Measurement of pressure distribution inside a cross corrugated heat exchanger using micro-channel pressure tappings

Abstract

Paper presented at the 9th International Conference on Heat Transfer, Fluid Mechanics and Thermodynamics, Malta, 16-18 July, 2012.

This paper suggests a novel method to measure pressure distribution inside a cross corrugated heat exchanger using microchannel pressure tappings. The microchannel embedded corrugated sheet is fabricated. Especially, the hydraulic diameter of the non-circular microchannel is measured. The specially designed pressure chamber is made to control the reference pressure. The pressure response is examined theoretically and experimentally in terms of delay time and peak pressure. The delay time shows linear decreases to the length of the microchannel and the peak pressure also decreases with increasing frequency of reference pressure. The microchannel pressure tapping is applicable to the steady pressure measurement but not to the transient pressure measurement. Finally, 20 corrugated sheets and one microchannel embedded corrugated sheet are stacked to form the cross corrugated heat exchanger. The static and stagnation pressures inside the heat exchanger are measured. The measured friction factor is compared with that in previous reports.