Pressure loss effect on recuperative heat exchanger and its thermal performance

Abstract

Most heat exchangers are designed in pursuit of minimum pressure loss and maximum heat transfer conductance, and the pressure drop of heat exchanger is sometimes neglected intentionally or unintentionally in the designing stage. However, the actual pressure drop should be considered when the requirement of heat exchanger is very strict. Different from the most previous researches that examine the hydraulic aspect, this paper describes the thermal aspect of the pressure loss and its relevance to the basic model of heat exchanger. The analytical result reveals the indirect effect of pressure loss on the thermal performance of heat exchanger. The whole impact on the effectiveness of counter-flow heat exchanger is discussed in terms of newly defined relevant dimensionless parameters. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.