Numerical Simulation Based on Heat Transfer Enhancement of Supercritical Fluid in Micro-Fin Tube

¹ Institute of solar engineering technology, Northwest Engineering Corporation Limited, Power China, 710065, Xi’an China;
² Power China Research Center of Solar Thermal Power Engineering Technology, 710065, Xi’an China

^* Corresponding author: chen_kang@xjtu.edu.cn

Abstract

With the application of supercritical fluid heat transfer equipment in industrial fields such as solar thermal power generation, chemical industry, aerospace, etc., studying the heat transfer characteristics of supercritical fluid in micro-fin tubes has become a key theoretical basis for the development of micro-fin low-resistance heat transfer enhancement technology. In view of micro-fin tubes with different fin shapes, this paper took into account thermophysical properties of nitrogen under supercritical conditions and completed a numerical simulation study on the heat transfer process of nitrogen in 2 mm micro-fin tubes under supercritical pressure. The temperature field distribution of supercritical nitrogen in the micro-fin tube was analyzed, and the turbulent flow mechanism of the micro-fin was studied. It was found that micro-fin could increase the heat exchange area, destroy the boundary layer, and improve the heat transfer coefficient. This paper took comprehensive heat transfer performance evaluation factor PEC to compare the influence of different fin shapes on heat transfer enhancement performance of the heat exchange unit. It was found that the comprehensive heat transfer factor of the square straight micro-fin tube was about 1.22 times that of the smooth round tube, and PEC of the triangular straight micro tube was about 1.08 times that of the smooth tube. The results suggest that square straight micro-fin tube has significantly superior heat transfer performance than smooth round tube and triangular straight micro-fin tube.