Analysis of Heat Transfers inside Counterflow Plate Heat Exchanger Augmented by an Auxiliary Fluid Flow

Enhancement of heat transfers in counterflow plate heat exchanger due to presence of an intermediate auxiliary fluid flow is investigated. The intermediate auxiliary channel is supported by transverse conducting pins. The momentum and energy equations for the primary fluids are solved numerically and validated against a derived approximate analytical solution. A parametric study including the effect of the various plate heat exchanger, and auxiliary channel dimensionless parameters is conducted. Different enhancement performance indicators are computed. The various trends of parameters that can better enhance heat transfer rates above those for the conventional plate heat exchanger are identified. Large enhancement factors are obtained under fully developed flow conditions. The maximum enhancement factors can be increased by above 8.0- and 5.0-fold for the step and exponential distributions of the pins, respectively. Finally, counterflow plate heat exchangers with auxiliary fluid flows are recommended over the typical ones if these flows can be provided with the least cost.