Resumen de Numerical simulation and experimental validation of fin-and-tube heat exchangers
The primary objective of this thesis is the development of a numerical infrastructure for the calculation of fin-and-tube heat exchangers (and multi-heat exchanger systems) thermal and fluid-dynamic behaviour, using a reasonable amount of computational resources to be used as an industrial rating and design tool. This main goal has been driven by the research interest of both the CTTC Group and our industrial partners. The work is focused on automotive, air-conditioning, and refrigeration applications of this type of heat exchangers, therefore the geometry and the phenomena under study has been selected accordingly.
The necessity of experimentally validating the developed numerical tools has lead to the design and construction of an experimental set-up for testing full-scale heat exchangers. The author has intensively collaborated in the first stage and in the definition of the experimental conditions, but has not been directly involved in the unit preparation, data collecting, etc.
Some research projects (up to European level) have been carried out by the CTTC Group around fin-and-tube heat exchangers research line, being most of the work presented here obviously related to them. The author has strongly collaborated in the development of those projects. Some conference papers have been generated from this research work, while four journal papers directly related with the thesis have been recently submitted for revision (two of them have already been conditionally accepted).
The thesis is divided in three main parts. The first one is devoted to the presentation of the mathematical modelling and the numerical methodology applied in the developed fin-and-tube heat exchanger models. Specifically, two chapters are dedicated to a detailed/distributed heat exchanger model, one to a semi-analytical heat exchanger model, and the last to the modelling of multi-heat exchanger systems.
