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Significant advances have taken place in the theory, analysis, design and optimization, manufacturing, and technology of
compact heat exchangers (CHEs) over the last 2025 years. The objective of this D. Q. Kern Award paper is to summarize and
assess (where appropriate) these advances in CHEs related to the following specific areas of CHEs: (1) advances in two-fluid
exchanger effectiveness and NTU results for highly complex flow arrangements, (2) heat transfer and pressure drop analyses,
(3) the role of CFD in the design and analysis of header and manifold design, (4) recuperator design procedure, (5) design
data for compact heat exchangers, (6) thermodynamic modeling and analysis, (7) brazing of compact heat exchangers, and
(8) advancement in CHEs for new applications such as fuel cells and microturbines. Some challenges and opportunities will
be summarized to advance the science and technology further.
INTRODUCTION
and nanotechnology have resulted in microheat exchanger developments along with lower manufacturing costs. This trend
has particularly accelerated in the last five years or so.
Apart from the reduction in core volume and cost of the exchanger, compactness has resulted in the same or even an increase in performance (increased heat transfer with the same
pressure drop); the use of thinner-gauge materials for the same
structural stability and strength has reduced exchanger mass for
specific applications. (This gain is more pronounced than the
reduction in core volume.) With ultra high compactness, the
heat transfer coefficients are so high (similar in magnitude as in
turbulent flows) that one does not need to interrupt the surface
geometry, thus reducing the manufacturing cost and at the same
time getting very high performance. Of course, this requires
clean or non-fouling fluids in the exchanger. One of the most
important benefits associated with very high compactness is that
with fully developed laminar flows (such as in the glomurous of
nephrons in the human kidney), heat transfer coefficients are extremely high and independent of flow Reynolds number! On the
other front, with recent technologies such as fuel cells and microturbines, many high-temperature heat exchangers have been
developed using superalloys that push the operating temperature
barrier to about 900 C.
The purpose of this paper is to summarize the advances made
in the last 2025 years in eight important areas of science and
technology of compact heat exchangers. The focus will be only
on recuperators; for regenerators, review Shah et al. [13] for a
summary of advances. With a broad understanding of the subject
area, it is both a wish and challenge to the authors to extend the
Significant advances have taken place in compact heat exchanger technology with the globalization of compact heat exchanger (CHE) business and resulting cost pressures, advances
in manufacturing technology, and the advent of new technology
and applications, such as CHEs for fuel cells and microturbines.
At the same time, software development and maturity in computational fluid dynamics (CFD), computer-aided engineering
(CAE), noise vibration and harshness (NVH) and system simulation have opened up a new dimension to the heat exchanger
and related product development via virtual design, such as the
design of an HVAC module for automotive air conditioning.
Also, advances in manufacturing technologies have made many
innovative advances in heat exchanger surfaces and core design
that cannot be realized through visual observation, such as the
developments taken place in the refinement of the multilouver
fin geometry used in automotive heat exchangers. Now, the current phase of advancement in CHEs is related toward micro- and
nanotechnological developments, with flow passages for liquid
and phase-change fluids becoming more compact in mini- and
micropassage sizes; newer applications associated with MEMS
The author sincerely appreciates and is grateful to Dr. Dusan P. Sekulic of the
University of Kentucky, a good friend and colleague, who has provided valuable
suggestions and additions.
This article is the text of the Kern lecture given by the author at the Summer
Annual Heat Transfer Conference, July 2005, in San Francisco, California.
Address correspondence to Dr. Ramesh K. Shah, Subros Limited, Noida,
UP 201304, India. E-mail: rkshah@gmail.com
R. K. SHAH
mine exchanger effectiveness rather than perform matrix multiplication. Hence, only one term of the 2 2 matrix of the
overall exchanger needs to be evaluated through the matrix multiplication of the corresponding terms of the N simpler subexchanger 2 2 matrices. This is the chain rule methodology
developed by Pignotti [7]; it does not use either the direct matrix algebra or matrix multiplication. This method was further
extended and applied [4] for many unanalyzed exchanger complex flow arrangements. Many additional flow arrangements
not reported in this paper can be found in Shah and Pignotti
[8]; in this report, both the tabular data and graphical results
of P-NTU formulas are presented for R varying from 0 to 10.
The chain rule methodology is one of the most powerful techniques to obtain closed-form effectiveness-NTU expressions for
many highly complex two-fluid exchanger configurations and
assemblies.
A close look at the results presented in terms of the P-NTU
relationship for many flow arrangements indicate expected or
unexpected behavior as follows from P as a function of NTU,
with R as a parameter depending on the flow arrangement of
two fluids as follows. The effectiveness P or versus number of
heat transfer units NTU can
increase monotonically with an increasing NTU and reach an
asymptotic value of unity or less.
increase, reach a maximum value, and then decrease with
an increasing NTU, reaching an asymptotic value lower than
unity.
R. K. SHAH
R. K. SHAH
Figure 1 Compact heat exchanger design methodology, modified from Shah and Sekulic [1].
at the core outlet. For these reasons, very complicated pass arrangements have been evolved over the years for automotive
evaporator design.
Materials of the fins and plates/tubes are selected to obtain
the desired operating life of the exchanger depending on the
corrosiveness of the fluids and operating temperatures.
The CFD analysis is conducted to determine the flow distribution in the inlet/outlet manifolds and headers and flow
distribution within the core on the liquid side, if any.
Finite element analysis and buckling analysis are conducted
to determine the correct thickness and height of the fins for
the pressure/thermal stresses based on imposed pressures and
temperatures on hot and cold fluid sidesparticularly areas
of pressure/thermal stresses where thick and thin parts are
joined, such as thick plates (at the end of core stacking) to
heat transfer engineering
R. K. SHAH
Once the exchanger design is completed, taking into consideration the above points and manufacturing and costing related issues, actual core samples are built and thermal and
mechanical designs are verified with the appropriate testing:
performance as a component and part of a system for the given
application, pressure cycling, thermal cycling, corrosion testing, vibration testing, etc.
2. to design a heat exchanger, using the available energy or exergy viewpoint, from the Second Law analysis and optimize
it if it is a part of the system.
The important factors that affect the exchanger effectiveness,
and as a result, which flow arrangement to select from the First
Law point of view, are summarized here. Also, the exergy analysis for a heat exchanger to determine useful energy (exergy) destruction in a given exchanger from the Second Law viewpoint
is discussed. This analysis provides guidelines on the exchanger
design (e.g., high or low effectiveness, ), depending on the exchanger operating temperatures as compared to the system or
surrounding temperature.
The First Law analysis of any heat exchanger results in the
determination of temperature distribution of each fluid and subsequently its effectiveness-NTU relationship or the relationship
among dimensionless groups of other analysis methods [1].
(Note that in this paper, effectiveness means either exchanger
effectiveness or temperature effectiveness P when no distinction is needed.) This relationship of dimensionless groups
is used in the rating and sizing of heat exchangers as mentioned previously. Some methods of analysis (such as exact,
approximate, and numerical methods) yield temperature distributions and subsequently, the effectiveness-NTU relationship,
while other methods, such as matrix formalism and chain rule
methodology, provide only the effectiveness-NTU relationship
without temperature distributions.
Once the effectiveness-NTU relationship is known for a given
two-fluid single-phase exchanger, one can conduct the rating or
sizing of a heat exchanger readily for the known heat transfer
and flow friction characteristics of the surfaces employed in the
exchanger. This is the outcome of the analysis by the First Law
of Thermodynamics. However, such a design may not be optimum from the use of available energy (exergy or useful energy)
in the flow streams associated with the exchanger when the exchanger is part of a system. This can only be achieved from the
Second Law analysis viewpoint by determining the destruction
of the useful energy D in the exchanger or by determining first
the entropy generation rate (S irr ) and then thermodynamic irreversibilities (T0 S irr = D = Iirr ) in the exchanger. Here, T0 is the
temperature of an infinite source or sink (heat reservoir) or of a
reference state, depending on the system features and relationship to the surroundings in the vicinity of a heat exchanger or
thermal system. As such, S irr is given by [1]:
T1,o
T2,o
S irr = m
1 cp,1 ln
+m
2 cp,2 ln
T1,i
T2,i
= C1 ln[1 + P1 ( 1 1)] + ln[1 + R1 P1 ( 1)] (1)
where = T1,i /T2,i . (It must be emphasized that outlet temperatures from the exchanger, given the inlet temperatures and
heat capacity rates of both fluids, will be different depending
on the flow arrangement of the two fluids in the exchanger [i.e.,
the flow direction of two fluids within the exchanger] as well
vol. 27 no. 5 2006
R. K. SHAH
(2)
The amount of entropy generation rate is the quantitative measure of the quality level of energy transfer. An entropy generation
of zero corresponds to the highest quality of energy transfer (a reversible process). All real processes are characterized by entropy
generation rate greater than zero (i.e., irreversible processes).
minimum and maximum irreversibility S = S irr /Cmin envelope considering all possible flow arrangements of two fluids in
single-phase heat exchangers for a specific value of C = 1 and
Tc,i /Th,i = 0.5 [1]. Corresponding exchanger effectivenesses for
these two exchangers at NTU are 1 and 0.5, and S = 0
and 0.118, respectively. Note that a very small change in S has
a significant impact on the exchanger effectiveness.
Bejan [13] introduced the concept of irreversibility in heat exchanger design analyzing a counterflow heat exchanger. Baclic
and Sekulic [14] investigated the unmixed-unmixed crossflow
compact heat exchanger. Sekulic [15] conducted irreversibility
analysis for six single-pass exchangers. Shah and Skiepko [9]
systematically analyzed eighteen different flow arrangements
of two-fluid single-phase heat exchangers. They evaluated dS /
dNTU, d2 S /dNTU2 , and dP/dNTU for these eighteen flow arrangements from the known P-NTU formulas and categorized
eighteen exchangers in six different patterns of P-NTU behavior
based on the behavior of their entropy generation rates. The different behaviors of effectiveness-NTU curves as a function of R
or C* were thus clearly explained based on the thermodynamic
principles.
Exergy Analysis
(3)
(4)
where
"E h = E h,i E h,o = m
h (hh,i hh,o ) T0 (sh,i sh,o ) (5)
"E c = E c,o E c,i = m
c (hc,o hc,i ) T0 (sc,o sc,i )
Figure 2
C = 1.
(6)
R. K. SHAH
mixing
"p,h
leak
"p,c
Table 1 Impact of the Second Law Analysis: An example of a heat exchanger having identical heat transfer performances but operating at two different
temperature levels
Case
Ch
(kW/ C)
Ch
(kW/ C)
Th,i
( C)
Th,o
( C)
Tc,i
( C)
Tc,o
( C)
q
(kW)
"E h
(kW)
"E c
(kW)
S irr
(kW/ C)
D
(kW)
1
2
10
10
40
40
100
260
40
200
25
185
40
200
600
600
0.8
0.8
77.35
244.04
14.60
215.79
0.2104
0.0947
62.73
28.25
18.9
88.4
10
R. K. SHAH
When TT
0 approaches zero or assumes a negative value, the
heat exchanger designs for low temperature applications should
have a high NTU, resulting in a lower mean temperature difference for heat transfer and fewer irreversibilities (less exergy
loss). In a refrigeration system, one needs to have a larger NTU
in the evaporator compared to that of a condenser. In a cryogenic air separation plant (having T T0 negative), the same
conclusion results in large numbers of high NTU regenerative
heat exchangers in order to improve the plant efficiency for a
stated output.
Thermoeconomic Analysis
Important irreversibilities in the heat exchanger are given
by Eq. (7), although those by pressure drop and heat leakage
are generally very small. These irreversibilities have an energy
monetary value that is dependent on the system in which the
exchanger is being used. In a practical application of the heat
exchanger, the most expensive irreversibilities are reduced rather
than reducing all irreversibilities equally. Also when one irreversibility is reduced, it may increase or require the addition of
another, or involve an increase in capital investment. These considerations lead to the development of trade-off factors to arrive
at an optimum heat exchanger design. One of the first such analyses was published by London [17], as shown in Figure 4. Such
analysis is now referred to as thermoeconomic analysis [18].
When one or more exchangers are part of a thermal system,
the individual exchangers should first be designed based on the
R
the so-called NOCOLOK process. The CAB processes do not
vol. 27 no. 5 2006
R. K. SHAH
11
R
controlled atmosphere brazing, in particular the NOCOLOK
process. New multilayered composite brazing sheets, characterized with sophisticated modifications of interface zones, have
been developed for better control of silicon diffusion, liquid
metal penetration along the grain boundaries, and/or mitigation
of erosion. Moreover, high temperature applications along with
highly corrosive fluids require (1) a need for brazing stainless
steel, titanium, and/or superalloys, and (2) the development of
filler metals characterized with the ability to feature a reduced
formation of intermetallics in the joint zone. So, the fine tuning
of the composition and/or state of the material/filler is always
required. The brazing of heat exchangers, characterized with a
combination of materials that are not necessarily compatible, is
most challenging. For example, novel exchanger designs may require, say, the brazing of more massive steel tubes to light copper
metal foam or a presence of both metal and ceramic mating surfaces. Such requirements need very specialized approaches and a
highly interdisciplinary R&D that merges material science and
various disciplines of mechanical engineering. Moreover, this
holds not only for exotic material combinations, but also for allsteel, titanium, or aluminum compact heat exchangers exposed
to demanding operating conditions and for corrosion-resistant,
highly compact or miniaturized designs.
A few important aspects of state-of-the-art brazing technologies for manufacturing compact plate-fin heat exchangers should
be discussed. Note that tube-fin exchangers are, as a rule, not
brazed, but instead are most often mechanically expanded. A
few of the most demanding and/or frequently used materials (titanium, stainless steel, and aluminum) used for heat exchangers
will de examined. Important material properties of these and
several other materials are summarized in Table 2.
Aluminum Brazing
Aluminum brazed heat exchangers have been extensively
used, particularly in the mass production of small-size automotive heat exchangers and for large units in process industry. An
all-aluminum heat exchanger may consist of a half-dozen different aluminum alloys. For example, a modern compact aluminum
exchanger brazed in a controlled atmosphere (say, nitrogen,
CAB) may have fin material made of a AA4343 (clad) /AA3003
(core) /AA4343 (clad) brazing sheet. This thin fin foil must sustain pronounced erosion, and AA4343 with 6.88.2%wt Si may
be just right. In contrast, the header usually has a complex geometry and needs to accommodate dozens of brazed joints at tube
slot locations. Hence, its material must be selected with an alloy
that has a larger content of Si to offer more fluidity and a better brazeability. That can be, say, a AA4045/AA3003/AA4045
brazing sheet; that is, a multiple layered/alloy composite sheet
material where AA4045 has 9.310.7%wt Si. Finally, for parts to
vol. 27 no. 5 2006
12
R. K. SHAH
Material
Density
( 103 kg/m3 )
Specific
heat
(J/kgK, 0100 C)
Thermal
conductivity
(W/mK, 20 C)
Yield
strength
(MPa)
Tensile
strength
(MPa)
Coefficient
of thermal
expansion
(106 mm/mm K)
Melting
range
( C)
Comment
AA3003
Cu 99.9
HastelloyA
Inconel X
SS 304
SS316
SS446
Titanium
2.71
8.89
8.8
8.25
7.92
8.08
7.47
4.51
921
385
394
431448
502
502
502
582
169
391
17
12
16
16
21
17
69
69
303
690932
207
276
345
517
179
221
758
11001280
586
621
552
621
7.2
5.2
3.4
3.8
4.4
4.9
3.2
2.6
629652
1083
12991329
13931427
13991454
13711399
13991482
1691
Annealed
Annealed
Hot-rolled
Heat-treated
Annealed
Annealed
Annealed
Commercially pure
Due to the fact that the liquidus temperature of the filler metal
is close to the solidus temperature of core aluminum alloys for
other metals, the control of the peak brazing temperature must be
very tightly controlled. The relatively small margin between the
brazing temperature level and the core melting point and the inherent nonuniformity of the heat exchanger unit during brazing
leads to a trade-off between the optimal brazeability and operating conditions for brazing. Aluminum alloy brazing sheets
are used for the brazing of aluminum compact plate-fin heat exchangers. Filler metal constitutes a clad layer (single or double
clad) with the clad ratio (filler layer thickness versus sheet gauge)
in a range between 5% and 15% in most cases. The core metal in
brazing sheets is often AA3003 with the clad selection dependent on the process (inert atmosphere or vacuum) and required
fluidity of the molten phase (i.e., the Si content closer to the
eutectic concentration if a more pronounced flow is required).
An imposed drawback manifested in particular for using higher
Si-content alloys is the Si diffusion-controlled phenomena (like
erosion), which decreases the mechanical properties of the core;
this hampers the available amount of filler needed to flow into
the joints.
If a design of the heat exchanger requires the use of dissimilar metals, like copper and steel, the most traditional approach would be electroplating. Electroplating resolves possible incompatibilities of dissimilar metals versus wettability and
Melting
range
( C)
Brazing
range
( C)
AA1350
AA1100
AA3003
AA6061
AA6063
AA4343
AA4045
AA4047
AA4004
646657
643657
643654
616652
616652
577S613L
577S591L
577L582L
559S596L
593615
593615
593615
565588
578599
599621
588604
582604
588604
Brazeability
Si content
(%wt)
Mg
content
(%wt)
Comment
Excellent
Excellent
Excellent
Good
Excellent
Filler
Filler
Filler
Filler
0.1
0.95
0.6 max
0.400.80
0.20.6
6.88.2
9.011.0
11.013.0
9.011.0
0.81.2
0.450.9
0.05
0.10
1.02.0
Not heat-treatable
Not heat-treatable
Not heat-treatable
Heat treatable
Heat treatable
CAB
CAB
CAB
Vacuum
R. K. SHAH
Figure 5 Schematic of temperature histories during brazing for (a) CAB and
vacuum aluminum, and (b) vacuum SS heat exchanger cores brazing. Time axes
not to scale.
joint formation and allows the spreading of molten filler and the
subsequent solidification into a sound joint. Alternately, coating
with tin and brazing with aluminum filler can be used. Titanium
can be brazed to aluminum if the pre-coating of silver-aluminum
or zinc-aluminum is performed. Pre-coating with aluminum assists the brazing of Monel.
In Figure 5a, a schematic of the temperature-time history
for aluminum brazing is shown for, say, a typical 75 micron(0.003 in.) thick fins to be brazed to the plate/tube of a plate-fin
exchanger. As shown, the time required for vacuum brazing is
longer compared to that for the controlled atmosphere brazing
(CAB) because of the process inertia involving the vacuum level
to be achieved. Because of the longer brazing time required
(reduced productivity), the cost of generating high vacuum, and
the associated high cost of brazing furnace, vacuum brazing is
used only in limited applications where surface conditions (say,
appearance) are of importance, or, more importantly, when the
selection of materials and uniformity of temperature conditions
are demanding.
In Figure 5b, the temperature-time history for the brazing of
the stainless steel heat exchanger core structure is shown. This
is a more complex temperature-time history than that for aluminum brazing. To optimize the brazing process, for example,
and mitigate the conditions for forming brittle eutectic interheat transfer engineering
13
Figure 6 A series of fin-tube joints (two upper rows: double clad AA4343
on AA3003 core fin foil bonded to an Al non-clad extruded substrate). Note the
absence of a joint due to excessive gap (top left), and a series of pathological joints
formed due to insufficient clad and pronounced erosion during CAB brazing.
The bottom row illustrates ideally formed joints. (In this case, the clad was on
the tube side.)
14
R. K. SHAH
R. K. SHAH
15
Composition
Brazing
temperature
( C)
Aluminum-based
Al-7.5Si
Al-1Mn
Al-1Mn-0.6Si-07.Fe
Ag-5Al
Ag-28Cu
Ag-23Cu-5Ti
Ag-5Al-5Ti
Ag-25Cu-25In
Ti-15Cu-15Ni
Ti-15Cu-25Ni
Ti-20Zr-20Cu-20Ni
Ti-26Zr-14Cu-14Ni-0.5Mo
Ti-37.5Zr-15Cu-10Ni
Pd-40Au-30Cu
Pd-60Cu-10Co
Pd-60Cu-10Ni
560600
660690
660670
920980
850900
680
920940
680
9801050
930950
900920
890920
850880
1100
1100
1100
Silver-based
Palladium-based
16
R. K. SHAH
Compact heat exchangers are commonly used in the automotive, aerospace, gas turbine, and cryogenics industries, as well
as in power generation, air conditioning, refrigeration, process
industries, and some heat recovery and process applications. Recently, newer applications of CHEs have been used in fuel cell
and microturbine systems. Here, only exchangers for recent applications will be summarized, as others are well documented
in the literature (see the list of references in [1]).
heat transfer engineering
R. K. SHAH
17
and load fluctuations can be significant and impact the reliability and desired long service life of the exchanger. Also,
the design with such heat exchangers must take care of thermal fatigue by eliminating hot spots in the inlet/outlet sections of the heat exchangers, depending on the exchanger flow
arrangement.
For high-temperature fuel cells, there is a need to reduce
the heat capacitance (thermal mass) of heat exchangers for
shorter startup time.
The potential corrosion problem in heat exchangers due to
the flow of the cathode/anode exhaust gas with contaminants
from the membrane/electrolyte should be addressed upfront
at the design consideration, such as through the leaching of
sulfonic ions from a PEMFC membrane, phosphoric acid (the
electrolyte) contained in the matrix of a PAFC membrane, or
molten carbonate (the electrolyte) in an MCFC.
Heat exchangers used for the common fuel cell systems
(PEMFC, PAFC, MCFC, and SOFC) are plate-fin type (using
offset strip, louver, wavy, or plain fins) or prime surface-type
constructions for high performance at optimum cost. The selection of material for fuel cell heat exchangers depends on
the highest inlet temperature, operating temperatures, flowing
fluids, thermal stresses, thermal cycling, and design life during
the operationand, of course, the cost. For inlet temperatures
up to about 250 C, aluminum is the choice if acceptable for
the service. For higher temperatures, stainless steels are used.
Superalloys such as Inconel 625 (inlet temperature of 800 C),
Haynes 230 (inlet temperature of 850 C), Inconel 617 (inlet
temperature of 850900 C), and Haynes 214 (inlet temperature of 900 C and above) are likely candidates for higher
temperature applications, but they are very expensive, about
three to five times the cost of stainless steel.
For medium and high temperature applications of PAFC,
MCFC, and SOFC, the major design challenges are the selection of cost-effective materials of construction as well as
corrosion and durability issues.
Heat exchanger technology is a mature technology. The experience and technology exist today for heat exchangers required for fuel cell applications. While heat exchangers should
have high performance and be compact but cost effective, they
should also have a minimum pressure drop on each fluid side,
as that represents a parasitic loss to the fuel cell system. Other
major design issues are packaging (for automotive applications), initial cost, durability, and reliability.
There is a need for developing accurate analytical/computational models to predict the thermal-hydraulic performance
accounting for complex phenomena such as wet heat transfer,
combined heat and mass transfer, and flow maldistribution
unique to individual fuel cell heat exchangers.
The heat exchanger design, surface geometries, and durability
issues are reasonably well known from past experience with
low-temperature applications.
For cogeneration applications, there are many heat exchangers
in a fuel cell system, and pinch analysis should be conducted
to determine a cost-effective system [36].
vol. 27 no. 5 2006
18
R. K. SHAH
Figure 9 Annular primary surface stainless steel recuperator from Solar Turbines, Inc. [40].
R. K. SHAH
Figure 10
[41].
19
Many innovations have taken place in the recent years to arrive at high-performance, cost-effective prime surfaces for the
microturbine applications. McDonald [42] briefly describes the
stamped and folded heat transfer surface, as shown in Figure 12a
and referred to as herringbone corrugations or cross-corrugated
(CC) surface. The other recent surfaces are cross-undulated
(CU) surface and cross-wavy (CW) surface (see Figure 12). Historical developments of these surfaces have also been summarized by Utriainen and Sunden [43]; refer to Shah [37] for other
developments in heat exchangers for microturbine applications.
CONCLUDING REMARKS
Figure 11 (a) Honeywell prime surface recuperator; (b) Details of the core
construction [39].
A state-of-the-art review on the development and advancement in compact heat exchanger science and technology is covered for two-fluid, single-phase applications. As one would expect, significant advances have taken place in the last 25 years for
single-phase compact heat exchangers. A very brief summary
of major points is as follows:
vol. 27 no. 5 2006
20
R. K. SHAH
Effectiveness-NTU results can be obtained for any conceivable complex flow arrangements of two-fluid heat exchangers
using the chain rule methodology.
With the advancement in understanding and analysis capabilities, heat transfer and pressure drop analyses of two-fluid
CHEs can be done accurately with many real effects taken
into account using the theory and numerical analyses for many
CHE applications. CFD analysis is now routine in the industry for fluid flow through headers and manifolds to streamline
their geometries and ensure the most uniform flow possible
through the exchanger core.
Sophisticated computer codes are available for the design and
analysis of two-fluid and multifluid CHEs by taking into account many real effects.
Many new compact heat exchanger surfaces have been invented over the last 25 years for higher heat transfer performance, lower pressure drop/pumping power, low core weight,
and low-cost manufacturing. Multilouver fin geometry is most
common in auto industry heat exchangers, and offset strip fin
geometry is common for aerospace and industrial heat exchanger applications.
While Nu or j and f data have been obtained by many industries
for their applications, they are proprietary, a serious hurdle for
those who do not have an access to such data for most advanced
heat exchanger surfaces.
Thermodynamic modeling and analysis are being conducted
for the maximum utilization of available energy in some systems where compact heat exchangers are used. Our understanding of the thermoeconomic analysis of heat exchangers
has increased to the extent that it is common in academia and
some industries for the utilization of best heat transfer surfaces
for the application on hand.
Significant advances have taken place in brazing technology
for plate-fin and other compact heat exchangers to improve
brazeability, obtain almost perfect joints, and braze superalloys and new materials of constructions. It is now possible to
braze many more specialized and high-temperature materials,
something not possible just 1015 years ago.
Special coatings on metals have pushed the use of metal heat
exchangers over 1000 C in some applications. It will still be
some time before the use of ceramics in compact heat exchangers for high-temperature applications becomes reliable,
durable, and cost effective.
Newer applications of CHEs continue with the technology
advancement in energy recovery, conversion, utilization, and
conservation. Recent examples include microturbines and fuel
cell systems.
NOMENCLATURE
A
total heat transfer surface area (both primary and secondary, if applicable) on one fluid side of a direct transfer
type exchanger (recuperator), m2
C
flow stream heat capacity rate with a subscript c or h,
mc
p , W/ C
C
heat capacity rate ratio, Cmin /Cmax , dimensionless
Cmax maximum of Cc and Ch , W/ C
Cmin minimum of Cc and Ch , W/ C
D
exergy destruction rate, W
h
fluid enthalpy, J
Iirr
irreversibility rate, W
m
R. K. SHAH
P
P
"p
R
S
S irr
T
U
W
fluid static pressure drop on one fluid side of a heat exchanger core, Pa
heat capacity rate ratio, C1 /C2 , dimensionless
normalized entropy generation rate, S irr /C2 , dimensionless
entropy generation rate, W/K
fluid static temperature to a specified arbitrary datum,
C
overall heat transfer coefficient, W/m2 K
Greek Symbols
Subscripts
c
h
i
max
min
o
ref
1
2
REFERENCES
[1] Shah, R. K., and Sekulic, D. P., Fundamentals of Heat Exchanger
Design, John Wiley, New York, 2003.
[2] Shah, R. K., and Skiepko, T., Influence of Leakage Distribution
on Rotary Regenerator Thermal Performance, Applied Thermal
Engineering, vol. 19, pp. 685705, 1999.
[3] Skiepko, T., and Shah, R. K., The Influence of Leakages on Heat
Transfer Performance of Fixed-Matrix Regenerators, Int. J. Heat
Mass Transfer, vol. 48, pp. 16081632, 2005.
[4] Pignotti, A., and Shah, R. K., Effectiveness-Number of Transfer Units Relationships for Heat Exchanger Complex Flow Arrangements, Int. J. Heat Mass Transfer, vol. 35, pp. 12751291,
1992.
[5] London, A. L., and Seban, R. A., 1942/1980, A Generalization of
the Methods of Heat Exchanger Analysis, TR No. NTU-1, Mechanical Engineering Department, Stanford University, Stanford,
California, 1942; reprinted in Int. J. Heat Mass Transfer, vol. 23,
pp. 516, 1980.
[6] Domingos, J. D., Analysis of Complex Assemblies of Heat Exchangers, Int. J. Heat and Mass Transfer, vol. 12, pp. 537548,
1969.
[7] Pignotti, A., Matrix Formalism for Complex Heat Exchangers,
ASME J. Heat Transfer, vol. 106, pp. 352369, 1984.
21
[8] Shah, R. K., and Pignotti, A., Basic Thermal Design of Heat
Exchangers, Report Int-8513531, National Science Foundation,
Washington, DC, 1989.
[9] Shah, R. K., and Skiepko, T., Entropy Generation Extrema and
Their Relationship with Heat Exchanger EffectivenessNumber
of Transfer Unit Behavior for Complex Flow Arrangements,
ASME J. Heat Transfer, vol. 126, no. 6, pp. 9941002, 2004.
[10] Bell, K. J., Final Report of the Cooperative Research Program on
Shell-and-Tube Heat Exchangers, University of Delaware, Engineering Station Bulletin No. 5, University of Delaware, 1963.
[11] Kays, W. M., and London, A. L., Compact Heat Exchangers,
Reprint, 3rd ed., Krieger Publishing, Malabar, Fla., 1998.
[12] London, A. L., and Shah, R. K., Offset Rectangular Platefin SurfacesHeat Transfer and Flow Friction Characteristics,
ASME, J. Engineering Power, vol. 90, Series A, pp. 218228,
1968.
[13] Bejan, A., The Concept of Irreversibility in Heat Exchanger Design: Counterflow Heat Exchangers for Gas-to-Gas Applications,
ASME J. Heat Transfer, vol. 99, pp. 374380, 1977.
[14] Baclic, B. S., and Sekulic, D. P., A Crossflow Compact Heat Exchanger of Minimum Irreversibility, Termotehnika, vol. 4, no. 2,
pp. 3442, 1978.
[15] Sekulic, D. P., The Second Law Quality of Energy Transformation
in a Heat Exchanger, ASME J. Heat Transfer, vol. 112, pp. 295
300, 1990.
[16] Shah, R. K., and Kadaba, P. V., Opportunities for Thermodynamic
Analysis and Modeling of Heat Exchangers in Thermal Systems,
Proc. Int. Symp. on Recent Trends in Heat and Mass Transfer, the
Indian Institute of Technology, Gauwahati, Assam, India, pp. 175
200, Tata McGraw-Hill Pub. Co. Ltd., New Delhi, India, 2002.
[17] London, A. L., Economics and Second Law: An Engineering View
and Methodology, Int. J. Heat Mass Transfer, vol. 25, pp. 743
751, 1982.
[18] Bejan, A., Tsatsaronis, G., and Moran, M., Thermal Design and
Optimization, Wiley, New York, 1995.
[19] Shah, R. K., Brazing of Compact Heat Exchangers, in Compact
Heat ExchangersA Festschrift for Professor A. L. London, ed.
R. K. Shah, A. D. Kraus, and D. E. Metzger, pp. 491529, Hemisphere Publishing Co., Washington, DC, 1990.
[20] Shah, R. K., and Sekulic, D. P., Heat Exchangers, in Handbook of
Heat Transfer, 3rd ed., ed. W. M. Rohsenow, J. P. Hartnett, and
Y. I. Cho, Chap. 17, McGraw-Hill, New York, 1998.
[21] Base Metals, Brazing Filler Metals and Fluxes, Aluminum Brazing
Handbook, pp. 2432, The Aluminum Association Inc., 1990.
[22] Aluminum and Aluminum Alloys, ASM Specialty Handbook,
pp. 420437, American Society of Metals, Materials Park, Ohio,
1994.
[23] Sekulic, D. P., Salazar, A. J., Gao, F., Rosen, J. S., and Hutchins,
H. F., Local Transient Behavior of a Compact Heat Exchanger
Core during Brazing, Equivalent Zonal (EZ) Approach, Int. J.
Heat Exchangers, vol. 4, no. 1, pp. 91108, 2003.
[24] Sekulic, D. P., Gao, F., Zhao, H., Zellmer, B., and Qian, Y. Y.,
Prediction of the Fillet Mass and Topology of Aluminum Brazed
Joints, Welding JournalResearch Supplement, vol. 83, pp. 102s
110s, 2004.
[25] Brazing Handbook, Chapters 3, 24, 25, and 27, American Welding
Society, Miami, Fla., 1991.
[26] Rabinkin, A., Wenski, E., and Ribaudo, A., Brazing Stainless
Steel Using a New MBF-Series of Ni-Cr-B-Si Amorphous Brazing Foils, Welding Journal, vol. 77, no. 2, pp. 66s75s, 1998.
22
R. K. SHAH
Ramesh K. Shah is an executive advisor to Subros Ltd., New Delhi, India. He was with the Delphi
Corporation (formerly Harrison Radiator Division
of General Motors Corporation) in Lockport, New
York, from 19712002 (save two years), directing
automotive Compact Heat Exchanger R&D. From
19951997, he was professor and chairman of the
department of mechanical engineering, University of
Kentucky, Lexington, KY, and from 20022004, he
was a research professor at the Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester,
NY, focusing on fuel cell technology. He received his B.E. from Gujarat University, India, and his M.S., Engineer, and Ph.D. degrees from Stanford University.
Active in the ASME at the local and national levels for over 25 years, he is a past
chairman of the Heat Transfer Division and a former technical editor of Journal
of Heat Transfer. He is co-founder and former editor-in-chief of the international
journal Experimental Thermal and Fluid Science. He has taught short courses
and presented keynote lectures/seminars at various universities and research institutes in 33 countries worldwide. He has published more than 120 papers and
twenty books/edited volumes, including a textbook on Fundamentals of Heat
Exchanger Design. Dr. Shah is a Fellow of the ASME and SAE. He has received
numerous awards, including the ASME Heat Transfer Memorial Award in 2000
and AIChE Kern Award in 2005.