Thermohydraulic investigation of different channel height on a corrugated heat exchanger

Corrugated heat exchanger comprises of a stack of compact corrugated parallel plates preferably material with appropriate thermal conductivity. Corrugation increases turbulence to the fluid flowing over it that results in heat transfer enhancement particularly for gas to gas or gas to liquid flows. Moreover, corrugation intensifies mechanical rigidity to the plates of heat exchanger structure. A two dimensional heat transfer study was investigated in a triangular wavy duct with different channel heights for a single corrugation angle. The commercial code FLUENT was used to study the flow features. The wall temperature was kept constant for the study. The results showed that V-shaped corrugated channels have a major impact on heat transfer enhancement. These types of heat exchangers with V-shaped corrugation are preferred for various equipment for energy saving. The numerical results showed that the variation of average plate temperature, Nusselt number with Reynolds numbers were within the range of ± 7% from available data. Average Nusselt number increased in corrugated plate as compared to parallel plate channel. As the channel height decreases, the average Nusselt number increases. Also the goodness factor (j/f) increased with decreasing channel height. For wide variety of engineering applications like heating, air conditioning unit and waste heat from the exhaust of an engine, corrugated channel is a favourable alternative.