Polymeric hollow fiber heat exchanger as an automotive radiator

Nowadays, different automotive parts (tubing, covers, manifolds, etc.) are made of plastics because of their superior characteristics, low weight, chemical resistance, reasonable price and several other aspects. Manufacturing technologies are already well-established and the application of plastics is proven. Following this trend, the production of compact and light all-plastic radiators seems reasonable. Two plastic heat exchangers were manufactured based on polypropylene tubes of diameter 0.6 and 0.8 mm (so-called fibers) and tested. The heat transfer performance and pressure drops were studied with hot (60 °C) ethyleneglycol-water brine flowing inside the fibers and air (20 °C) outside because these conditions are conventional for car radiator operation. It was observed that heat transfer rates (up to 10.2 kW), overall heat transfer coefficients (up to 335 W/m2 K), and pressure drops are competitive to conventional aluminium finned-tube radiators. Moreover, influence of fiber diameter was studied. It was observed that air-side convective coefficients rise with a decrease of fiber diameter. Air-side pressure drops of plastic prototypes were slightly higher than of aluminium radiator but it is expected that additional optimization will eliminate this drawback. Experimentally obtained air-side heat transfer coefficients were compared with the theoretical prediction using the Grimson equation and the Churchill and Bernstein approach. It was found that the Grimson equation is sufficient for approximate prediction of the outer HTCs and can be used for engineering calculations. Further work will concentrate on optimizing and developing a polymeric hollow fiber heat exchanger with reduced size, weight and optimized performance and pressure drops.