Numerical Study on Heat Transfer Performance of PCHE With Supercritical CO2 as Working Fluid

Abstract

The printed circuit heat exchanger (PCHE) is regarded as a promising candidate for advanced heat exchangers for the next-generation supercritical CO₂ power generation owing to its high compactness and rigid structure. In this study, an innovative type of PCHE, in which the channel sizes for the heat source fluid and heat sink fluid are different, is considered for analysis. The thermal performance of the PCHE, with supercritical CO₂ as the working fluid, is numerically analyzed. The results have shown that the thermal performance of the PCHE decreases monotonically when the channel size of either the heat source channel or the heat sink channel, because of the decreased flow velocity. On the other hand, the thermal performance of the PCHE is found to be almost independent of the spacing between the channels. In addition, it was found that the channel cross sectional shape has little effect on the thermal performance when the hydraulic diameter of the channel remains constant.