Numerical Simulation of Helium-Xenon Gas Recuperator With Different PCHE Channel Configurations

Abstract The Brayton cycle system utilizing helium-xenon gas as the working material is one of the most promising solutions for space thermoelectric conversion. Within the system, the high-temperature recuperator plays a pivotal role for power generation efficiency and system compactness. Printed circuit plate heat exchanger (PCHE) is considered as the type of compact recuperator with large surface area, while the internal channels of PCHE can be arranged by many approaches. In this study, numerical simulations are conducted to investigate the flow and heat transfer performance of helium-xenon gas mixtures within PCHE, analyzing the influence of different geometric channels in PCHE, including zigzag and wavy channels with different corner angles, various channel diameters. Based on results of overall friction coefficient, Nu, recuperator effectiveness and synergy angle, it is recommended for wavy channel with the angle of 100° and diameter of 2mm to be adopted.