be used for many applications including:

Background

Investigation of microscale thermal devices is motivated by the single phase internal flow correlation for convective heat transfer:

Where is the heat transfer coefficient, is the Nusselt number, is the thermal conductivity of the fluid and is the hydraulic diameter of the channel or duct. In internal laminar flows, the Nusselt number becomes a constant. This is a result which can be arrived at analytically: For the case of a constant wall temperature, and for the case of constant heat flux .[7] As Reynolds number is proportional to hydraulic diameter, fluid flow in channels of small hydraulic diameter will predominantly be laminar in character. This correlation therefore indicates that the heat transfer coefficient increases as channel diameter decreases. Should the hydraulic diameter in forced convection be on the order of tens or hundreds of micrometres, an extremely high heat transfer coefficient should result.

This hypothesis was initially investigated by Tuckerman and Pease.[8] Their positive results led to further research ranging from classical investigations of single channel heat transfer[9] to more applied investigations in parallel micro-channel and micro scale plate fin heat exchangers. Recent work in the field has focused on the potential of two-phase flows at the micro-scale.[10][11][12]

Classification of micro heat exchangers

Just like "conventional" or "macro scale" heat exchangers, micro heat exchangers have one, two or even three[13] fluidic flows. In the case of one fluidic flow, heat can be transferred to the fluid (each of the fluids can be a gas, a liquid, or a multiphase flow) from electrically powered heater cartridges, or removed from the fluid by electrically powered elements like Peltier chillers. In the case of two fluidic flows, micro heat exchangers are usually classified by the orientation of the fluidic flows to another as "cross flow" or "counter flow" devices. If a chemical reaction is conducted inside a micro heat exchanger, the latter is also called a microreactor.

See also

References

  1. ↑ Kee, Robert J., et al. "The design, fabrication, and evaluation of a ceramic counter-flow microchannel heat exchanger." Applied Thermal Engineering 31.11 (2011): 2004-2012.
  2. ↑ David C. Denkenberger, Michael J. Brandemuehl, Joshua M. Pearce, and John Zhai, Expanded microchannel heat exchanger: design, fabrication and preliminary experimental test, Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers – Part A: Journal of Power and Energy, 226, 532-544 (2012). DOI: 10.1177/0957650912442781
  3. ↑ Northcutt, B., & Mudawar, I. (2012). Enhanced design of cross-flow microchannel heat exchanger module for high-performance aircraft gas turbine engines. Journal of Heat Transfer, 134(6), 061801.
  4. ↑ Moallem, E., Padhmanabhan, S., Cremaschi, L., & Fisher, D. E. (2012). Experimental investigation of the surface temperature and water retention effects on the frosting performance of a compact microchannel heat exchanger for heat pump systems. international journal of refrigeration, 35(1), 171-186.
  5. ↑ Xu, B., Shi, J., Wang, Y., Chen, J., Li, F., & Li, D. (2014). Experimental Study of Fouling Performance of Air Conditioning System with Microchannel Heat Exchanger.
  6. ↑ D. Denkenberger, M. Parisi, J.M. Pearce. Towards Low-Cost Microchannel Heat Exchangers: Vehicle Heat Recovery Ventilator Prototype. Proceedings of the 10th International Conference on Heat Transfer, Fluid Mechanics and Thermodynamics (HEFAT), 14–16 July 2014, Orlando, FL, USA.
  7. ↑ Incropera & Dewitt
  8. ↑ Tuckerman, D.B.; Pease, R.F.W. (1981). "High-performance heat sinking for VLSI". IEEE Electron Device Letters. 2 (5): 126–9. doi:10.1109/EDL.1981.25367.
  9. ↑ Santiago, Kenny, Goodson, Zhang
  10. ↑ Yen, Tzu-Hsiang; Kasagi, Nobuhide; Suzuki, Yuji (2003). "Forced convective boiling heat transfer in microtubes at low mass and heat fluxes". International Journal of Multiphase Flow. 29 (12): 1771–92. doi:10.1016/j.ijmultiphaseflow.2003.09.004.
  11. ↑ Steinke, Mark E.; Kandlikar, Satish G. (2004). "An Experimental Investigation of Flow Boiling Characteristics of Water in Parallel Microchannels". Journal of Heat Transfer. 126 (4): 518. doi:10.1115/1.1778187.
  12. ↑ Mudawar
  13. ↑ Noel C. Willis, Jr. "Analysis Of Three-Fluid, Crossflow Heat Exchangers." NASA Technical Report, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Washington, D. C. May 1968, p. 53.
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