Development of high effectiveness droplet heat exchangers

An experimental and analytical investigation has been carried out to assess the feasibility of developing high effectiveness, high temperature droplet heat exchangers and to identify practical applications for this type of direct contact heat exchanger. The droplet heat exchanger (DHX) concept studies uses a counterflowing gas and droplet configuration, uniformly sized droplets or particles, and a uniform dispersion of droplets in gas to achieve high heat exchanger effectiveness. Direct contact between the heat transfer media eliminates the solid heat transfer surfaces that are used in conventional heat exchangers and is expected to make very high temperature heat transfer practical. Low temperature simulation tests and analysis have been used to demonstrate that uniformly sized droplets can be generated over a wide range of fluid properties and operating conditions appropriate for high temperature droplet heat exchanger applications. One- and two-dimensional, two-phase flow and heat transfer computer models have been developed and used to characterize both individual component configurations and overall DHX heat transfer rates and effectiveness. The computer model and test data began to diverge as the operating pressure was increased, indicating a need for more general transport rate correlations and a better understanding of the two-phase flows that govern DHX operation.