Optimum arrangements of guide vanes in a combining header and its effect on the performance of a tubular heat exchanger. (25th June 2016)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Kim, Sangjo; Kim, Kuisoon; Son, Changmin
• Is Part Of: Applied thermal engineering. Volume 103(2016:Jun.)
• Page Start: 1145
• Page End: 1155
• Publication Date: 2016-06-25
• Subjects: Heat exchanger -- Guide vane -- Header -- Optimization -- Flow mal-distribution -- Total pressure drop; Heat engineering -- Periodicals; Heating -- Equipment and supplies -- Periodicals; Periodicals; 621.40205
• DOI: 10.1016/j.applthermaleng.2016.04.097
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1359-4311

Abstract

Highlights: Guide vanes are installed in the combining header of a U-type tubular heat exchanger. Arrangements of the guide vanes are obtained by using optimization method. Total pressure drop and the flow uniformity of heat exchangers are inversely related. The flow uniformity is considerably improved by using optimized guide vanes. Abstract: A numerical study for a tubular heat exchanger (HX) is performed to evaluate the effect of the optimum arrangements of guide vanes (GVs) in a combining header on the performance of the HX. A Pareto analysis used in multi-objective optimization is conducted to find the optimum arrangements of the GVs. For optimization, a total of five design variables are used to describe the arrangements of the four GVs. The design variables include a length of minor axis and vertical positions of each elliptic GV. The objective functions are the total pressure drop and the flow uniformity of the HX. An approximate optimization method is employed to reduce the computational expense. The Pareto analysis results indicate that the total pressure drop and the flow uniformity of the HX with GVs are inversely related. The flow velocity and the static pressure distributions are considerably changed in the combining header by applying the GVs. The HX with the arrangement of GVs for minimizing the total pressure drop shows that the percentage reductions compared with the HX without GVs were 58.64% for the flow non-uniformity and 2.80% for the total pressure drop. The HX with the arrangement of GVs for minimizing the flow non-uniformity presents that the percentage reductions in the flow non-uniformity and the total pressure drop were 86.22% and 0.33%, respectively.