Thermal-hydraulic performance of a plate heat exchanger with grooved copper foam

This study proposes a plate heat exchanger (PHE) partially filled with metal foam having checkered pattern grooves. The study presents new experimental data obtained from PHE with grooved copper foam that elucidates the effect of mass flux, copper foam groove width, and pore density on the heat transfer coefficient (HTC) and pressure drop (Delta P). The testing is conducted with a water mass flux ranging from 120 to 320 kg/m2s, a groove width ranging from 2 to 6 mm, and a pore density of 30 pores per inch (PPI) and 50 PPI. The results demonstrate that HTC and Delta P increase as the copper foam groove width is reduced. Considering the impact of copper foam groove width on the filling rate, the HTC ratio increases significantly at a filling rate between 50 and 75%. Furthermore, an increase in pore density enhances HTC and Delta P. The plate heat exchanger inserted with copper foam (PHE_CF) provides the optimum thermal-hydraulic performance (TP). However, at a low Reynolds number, the results show that TP of PHE with grooved copper foam with a groove width of 2 mm is similar to PHE_CF. New correlations are also proposed to predict Delta P and HTC in the practical applications.

Automated summary

This study proposes a plate heat exchanger partially filled with metal foam and investigates the effects of mass flux, foam groove width, and pore density on heat transfer coefficient and pressure drop. The results show that reducing groove width and increasing pore density lead to higher heat transfer coefficient and pressure drop.