Effect of Corrugated Baffles on the Flow and Thermal Fields in a Channel Heat Exchanger

The performance of corrugated baffles inserted in a rectangular channel heat exchanger is investigated. The fluid flows and thermal distribution are determined via numerical simulations. The working fluid has a shear thinning behavior. The influence of the baffle design is explored, we interest to the wavy shape. The corrugation angle of baffle (α) is changed from 0° (i.e. a straight baffle) to 45°. Also, the height (h) of the corrugated baffle is changed and three cases are considered, namely: h/H = 0.4, 0.5 and 0.6, where H is the channel height. In comparison with the unbaffled channel, the overall performance factor has increased from 1.27 up to 1.53 when the corrugation angle is increased from 0° to 45°. Concerning the corrugation height, the predicted results allowed us to select the case h/H = 0.5 as the best configuration from the cases studied.

Keywords:

Heat exchanger , Corrugated baffles , Baffle design , Laminar flow , Non-Newtonian fluids