Design and Experiment of Compact and Effective Carbon Foam Recuperative Heat Exchangers

    Authors

    W. Wu; J. H. Du; Y. R. Lin; L. C. Chow;W. Notardonato

    Abbreviated Journal Title

    J. Thermophys. Heat Transf.

    Keywords

    POROUS-MEDIA; FLUID; ENHANCEMENT; PLATE; MODEL; FLOW; Thermodynamics; Engineering, Mechanical

    Abstract

    A. conceptual design for a compact, lightweight, recuperative heat exchanger with an effectiveness of 98%. is presented. This heat exchanger consists of discrete pair of carbon foam blocks packed between thin sheets of stainless steel. The flowpaths were piled alternately in a modular manner so that the hot and cold streams counterflow in the recuperative heat exchanger. Measures were taken to minimize the axial conduction in the heat exchanger. The anisotropic property of carbon foam was exploited to achieve higher effectiveness. The paper shows how the overall effectiveness of the heat exchanger can reach beyond 98% by placing many pair of carbon foam blocks in series. Experiments with four pair of carbon foam blocks were conducted to validate the design concept. Results show that carbon foam can effectively increase heat transfer between the hot and cold streams. With four pair of carbon foam blocks, an effectiveness greater than 80% was achieved. An effectiveness epsilon(total) of 98% can be reached by using 50 pair of carbon foam blocks. This new development has advantages in size and weight and can be easily scaled up for larger heat transfer requirements.

    Journal Title

    Journal of Thermophysics and Heat Transfer

    Volume

    23

    Issue/Number

    2

    Publication Date

    1-1-2009

    Document Type

    Article

    Language

    English

    First Page

    339

    Last Page

    345

    WOS Identifier

    WOS:000265271700012

    ISSN

    0887-8722

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