CFD applications in various heat exchangers design: A review

This literature review focuses on the applications of Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) in the field of heat exchangers. It has been found that CFD has been employed for the following areas of study in various types of heat exchangers: fluid flow maldistribution, fouling, pressure drop and thermal analysis in the design and optimization phase. Different turbulence models available in general purpose commercial CFD tools i.e. standard, realizable and RNG k − ε RSM, and SST k − ε in conjunction with velocity-pressure coupling schemes such as SIMPLE, SIMPLEC, PISO and etc. have been adopted to carry out the simulations. The quality of the solutions obtained from these simulations are largely within the acceptable range proving that CFD is an effective tool for predicting the behavior and performance of a wide variety of heat exchangers.

► Commercial CFD softwares are reducing the need of special purpose CFD codes. ► These are being effectively used for analysis of all heat exchanger problems. ► Standard k-ε turbulence model has been mostly employed. ► Simulation results are generally found within 2%–10% of experimental outcomes. ► CFD has become an integral part of design process, eliminating need of prototyping.