Numerical Study of Fluid Flow and Heat Transfer in Plate-Fin Heat Transfer Exchanger of HTGR

This paper numerically study the flow and heat transfer characteristics of fluids within the plate-fin heat exchangers with plain and serrated fins. The calculation result is steady-state solution. Effects of the parameters such as inlet velocity and fin type on heat exchange performance are analyzed. The result indicates that under the same inlet velocity, the fluid temperature would be more uniform for the serrated fins. Whereas for the plain fins, the stratified distribution of the fluid temperature is more obvious. Being different from the plain fins, the serrated fins can destroy the boundary layer periodically and strengthen the disorder of the flow field, so its heat exchange performance is better than the plain fins’, however, the pressure drop with serrated fins increases correspondingly.