Experimental Insights Into Thermal-Hydraulic Performance of a Compact Printed Circuit Heat Exchanger With Airfoil Fins Using High-Pressure Water

Printed Circuit Heat Exchanger (PCHE) has emerged as a promising candidate for advanced thermal management systems, owing to its high compactness, efficiency, and remarkable reliability under harsh conditions such as high pressure and temperature. The present study constructs an experimental platform with two high-pressure water loops to experimentally investigate the thermal-hydraulic performance of the airfoil-fin PCHE with a hydraulic diameter of 0.87 mm. The heat transfer capacity of the PCHE is beyond 175 kW and the surface-area-to-volume ratio is larger than 1500 m2/m3. The experimental data is obtained at the Reynolds number (Re) ranging from 65.4 to 444 and inlet pressure ranging from 1.58 MPa to 2.75 MPa. The friction coefficient correlation is developed within ±10% deviation with the experimental data. The Nu correlation is also proposed, having a maximum deviation of ±20%. The thermal-hydraulic characteristics of high-pressure water in the PCHE are analyzed, indicating that airfoil-fin PCHE exhibits excellent thermal-hydraulic performance. At extremely low Re (Reh = 199.4 and Rec = 165.4), the overall heat transfer coefficient can still reach 1370.5 W/m2/K. The present work can contribute to designing and optimizing high-performance PCHE with airfoil fins.