A new subscale test facility for large temperature difference compact heat exchangers

This paper describes a new heat exchanger test facility, designed to investigate heat transfer fundamentals in high temperature difference compact heat exchangers. The knowledge gained from this facility will be used in the design of heat exchangers for liquid hydrogen fuel for aircraft propulsion. This new facility will test subscale designs of heat exchangers for use in aircraft, using heated air (250 ℃) and liquid nitrogen (-196 ℃) as the working fluids. The facility is designed to measure local temperatures in the heat exchanger as well as distributions in outlet flow rate and temperature. This allows for more local information to be obtained from a heat exchanger design, as well as measuring bulk temperature changes and global parameters, such as overall heat transfer coefficient and effectiveness.