Optimization of Curved Finned-Tube Heat Exchangers for Diesel Exhaust Waste Heat Recovery using CFD

In engines, an exhaust heat recovery system turns thermal losses in the exhaust pipe into energy. Even though the current generation engines consume less fuel than they used to, the thermal efficiency of an internal combustion engine has not much improved since its creation. The main purpose of this work is to further improve the heat recovery from exhaust of the engine. By optimizing the geometry of the HEX fins, it is required to achieve maximum heat transfer with acceptable pressure drop which makes back pressure in the exhaust. The heat exchanger used in this work is a curved finned tube heat exchanger which is supposed to deliver more heat transfer than the flat finned tube heat exchangers. Thereby, increasing the waste heat recovery. In order to achieve maximum heat recovery amount and minimum pressure drop along the heat exchanger, optimization is carried out for the geometry of the curved finned heat exchanger such as different fin curvatures, fins height, and are modelled numerically. The best combination of fin geometries for maximum desirability is to be found out. The study is conducted with the help of CFD simulation package Ansys CFX. Citation: Alan S Chackalayil, Mar Athanasius College of Engineering, Kothamangalam; Prof. Reji Mathew ,Mar Athanasius College of Engineering, Kothamangalam; Feizal Fidus ,Mar Athanasius College of Engineering, Kothamangalam. "Optimization of Curved Finned-Tube Heat Exchangers for Diesel Exhaust Waste Heat Recovery using CFD." Global Research and Development Journal For Engineering 26 2017: 163 - 170.