Thermal-Hydraulic Performance of Additively Manufactured Plate Heat Exchangers with Single and Double Sine Wave Corrugations: A CFD Study

Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations were employed to model a novel double sine wave corrugated heat exchanger surface.The turbulent flow within the heat exchanger channels was simulated using the k- SST model for the corrugated cases.In contrast, a laminar model was applied to the flat plate heat exchanger without corrugations.The simulation results demonstrate that 3D-printed polymer heat exchangers are effective for heat transfer, with the double-sine wave corrugated surface outperforming the single-sine wave corrugated surface.Specifically, the double sine wave configuration achieved a 20% higher Nusselt number and a 15% lower friction factor than the single sine wave, indicating superior thermal-hydraulic performance.Optimal performance was observed with low amplitude and frequency of the sine waves, suggesting that small protrusions and widerspaced corrugations enhance heat transfer without significantly increasing pressure drop.These findings have significant implications for the design of efficient and cost-effective heat exchangers, particularly in applications where both thermal performance and energy efficiency are critical.Further experiments with full-scale heat exchangers are necessary to validate these results and explore practical applications.