Thermal and hydraulic performance of a compact plate finned tube air-fuel heat exchanger for aero-engine

Abstract The article presents a novel compact plate finned-tube air-fuel heat exchanger which is designed by means of using logarithmic mean temperature difference method (LMTD) and both thermal and hydraulic performance of the heat exchanger are experimentally investigated. Worldwide, due to the harsh working condition, both aviation industry and aerospace industry department are in badly need of compact heat exchanger with light weight and high efficiency. In this paper, the design, manufacture and tests of a prototype, plate finned tube heat exchanger are presented. The stainless-steel heat exchanger weights 1.207 kg and by using the fuel RP-3 as the coolant, it can cool the high-temperature air from high pressure compressor in aircraft engine in a very limited space. The study of flow resistance in air-fuel flow allows determining the flow friction factor. Experimental values of heat transfer for the heat exchanger are also calculated. In addition, obtained values of heat transfer coefficient show some differences with literature correlations. Based on these differences, an empirical correlation for the outside heat transfer of compact finned tube heat exchanger is established, which will be helpful for the researchers to design similar heat exchangers.

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