Numerical and Experimental Modeling of Compressed Air-to-Air Heat Exchanger

Compact heat exchangers serve a variety of applications. In communication systems, air-to-air heat exchangers are frequently utilized for the efficient cooling of equipment. Given the high expense associated with this system, effective cooling is crucial. Notably, there has been a lack of prior research concerning air-cooled heat exchangers in telecommunication equipment. Consequently, this study investigates the impact of various parameters on the performance of compact heat exchangers through both numerical and experimental methods. An experimental sample has been created, and the results obtained have been compared with data derived from numerical simulations conducted using Ansys Fluent software. Previous studies have not investigated the effect of the investigated parameters on the performance of this heat exchanger simultaneously, both experimentally and numerically. Another innovation of this study is the investigation of parameters that are important in communication systems. An increase in the fin angle from 26 degrees to 30 degrees results in a pressure drop increase of approximately 42%. A similar pattern is observed when the fin angle is decreased from 26 degrees to 22 degrees. The average displacement heat transfer coefficient for a fin angle of 26 degrees is approximately 28% and 25% greater than that for fin angles of 22 and 30 degrees, respectively. The optimal desirability factor is achieved with a fin angle of 26 degrees. The findings indicate that reducing the fin pitch from 2.5 mm to 1 mm results in an almost 3.2-fold increase in pressure drop. Assuming a constant airflow speed of 3.5 m/s, a reduction in fin pitch from 2.5 mm to 1 mm leads to a rise in the heat transfer coefficient of nearly 20%. Conversely, when the fin pitch is increased from 1 mm to 2.5 mm while maintaining a constant Reynolds number, the value of this factor improves by approximately 45.5%. Furthermore, it has been demonstrated that the numerical data align closely with the experimental results.