Experimental and numerical investigation on particle deposition in a compact heat exchanger

•The effect of particle size and injected mass on particle deposition is investigated.•The influence of velocity on particle deposition is studied.•Particle deposition occurs mostly on the first and last edges of fin channels.•Increase of particle size can enhance deposition ratio in fin channels.•Increase of air velocity can promote particle deposition or restrain it. In this study the effect of particle size on deposition in compact heat exchanger was investigated experimentally and numerically. An experimental setup was designed to visualize particle deposition and measure pressure drop across the exchanger. Numerical study was performed on five fin channels. The flow was modeled by solving Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) equations, and particle motions were simulated by discrete particle model (DPM) with UDF to model deposition. Experimental study was performed for particle size over a range from 1μm to 4mm and numerical investigation were done for particle size from 1μm to 100μm which were placed in A1 particle group of experiment. Experimental results show enhancement of particle deposition; besides, pressure drop rises with increase of particle size. Numerical study also demonstrates that particle deposition increases with increase of particle size up to 50μm. Studies show that velocity increase pressure drop and can promote or hinder particle deposition.