Investigation on Flow Maldistribution and Thermo-Hydraulic Performance of PCHEs with Spoiler Perforated Boards

In this study, the effects of the maldistribution coefficient on the thermo-hydraulic performance of discontinuous fin printed circuit heat exchanger (DF-PCHE) entrance head and channels are numerically investigated. To improve the flow uniformity at the entrance head, the flow in the exchanger with three types of spoiler perforated boards (SPBs) having 3 × 3, 4 × 4, and 5 × 5 holes and three kinds of hole diameters (Φ_d = 30, 25, and 20 mm), respectively, are compared to the flow in an exchanger with no SPB. The results show that a small maldistribution coefficient for the inlet velocity field is beneficial for the thermo-hydraulic performance of the DF-PCHE channels, and a maldistribution coefficient of 0.7 is an acceptable velocity distribution for the PCHE channel inlet. Using the 3 × 3 SPB with Φ_d = 30 mm, the maldistribution coefficient becomes 0.7, the fastest among all the SPB application cases at ΔL = 150 mm. Moreover, its heat transfer coefficient and pressure drop increase by 22.46% and decreases by 47.2% compared to those of the exchanger without SPB, respectively.