CFD Simulation Of Condensation Heat Transfer In Mini/Micro-Channels—Application In Waste Heat Recovery

  • Author(s) / Creator(s)
  • The recovery of waste heat from low-temperature flue gas can be improved by capturing the latent heat part through the condensation of the vapor component. For this purpose, investigating the important parameters in designing efficient heat exchangers is necessary. Therefore, this study aims to develop a reliable model for simulating condensation heat transfer to help understand the involved phenomena and optimize the low-temperature waste heat recovery systems. The studied flue gas was a mixture of multicomponent non-condensable gas and water vapor released by electric generators or furnaces. In this study, mini-channel heat exchangers were explored in order to maximize heat transfer surface area and minimize heat exchanger size. A CFD model in Ansys Fluent was developed to analyze the condensation heat transfer in a mini-channel. Model accuracy was confirmed by comparison with experimental data available in the literature. Using the model, we then investigated the temperature field, vapor concentration, heat flux, and film thickness along the channel at inlet velocities ranging from 0.5 to 10 m/s (i.e., the corresponding Reynolds numbers of 31 to 617). The model has been found to be a powerful tool for predicting condensation heat transfer in the flue gas and designing heat exchangers for latent heat recovery.

    Part of Proceedings of the Canadian Society for Mechanical Engineering International Congress 2022.

  • Date created
    2022-06-01
  • Subjects / Keywords
  • Type of Item
    Article (Published)
  • DOI
    https://doi.org/10.7939/r3-thar-5q28
  • License
    Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International