Numerical Method to Determine Effective Thermal Conductivity of Perforated Plate Matrix Heat Exchanger Surfaces and its Experimental Validation

For high end heat exchanging applications in cryogenics and space application, compactness and effectiveness are the key factors which determine the performance of heat exchanger. Matrix heat exchanger with perforated plate heat surfaces has both criterions to suit into these applications. High thermal conductivity plate and low thermal conductivity spacers are stacked together to obtain low longitudinal heat conductance and thus near cent percent effectiveness to the heat exchanger. In this work, numerical methods are used to obtain the effective thermal conductivity of different types of perforated plates using ANSYS software. The effect of porosity and perforation perimeter factor, which is a ratio between perimeter of the perforation to the plate thickness, is studied. The experimental data confirms the design approach.