Heat Transfer and Pressure Drop Characteristics in Straight Microchannel of Printed Circuit Heat Exchangers

Abstract

Performance tests were carried out for a microchannel printed circuit heat exchanger (PCHE), which was fabricated with micro photo-etching and diffusion bonding technologies. The microchannel PCHE was tested for Reynolds numbers in the range of 100‒850 varying the hot-side inlet temperature between 40 °C–50 °C while keeping the cold-side temperature fixed at 20 °C. It was found that the average heat transfer rate and heat transfer performance of the countercurrrent configuration were 6.8% and 10%‒15% higher, respectively, than those of the parallel flow. The average heat transfer rate, heat transfer performance and pressure drop increased with increasing Reynolds number in all experiments. Increasing inlet temperature did not affect the heat transfer performance while it slightly decreased the pressure drop in the experimental range considered. Empirical correlations have been developed for the heat transfer coefficient and pressure drop factor as functions of the Reynolds number.

Keywords

• microchannel
• printed circuit heat exchanger (PCHE)
• micro photo-etching
• diffusion bonding
• counterflow