Heat transfer enhancement of water-cooled triply periodic minimal surface heat exchangers

Whether triply periodic minimal surface (TPMS) heat exchangers are applicable to cooling or cold storage systems as a cooler for supercritical carbon dioxide (SCO2) is undocumented. Here the conjugated heat transfer of SCO2 in TPMS Schoen-G heat exchanger and printed circuit heat exchanger (PCHE) was predicted based on three-dimensional steady turbulent Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes equations, energy equation and shear stress transport model using computational fluid dynamics software ANSYS CFX when SCO2 inlet temperature and pressure vary in 65–30 ℃ and (8–9)MPa. SCO2 in two heat exchangers is cooled under counter-flow conditions by a stream of cold water with given inlet temperature and mass flow rate. It was shown that the mean heat transfer coefficient of SCO2 in TPMS Schoen-G heat exchanger is larger than PCHE. As the inlet pressure rises, the friction factor increases and Nusselt number decreases in the heat exchangers due to decreased Reynolds number and Prandtl number, respectively. The friction factor ratio, Nusselt number ratio and performance evaluation criterion vary in the range of 0.38–0.50, 1.07–1.49, and 1.45–2.04 with Reynolds number and inlet temperature when the PCHE serves as a reference heat exchanger. The streamlines in TPMS Schoen-G heat exchanger are quite smooth even though the areas with a higher velocity appear. The streamlines in PCHE exhibit a spiral flow pattern to result in extra hydraulic loss. The heat transfer enhancement of TPMS Schoen-G heat exchanger is much better TPMS Schwarz-D heat exchanger at a Reynolds number higher than 16,000. The enhancement is attributed to a larger heat transfer surface area and more topological tortuosity without flow separation than PCHE.