Heat-exchange units with porous inserts

Abstract

Currently, porous metals are not used in heat supply systems. Usage of porous materials in heat exchangers increases the heat transfer intensity and makes the heat exchangers more compact. An experimental setup consisting of two circuits was developed in order to study the influence of porous metals on heat transfer intensity. In the first circuit the hot coolant is water, which flows through narrow tubes inside the porous metal. In the second circuit the cold coolant is freon. The purpose of the study is to obtain experimental confirmation of the hypothesis of an increase in the heat transfer intensity when using porous metals. To achieve this goal, experiments were carried out, which showed the increased heat transfer intensity. The standard methods for calculating heat exchangers cannot be applied in this case as the inner pores’ surface is unknown. A mathematical model was compiled allowing engineering calculations for the heat exchangers of this type. The hot water temperature inside the heat exchanger is determined analytically. The resulting equation allows us to determine the cooling degree of the first coolant, i.e. hot water. The obtained deviations between experimental and analytical data are within the acceptable limits, which indicates the reliability of the proposed model.