COMPUTATIONS OF FLOW AND HEAT-TRANSFER IN PARALLEL-PLATE FIN HEAT-EXCHANGERS ON THE CM-5 - EFFECTS OF FLOW UNSTEADINESS AND 3-DIMENSIONALITY

An accurate computational method for the calculation of flow and heat transfer in compact heat exchangers is developed and implemented on th e massively parallel Connection Machine, CM-5. In this method, the uns teady Navier-Stokes and energy equations are solved. The current study shows that the inclusion of flow unsteadiness plays a very important role in the accurate prediction of heat exchanger performance quantiti es of interest such as the Colburn j factor and the friction factor. I t is also shown that at higher Reynolds numbers, the additional effect introduced by the intrinsic three-dimensionality of the flow plays an other important role in determining the overall heal exchanger perform ance. Therefore, the above two effects have to be taken into account i n order to accurately predict heat exchanger performance. Copyright (C ) 1996 Elsevier Science Ltd.