Experimental and simulation investigation on the heat exchangers in an ORC under various heat source/sink conditions

Investigation on the operation behavior of heat exchanger under various operation conditions is essential in improving the life-span performance of an organic Rankine cycle (ORC). In the present study, the experimental study on an ORC under different heat source/sink combination conditions is conducted. A numerical simulation model and a solution procedure for the evaporator and condenser are developed and validated. Through the combination of simulation and experimental investigation, the heat transfer characteristics of the heat exchangers under various off-design conditions are achieved. The variation of heat source heat transfer coefficient (HTC), working fluid HTC, heat sink HTC, overall HTC, equivalent overall HTC, and area allocation of heat exchanger are achieved zone by zone from the developed simulation model. The correlation for the evaporation pressure and condensation pressure are developed and the simulation on the heat exchangers under conditions different to the experimental conditions are conducted. Exergy analysis is conducted to study the exergy construction allocation of heat exchangers under off-design conditions. The findings of the present study are beneficial to understand the operation behavior of the heat exchanger in the context of ORC and aid the design of ORC under varying operation conditions. •An experiment of heat exchanger in the ORC under different conditions is conducted.•A simulation is developed to reveal the operation behavior of heat exchangers.•Operation parameters are predicted under non-experimental conditions by simulation.•An exergy analysis is adopted to expose destruction allocation of heat exchangers.