Experimental investigation of the heat transfer performance of microchannel heat exchangers with fan-shaped cavities

•A microchannel heat exchanger with fan-shaped cavities was developed.•The heat transfer performance and pressure drop were compared by experiment.•Fan-shaped cavities can effectively enhanced the heat transfer performance.•The effects of key parameters on the heat transfer performance were investigated. The microchannel heat exchanger has been applied in many field because of its advantages, such as miniaturization, large specific surface area, and high heat and mass transfer rate. In this work, a microchannel heat exchanger with fan-shaped cavities (FSCs) was developed, and used to conduct comparative experimental studies with the conventional rectangular straight microchannel heat exchanger. The effects of structural parameters, such as the deviation degree, coincidence degree and distribution of FSCs, on the heat transfer performance of the microchannel heat exchanger were investigated. The results indicate that the performance of the microchannel heat exchanger with FSCs is better than that without FSCs and the pressure drop is smaller. It is also revealed that the deviation degree, coincidence degree and distribution of the FSCs have important effects on the heat transfer performance.