Experimental investigations of polymer hollow fibre heat exchangers for building heat recovery application

Due to low cost, light weight and corrosion resistant features, polymer heat exchangers have been extensively studied by researchers with the aim to replace metallic heat exchangers in a wide range of applications. Although the thermal conductivity of polymer material is generally lower than the met...

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Main Authors: Chen, Xiangjie, Su, Yuehong, Aydin, Devrim, Reay, David, Law, Richard, Riffat, Saffa
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Elsevier 2016
Subjects:
Online Access:https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/33695/
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author Chen, Xiangjie
Su, Yuehong
Aydin, Devrim
Reay, David
Law, Richard
Riffat, Saffa
author_facet Chen, Xiangjie
Su, Yuehong
Aydin, Devrim
Reay, David
Law, Richard
Riffat, Saffa
author_sort Chen, Xiangjie
building Nottingham Research Data Repository
collection Online Access
description Due to low cost, light weight and corrosion resistant features, polymer heat exchangers have been extensively studied by researchers with the aim to replace metallic heat exchangers in a wide range of applications. Although the thermal conductivity of polymer material is generally lower than the metallic counterparts, the large specific surface area provided by the polymer hollow fibre heat exchanger (PHFHE) offers the same or even better heat transfer performance with smaller volume and lighter weight compared with the metallic shell-and-tube heat exchangers. This paper presents the construction and experimental investigations of polypropylene based polymer hollow fibre heat exchangers in the form of shell-and-tube. The measured overall heat transfer coefficients of such PHFHEs are in the range of 258–1675 W/m2K for water to water application. The effects of various parameters on the overall heat transfer coefficient including flow rates and numbers of fibres, the effectiveness of heat exchanger, the number of heat transfer unit (NTU), and the height of transfer unit (HTU) are also discussed in this paper. The results indicate that the PHFHEs could offer a conductance per unit volume of 4 × 106 W/m3K, which is 2–8 times higher than the conventional metal heat exchangers. This superior thermal performance together with its low cost, corrosive resistant and light weight features make PHFHEs potentially very good substitutes for metallic heat recovery system for building application.
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spelling nottingham-336952018-10-19T08:07:16Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/33695/ Experimental investigations of polymer hollow fibre heat exchangers for building heat recovery application Chen, Xiangjie Su, Yuehong Aydin, Devrim Reay, David Law, Richard Riffat, Saffa Due to low cost, light weight and corrosion resistant features, polymer heat exchangers have been extensively studied by researchers with the aim to replace metallic heat exchangers in a wide range of applications. Although the thermal conductivity of polymer material is generally lower than the metallic counterparts, the large specific surface area provided by the polymer hollow fibre heat exchanger (PHFHE) offers the same or even better heat transfer performance with smaller volume and lighter weight compared with the metallic shell-and-tube heat exchangers. This paper presents the construction and experimental investigations of polypropylene based polymer hollow fibre heat exchangers in the form of shell-and-tube. The measured overall heat transfer coefficients of such PHFHEs are in the range of 258–1675 W/m2K for water to water application. The effects of various parameters on the overall heat transfer coefficient including flow rates and numbers of fibres, the effectiveness of heat exchanger, the number of heat transfer unit (NTU), and the height of transfer unit (HTU) are also discussed in this paper. The results indicate that the PHFHEs could offer a conductance per unit volume of 4 × 106 W/m3K, which is 2–8 times higher than the conventional metal heat exchangers. This superior thermal performance together with its low cost, corrosive resistant and light weight features make PHFHEs potentially very good substitutes for metallic heat recovery system for building application. Elsevier 2016-08-01 Article PeerReviewed application/pdf en cc_by_nc_nd https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/33695/1/Experimental%20Investigations%20of%20Polymer%20Hollow%20Fibre%20Heat%20Exchangers.pdf Chen, Xiangjie, Su, Yuehong, Aydin, Devrim, Reay, David, Law, Richard and Riffat, Saffa (2016) Experimental investigations of polymer hollow fibre heat exchangers for building heat recovery application. Energy and Buildings, 125 . pp. 99-108. ISSN 1872-6178 Polymer hollow fibre; heat recovery; heat exchanger; heat transfer; experimental testing https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378778816303607 doi:10.1016/j.enbuild.2016.04.083 doi:10.1016/j.enbuild.2016.04.083
spellingShingle Polymer hollow fibre; heat recovery; heat exchanger; heat transfer; experimental testing
Chen, Xiangjie
Su, Yuehong
Aydin, Devrim
Reay, David
Law, Richard
Riffat, Saffa
Experimental investigations of polymer hollow fibre heat exchangers for building heat recovery application
title Experimental investigations of polymer hollow fibre heat exchangers for building heat recovery application
title_full Experimental investigations of polymer hollow fibre heat exchangers for building heat recovery application
title_fullStr Experimental investigations of polymer hollow fibre heat exchangers for building heat recovery application
title_full_unstemmed Experimental investigations of polymer hollow fibre heat exchangers for building heat recovery application
title_short Experimental investigations of polymer hollow fibre heat exchangers for building heat recovery application
title_sort experimental investigations of polymer hollow fibre heat exchangers for building heat recovery application
topic Polymer hollow fibre; heat recovery; heat exchanger; heat transfer; experimental testing
url https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/33695/
https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/33695/
https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/33695/