Enhancing Heat Exchanger Performance: Integrating Computational Modeling and Experimental Studies for Optimization Approaches

One significant challenge continually encountered by manufacturers of heat exchangers is the imperative for a design approach grounded in technological innovation aimed at producing devices that are not only more thermally efficient, but also feature reduced pressure drop, volume, manufacturing and operational costs and high-quality surface finishing to mitigate fouling phenomena [1]. A strategy that has been successfully explored in literature to achieve this goal consists in the use of emerging additive manufacturing technologies, that enable to produce surfaces with an optimized morphology [2]. This challenge requires a multidisciplinary approach that couples the advantages of numerical approaches to experimental advanced measurement and data processing procedures, mostly based on highly resolved infrared thermographic systems [3]. The possibility of obtaining detailed information about the heat transfer capability of enhanced surfaces can be suitably achieved by using numerical tools in the optimization problem that adopts experimental data as a necessary either input or validation elements [4]. The present contribution aims at presenting some applications of the two complementary approaches (numerical and experimental) with regards to heat transfer enhancement passive solutions implemented in heat exchangers.