Conjugate Heat and Mass Transfer in Heat Mass Exchanger Ducts

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An Introduction to Conjugate Heat and Mass Transfer in Ducts

Abstract

Novel heat and mass exchangers, such as honeycomb adsorbent beds, desiccant wheels, total heat exchangers, membrane contactors, etc., have been developed and applied in various energy and environmental technologies. Ducts of heat and mass exchange are the basic elements in these equipments. Knowledge and data of heat and mass transport in these ducts are the fundamentals to the design and optimization of these novel equipments. Due to the large Biot numbers in these ducts, the fluid flow, temperature and concentration boundaries are closely related to the thermophysical and interfacial properties of the solid wall materials. The classic Chilton–Colburn j factor analogy isn’t valid anymore. Conjugate heat and mass transfer should be investigated, in which the complexities of problems require that numerical heat transfer techniques be highly relied upon. In this chapter, the special features in these conjugate heat and mass transfer ducts are discussed, based on which the recent research trends in this area are introduced.

Keywords

ducts; heat and mass exchangers; honeycomb channels; total heat exchangers; adsorbent beds; desiccant wheels; membrane contactors; heat and mass transfer; energy and environment technologies; numerical heat transfer

1.1 Heat and mass transfer ducts

Energy and the environment are of increasing concern today, because mankind is facing greater energy and environmental problems than ever before. According to a report released recently [1], world energy consumption is projected to increase by 47% from 2010 through 2035. Most of the growth is projected for emerging economies outside the OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development), where robust economic growth is accompanied by increased demand for energy. Total non-OECD energy use grows by 72%, compared with an 18% increase in OECD energy use. Energy consumption in non-OECD Asia shows the most robust growth among the non-OECD regions, rising by 91% from 2010 to 2035. However, strong growth also occurs in many of the rest of the non-OECD regions: 69% in Central and South America, 65% in Africa, and 62% in the Middle East. Accompanying energy use, global carbon emissions from fossil fuels have significantly increased since 1900. Emissions increased by over 16 times between 1900 and 2008 and by about 1.5 times between 1990 and 2008. It is projected that the trend will continue for the next decades. These two factors have led to many energy and environmental problems such as fossil fuel depletion, global warming, ozone depletion, air pollution, new diseases, etc. The increased concerns with regard to energy and environmental problems have placed demands on new technologies.

To date, many new technologies are emerging to help to solve these energy and environmental problems. New types of equipment are invented to reclaim waste heat and to increase energy utilization efficiency; for example, total heat exchangers, desiccant wheels, etc. Other new equipment is constructed to get rid of air pollution from our environment, from either air or water, for example air cleaners and water cleaners. The basic processes in these types of equipment are heat and mass transfer. The nature of these processes is that substances and energy are transported from one place to another, and from one medium to another. Energy and pollutants are treated, transferred and processed in terms of heat and mass transfer. Without heat and mass transfer, energy and environmental problems cannot be controlled. All these novel forms of equipment can be called heat and mass exchangers.

Ducts are the basic units in these heat and mass exchangers. There is no site to accomplish heat and mass transfer without these ducts. They provide the interfaces for gases, solids and liquids to make contact and be transported. These ducts are usually very fine and are numerous, to provide sufficient area for gas-solid or gas-liquid contact. So the basic transport phenomenon in these small ducts, or channels, is the key for system design and performance optimization. Here are some examples.

Figure 1.1 shows a total heat exchanger unit for the reclamation of waste heat from buildings. The whole machine includes two fans, the ducting work for the two flows and the sealing walls separating the two flows, and the shell. The heart of the machine is the core. Figure 1.2 shows the core inserted in the total heat exchanger [2]. It is in either a parallel-plate ducts or a plate-fin ducts structure. Figure 1.3 shows a schematic of the heat and moisture exchange between the outside air and the indoor air through these numerous ducts. It is a cross-flow membrane based total heat exchanger. Because the heat and mass transfer between a solid surface and an air stream is usually very low, to achieve the required magnitude of treatment capability, large contact areas between the two flows are required. Therefore the cores are made of numerous fine channels.

Figure 1.1 A total heat exchanger for heat and moisture recovery.

Figure 1.2 The core inserted in the total heat exchanger.

Figure 1.3 Schematic of heat and mass transfer through ducts of a total heat exchanger.

With total heat exchangers, the efficiency of the existing HVAC systems can be improved substantially. With them, 20–40% of the energy use for air conditioning can be saved. The reason is that normally the fresh air is dehumidified by through condensation in a cooling coil followed by a re-heating process, which is very energy intensive. This energy can be saved if total heat exchangers are installed to reduce the dehumidification load. Besides energy conservation, total heat exchangers have the additional benefits of ensuring a sufficient supply of fresh air, which is crucial for the prevention of epidemic respiratory diseases such as SARS and bird flu. As can be seen from Figure 1.2, the exchanger is composed of numerous ducts. Fresh air and exhaust air exchange heat and moisture simultaneously in these ducts. In this way, fresh air is dehumidified and cooled by the exhaust air in summer and heated and humidified by the exhaust air in winter. The hot and humid incoming fresh air becomes cool and dry in summer, thus decreasing the cooling load in summer. The cold and dry incoming fresh air is heated and humidified in winter, thus decreasing the heating load in winter. The ducts are the basic units for heat and moisture exchange between fresh air and exhaust air in a total heat exchanger. Two neighboring membrane-formed ducts in the core are shown in Figure 1.4. They are of the counter-flow parallel-plate type. The ducts are composed of air flows and membrane walls. The membranes, though very thin, are closely related to the heat and mass transfer of air flows. Fluid dynamics and transport data in these membrane-formed ducts are the key issues. System design is possible only when the fundamentals of heat and mass transfer in the ducts are known.

Figure 1.4 Two neighboring representative membrane-formed ducts in a membrane total heat exchanger.

Adsorbent beds have been extensively used in many applications, such as air purification, waste water treatment, gas separations, adsorption cooling, etc. They can be classified into two categories: fixed beds, and desiccant wheels or moveable beds [3]. Figure 1.5 shows a honeycomb type adsorbent bed for a multi-bed dehumidification system and Figure 1.6 shows a desiccant wheel. Both have very high packing densities and large contact areas.

Figure 1.5 A fixed honeycomb-type adsorbent bed for multi-bed dehumidification.

Figure 1.6 A desiccant wheel.

The fixed beds and the desiccant wheels are both made of adsorptive materials in the form of honeycomb channels. There are numerous small ducts in the beds or wheels. For instance for the adsorbent bed in Figure 1.5, the parameters are: dimensions, 555 × 415 × 35 mm³; total weight, 3528 g; effective adsorbent weight, 1141 g; contact area, 7.24 m²; packing density, 898 m²/m³; duct geometry, 2 × 1.5 × 30 mm³. A system with 10 such beds can handle and dehumidify 500 m³/h of fresh air. Five beds are cascaded together to dehumidify air, while another five are cascaded to be regenerated by the regeneration air simultaneously. The process air stream flows through these mini-channels. They react with the solid walls, which are highly adsorptive. This is called the adsorption mode. The whole operation is dynamic and the materials work in transient mode. Their temperatures, humidity, and other properties change with time if necessary. When the solid walls become saturated, a regeneration air stream is passed through the ducts, and the working mode is switched to regeneration mode. The fixed bed relies on the alternate switching between process air and regeneration air to achieve continuous working. In comparison to a fixed bed, the desiccant wheel relies on the wheel revolving between the process air and regeneration air to achieve continuous working. A representative adsorptive duct in an adsorbent bed or desiccant wheel is shown in Figure 1.7.

Figure 1.7 A representative duct in an adsorbent bed or desiccant wheel.

Due to the adsorptive nature, there is strong simultaneous heat and mass transfer in such a duct. The wall materials and the air stream are closely coupled together. Heat transfer would lead to mass transfer, and mass transport would lead to heat generation or dissipation. The basic data of heat and mass transfer in such a duct are the key issue influencing system performance. The knowledge of this is the basis for the design, quantification and optimization of the adsorbent beds or desiccant wheels. For such ducts, solid materials constitute the main resistance in mass transfer, while heat transfer resistance is small.

Membrane contactors are another category of heat and mass transfer equipment. They have been extensively used in air purification, water treatment, gas separation, air dehumidification, and chemical production. They have the benefits of selective permeation of some desired substances. They are compact, and easy to maintain. The packing density can be as high as 1000 m²/m³, so the treatment capability is rather high. The membranes used for substance separation can be made into plate membranes or hollow fibers. Figure 1.8 shows a hollow fiber membrane module for air humidification [4]. It is well known that air dehumidification is a critical task, but air humidification is equally important in dry seasons. In winter when the rooms are heated, the indoor air is quite dry. Occupants would feel very uncomfortable, therefore it is necessary to have air humidification. In fuel cells, H2 should be humidified before it is used in electrochemical reactions to generate electricity. Humidification of H2 is a prerequisite for fuel cell applications. The module in Figure 1.8 can be used for air humidification. According to this concept, hollow fibers are packed together and assembled in a plastic shell to form a shell-and-tube structure. Water flows inside the fibers, while dry air flows across the fiber bank. Moisture permeates from the water flow to the air stream. The membranes, which are in hollow fibers, can prevent the leaking of liquid water to the air stream. However, they permit the permeation of moisture from water to air. In this way, the air is humidified. There are numerous fibers in a membrane module. Membrane-formed ducts are also the basic elements for heat and mass transfer. They provide the area for moisture permeation. Figure 1.9 shows a representative repetitive cell in a staggered aligned hollow fiber membrane bundle [5]. As seen, it is composed of two ducts: the inside duct and the outside duct. The water flows in the inside duct. It is a common flow in a round tube. Air flows in the external hypothetical duct formed by the fibers, surrounded by the dashed lines. In this respect, it is like a representative duct in a heat transfer tube. However, the heat and mass transfer in such a duct formed by membranes is more complex. Besides the complex flow pattern, heat and mass transfer in the air duct is closely related to the membrane materials, which in turn are closely related to the water properties in the fibers. So it is a three-phase conjugate problem: water, membrane, and air. The transport phenomenon in such a cell plays a key role in humidification performance. Due to the complexity, an analytical solution of such a three-phase (or three-element) system is always impossible. Therefore numerical methodology is highly relied on to find the solution. Figure 1.10 shows the calculated velocity fields in the air duct [5].

Figure 1.8 A hollow fiber membrane module for air humidification.

Figure 1.9 A representative cell in the hollow fiber membrane module. Water flows inside the fibers, and the air stream flows in the duct surrounded by the fibers. The equivalent air duct is surrounded by the dashed line.

Figure 1.10 The velocity vectors in the hypothetical duct. Flow fields in a duct surrounded by staggered arrayed fibers. x* and y* are dimensionless transverse and longitudinal coordinates.

1.2 Special features of heat and mass transfer in ducts

As mentioned, the conjugate problems in these typical heat and mass exchangers are rather complex. It is usually difficult to solve these problems with analytical methods. Numerical methodology provides a useful tool for performance predictions. The requirements in numerical methods also lie in the fact that there are special features in heat and mass transfer in the ducts of heat and mass exchangers.

1.2.1 Irregular geometry

Simple and regular cross sections such as circular and rectangular ducts are not popular in novel heat and mass exchangers. Though simple, their air-side convective heat and mass transfer coefficients are not high. To augment convective heat and mass transfer coefficients, ducts of irregular cross section are generally used. The most commonly used duct cross sections include sinusoidal, triangular, and hexagonal. Figure 1.11 shows the most commonly used duct cross sections for heat and mass exchangers. Some other novel structures are being developed. For instance, Figure 1.12 shows a novel structure for a total heat exchanger, the so-called cross corrugated triangular duct [6]. In this structure, parallel plain plates are first corrugated to form wave-like plates. The corrugated plates are then stacked together with neighboring plates oriented 90° to each other. In this way, a contraction-expansion structured duct is formed. Air flow and heat and mass transfer in the duct are intensified. Further, the structure is compact. Its mechanical strength is rather