Modelling heat exchangers to improve efficiency in industrial equipment

Our client asked:

Our client manufactures industrial equipment that use a large number of heat exchangers. To reduce costs, our client wanted to reduce the number of heat exchangers used in each system. However, the new design needed to achieve the same total flow rates and therefore, an improved design needed to offer both enhanced heat transfer and a sufficient reduction in flow resistance to offset the increased flow rate.

The project story:

The project began with a literature review – this involved finding and reading academic papers on the design of heat exchangers, and it also illuminated some important points about how the system should be modelled.
Sagentia Innovation executed some initial modelling calculations to determine key parameters that would govern how the system would behave and how modelling should be approached
We then created a COMSOL simulation of a whole heat exchanger. The simulation was used to understand overall flow profiles and calculate non-dimensional parameters

We analysed data from our client to validate modelled temperature and pressure profiles
The validated whole-exchanger model enabled the creation of a targeted model that investigated detailed heat transfer features; this targeted model was also validated against client data
The geometry of heat transfer features was investigated with the model to identify an improved design that both enhanced heat transfer and reduced flow resistance

Results: deliverables and outcomes

We recommended an improved heat transfer feature geometry for our client and delivered a report explaining how the geometry of these features affects the performance of heat exchangers. Our client is prototyping heat exchangers with these improved features to assess their performance.

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