Thermal-hydraulic performance of printed circuit heat exchanger with supercritical carbon dioxide airfoil fin passage and molten salt straight passage

Abstract Molten salt and supercritical carbon dioxide (S-CO 2 ) are promising heat transfer fluids, but heat exchanger between molten salt and S-CO 2 is seldom reported. By comprehensively considering low heat transfer coefficient of S-CO 2 and high pressure loss of molten salt, printed circuit heat exchanger (PCHE) with S-CO 2 airfoil fin passage and molten salt straight passage is first proposed and simulated in this paper. Because of fin, flow boundary of S-CO 2 is periodically broken, and there are wakes and vortices in downstream region of fin. Periodical fins dominate flow and heat transfer process, and the pressure of S-CO 2 periodically drops with sharp pressure loss in fin region for large flow resistance, while buoyancy force and turbulent kinetic energy have little effect on heat transfer. Heat transfer coefficients of molten salt and S-CO 2 both periodically change along the flow direction, and they have similar tendency in different regions. Heat transfer coefficient in head region of fin is highest, and that in tail region of fin is lowest for wakes. Heat flow in top and bottom surfaces determine heat transfer of the system, and the region near fin head has high heat transfer coefficient, while the region near fin tail region is lower. Compared with parallel arrangement, pressure and temperature in staggered one has shorter period and smaller fluctuation, and overall heat transfer coefficient and pressure loss will a little lower.