Development And Experimental Study Of Miniature Gas-Liquid Heat Exchangers

Miniature heat pump or air conditioning system is a portable system with the advantages of small size and light weight. In a number of microclimate control applications, individuals must wear protective clothing with miniature heat pump system to permit tasks to be performed under hazardous conditions. Miniature heat pump may be widely used in buildings, vehicles, aerospace and other products. Heat exchangers are one of the most important parts of the system. The performance of them has great effects on the whole system. The design and experimental study of the gas-liquid heat exchangers were done in this paper. First, the design work was done according to the working conditions, and related correlative formulae were taken. In view of the manufacture, size, weight and the other related confined conditions, three kinds of heat exchangers were developed. They are fin-and-tube heat exchanger, serpentine heat exchanger, and parallel-flow heat exchanger. The wind tunnel platform was built, and performance test of two kinds of heat exchangers, fin-and-tube heat exchanger and parallel-flow heat exchanger, was done in this paper. Some conclusions were drawn from the experiments. They all can meet the demand in the aspect of heat transfer. Parallel-flow heat exchanger has the advantage of integrative performance considering the pressure drop, size and weight. And at the same time, correlations for the performance of heat exchangers were developed. Through the comparison of experiments and design, there are some differences between them. Therefore the data and its analysis provides credible basis for developing heat exchangers. They also have definite referenced value for the academic research of gas-liquid heat exchangers. And at the same time, they have important practicality for developing miniature heat pump or air conditioning system.