Recycle effect on heat transfer enhancement in double-pass heat exchangers under asymmetric isotherm conditions

The mathematical formulation of a heat transfer flow problem in the recycling parallel-plate heat exchanger under asymmetric wall temperatures was developed theoretically with ignoring axial conduction, and the analytical solution was obtained using a superposition principle and an orthogonal expansion technique in extended power series. The influences of the design parameters of the impermeable-sheet position (∆), and the operating parameters of the Graetz number (Gz), wall temperature ratio (σ) and recycle ratio (R) are examined. Significant heat transfer improvement is obtainable by employing double-pass devices instead of using single-pass ones for a larger Graetz number system. A technical feasibility of the new double-pass device was investigated in terms of the Nusselt number and device performance improvement under the effect of wall temperature ratios.