Study on the thermal and hydraulic performance of fin-and-tube heat exchanger based on topology optimization

• Published in: Applied thermal engineering Vol. 197; p. 117380
• Main Authors: Liu, Aoke, Wang, Guanghui, Wang, Dingbiao, Peng, Xu, Yuan, Honglin
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford Elsevier Ltd 01-10-2021; Elsevier BV
• Subjects: Fin-and-tube heat exchanger; Fins; Flow resistance; Fluid flow; Heat exchangers; Heat generation; Interpolation; Numerical simulation; Optimization; Performance enhancement; Performance evaluation; Reynolds number; Topology optimization; Tube heat exchangers; Topology optimization; Performance enhancement; Numerical simulation; Fin-and-tube heat exchanger
• ISSN: 1359-4311; 1873-5606
• DOI: 10.1016/j.applthermaleng.2021.117380

•Two new fin tubes are proposed.•An alternative interpolation approach is proposed.•Different evaluation systems are applied.
Based on topology optimization, two novel strip fins used in the fin-and-tube heat exchanger are proposed, and an alternative interpolation approach is used. Reynolds number and heat generation coefficient are set as variables to analyze the performance of different results, and then the optimized fins are investigated compared with the traditional fins. The results present that TO can well integrate heat transfer performance and hydraulic performance under different working conditions, the winglets of the optimized fins are streamlined and play a significant role in reducing flow resistance. Compared to the traditional structures, the thermal performance of the TO structures increases 22.64–28.04% at the cost of a 33.37–47.72% reduction in hydraulic performance, and the Performance Evaluation Criteria increases up to 12.7%.