Numerical simulation of fluid flow, heat transfer and pressure drop in thermoplates

Abstract

Paper presented at the 5th International Conference on Heat Transfer, Fluid Mechanics and Thermodynamics, South Africa, 1-4 July, 2007.

The objective of our investigations is to numerically investigate the optimal geometry of the thermoplate with respect to heat transfer of the inside fluid that passes through the channel as a single phase. In order to achieve this, the geometrical and process parameters such as the pattern of welding spots, the distance between the sheets, and the Reynolds number have been varied. For the simulation, the commercial software StarCD was used. The numerical experiments show that the heat transfer potential of the thermoplate having a staggered arrangement of welding spots is markedly higher than the one of a common flat channel, particularly at larger Reynolds numbers. The variations of the geometrical parameters indicate the welding spot pitch in a streamwise direction to be a pivotal quantity regarding the heat transfer optimisation.