Effects of Inlet and Outlet Layout on the Outflow Uniformity of Dividing Manifolds

The flow control capability of a manifold system is useful in various heat transfer applications.Based on the dividing and bifurcation types of conventional heat exchangers, two types of anti-parallel and parallel of inlet and outlet are proposed.To explore the best manifold, the effects of the inlet Reynolds number, the number of outlet branches, and the inlet position are numerically investigated for the flow maldistribution.For all manifold types, the equilibrium state of friction and momentum forces is observed and the outflow non-uniformity is mostly intensified by the increased number of outlet branches.However, the non-uniformity of the proposed two manifolds is improved with increasing Reynolds number.Also, it is observed that the even number of outlet branches is proper to the bifurcation type manifold.For anti-parallel type manifold of inlet and outlet, the maximum non-uniformity is improved by more than 70% due to the inlet position movement.