Applicability of entransy dissipation based thermal resistance for design optimization of two-phase heat exchangers

Suxin Qian, Long Huang, Vikrant Aute, Yunho Hwang*, Reinhard Radermacher

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

24 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Recently, entransy dissipation theory showed its potential applicability in heat exchanger design optimization. Physical definition of two-phase entransy is presented in this study to extend its application to heating, ventilation, air conditioning and refrigeration systems. In this study, the evaluation of two-phase entransy is achieved by optimizing one tube-fin heat exchanger and one microchannel heat exchanger based on a validated heat exchanger modeling tool. Based on analytical approach and optimization results, the applicability and necessity of using entransy dissipation based thermal resistance are discussed. It has been proven that the entransy dissipation is an effective way to optimize heat exchangers with air flow rate as one design variable but has its limitation for optimizing heat exchangers with fixed flow rate.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)140-148
Number of pages9
JournalApplied Thermal Engineering
Volume55
Issue number1-2
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2013
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Entransy dissipation
  • Entropy generation
  • Heat exchanger optimization
  • Microchannel heat exchanger
  • Tube-fin heat exchanger
  • Two-phase entransy

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