No description available.

Continual development of internal combustion engines requires greater performance from liquid coolants and heat exchangers to maintain optimal temperature. For the purpose of experimental testing of traditional, compact, and microchannel heat exchangers, a test facility has been designed, constructed, and utilized. The facility includes equipment and instrumentation necessary to create operating conditions and record data primarily for testing plate-fin brazed aluminum heat exchanger where heat is being transferred from liquid to air. Other arrangements of heat exchangers could be tested as well with some modifications. Initial tests were performed at several specified operating conditions for three liquids: water, a traditional glycol based Extended Life Coolant (ELC), and a new Glycol Free Coolant (GFC) in an attempt to characterize their heat transfer ability. Results of the tests found that the product of overall heat transfer coefficient and heat exchanger area (UA) was very similar for GFC and water, and it was less for ELC by a narrow margin of 1.3% difference on average. Uncertainty due to instrumentation accuracy was calculated to be 1.8% on average making the results overall UA unverifiable. Measured pressure drop across the heat exchanger which is proportional to required pumping power was found to be 13.5% higher for GFC than ELC at nominal conditions. The GFC offers similar heat transfer performance and marginally increased pumping power requirements compared to the traditional ELC. Due to similar heat transfer performance and the small effect of pressure drop, GFC would be good alternative to ELC due to its less toxic composition.

The HVAC&R industry is looking to transition from copper-aluminum heat exchangers to all-aluminum microchannel technology. The want for the transition stemmed from seeing the performance improvement of all-aluminum microchannel radiators in the automotive industry. Applications differ between the two industries; therefore, applying this technology for HVAC&R use must be validated. Research towards operating modes of an all-aluminum heat exchanger in a defined corrosive environment will provide the industry with a better understanding of heat exchanger design and heat exchanger material selection. The worth in this is preventing overdesign and producing more efficient heat exchangers. Furthermore, ASHRAE members and the corrosion community will find value in a defined corrosion system and corrosion test procedure. The information gained through past research has progressed assessment of material performance; however, the methods improperly simulate and expedite natural weathering. The most common method being used is the ASTM (American Society of Testing Materials) Sea Water Acetic Acid Test. The research discussed in this paper was focused on improving a standard corrosion system by implementing system modifications to simulate heat exchanger operation while performing a modified wet-dry cyclic test (e.g. ASTM G85 Annex 5). The goal is to produce results that are more representative of natural corrosion behavior and its forms. Current results were gathered from five of ten samples that underwent initial testing. Finally, possible improvements towards the chamber system and the test method, including the salt solution, are discussed.

No description available.

No description available.

Solar radiation offers phenomenal potential for energy conversion with energy densities on the order of 1000W/m2 in locations with regularly clear skies. As always, the difficulty lies in finding a solar-electric conversion technology capable of producing electricity at a competitive cost. The SolarCAT (Solar Compressed Air Turbine) system produces electricity by releasing stored compressed air through a series of turbines with solar dish concentrators providing the required heat for efficient conversion to electricity. To minimize impact on capital cost, high recuperator effectiveness targets are sought but unlike typical fuel-fired micro-turbines, raising the recuperator effectiveness of the solar power system yields a benefit in overall system capital cost. Improving efficiency lowers the size and cost of the largest element of the system, namely the dish. In this study potential techniques for achieving a highly compact heat-transfer media were reviewed. Folded fin, packed beds, micro-tubes, lattice frame structures, metal foams, woven textile, and micro-machining techniques were assessed. Textile structures were selected as an appropriate medium to replace the internal folded fin of the SolarCAT recuperator. The relatively long flow (>150mm) path through the proposed screen wafers requires a model for fully-developed forced convective flow between parallel plates. A mathematical model was developed by integrating the results from the work of several authors in the field of textiles and porous media. #100 mesh sintered screen wafers were brazed between two 0.25mm stainless steel sheets and destructively tested to assess their tensile strength. Although iii optimization of the braze parameters was not completed, it was found that many samples survived exposure to internal pressures in excess of 50MPa. This study found that the use of sintered screen wafers to replace the internal folded fin of the SolarCAT recuperator would have advantages over the current design with respect to both overall recuperator effectiveness, size, and cost. Textile structures can be tailored to have wide range of fluid and heat-transfer properties depending on the application. The manufacturing process is relatively simple and could be cost-effective for high-volume production.

Solar radiation offers phenomenal potential for energy conversion with energy densities on the order of 1000W/m2 in locations with regularly clear skies. As always, the difficulty lies in finding a solar-electric conversion technology capable of producing electricity at a competitive cost. The SolarCAT (Solar Compressed Air Turbine) system produces electricity by releasing stored compressed air through a series of turbines with solar dish concentrators providing the required heat for efficient conversion to electricity. To minimize impact on capital cost, high recuperator effectiveness targets are sought but unlike typical fuel-fired micro-turbines, raising the recuperator effectiveness of the solar power system yields a benefit in overall system capital cost. Improving efficiency lowers the size and cost of the largest element of the system, namely the dish. In this study potential techniques for achieving a highly compact heat-transfer media were reviewed. Folded fin, packed beds, micro-tubes, lattice frame structures, metal foams, woven textile, and micro-machining techniques were assessed. Textile structures were selected as an appropriate medium to replace the internal folded fin of the SolarCAT recuperator. The relatively long flow (>150mm) path through the proposed screen wafers requires a model for fully-developed forced convective flow between parallel plates. A mathematical model was developed by integrating the results from the work of several authors in the field of textiles and porous media. #100 mesh sintered screen wafers were brazed between two 0.25mm stainless steel sheets and destructively tested to assess their tensile strength. Although iii optimization of the braze parameters was not completed, it was found that many samples survived exposure to internal pressures in excess of 50MPa. This study found that the use of sintered screen wafers to replace the internal folded fin of the SolarCAT recuperator would have advantages over the current design with respect to both overall recuperator effectiveness, size, and cost. Textile structures can be tailored to have wide range of fluid and heat-transfer properties depending on the application. The manufacturing process is relatively simple and could be cost-effective for high-volume production.

Since the CO 2-emissions and electricity prices are ever increasing many companies have tried to reduce their energy consumption in order to reduce both CO2-emissions and the cost of using energy. Therefore, in this article an office building situated in Sweden have been investigated with its current ventilation flow and what saving poten-tials can be made from heat recovery and a different ventilation flow in regards to health, energy and cost. Empirical data have been collected to be able to calculate ener-gy savings made by heat recovery and new ventilation flow. A ventilation flow of 25 l/s per office were chosen and that the conference room should have at least 3 l/s per m² the dining room and locker was not investigated thoroughly and therefore a ventilation flow from the recommendations of Sweden was followed. The total flows became, 530 l/s respectively 630 l/s for the top and bottom floor. A rotating heat exchanger with an es-timated efficiency of 80% was used for heat recovery and through the two methods combined an energy reduction up to 96,4 % for heating and 83,4 % from the electricity could be reduced.

Solar radiation offers phenomenal potential for energy conversion with energy densities on the order of 1000W/m2 in locations with regularly clear skies. As always, the difficulty lies in finding a solar-electric conversion technology capable of producing electricity at a competitive cost. The SolarCAT (Solar Compressed Air Turbine) system produces electricity by releasing stored compressed air through a series of turbines with solar dish concentrators providing the required heat for efficient conversion to electricity. To minimize impact on capital cost, high recuperator effectiveness targets are sought but unlike typical fuel-fired micro-turbines, raising the recuperator effectiveness of the solar power system yields a benefit in overall system capital cost. Improving efficiency lowers the size and cost of the largest element of the system, namely the dish. In this study potential techniques for achieving a highly compact heat-transfer media were reviewed. Folded fin, packed beds, micro-tubes, lattice frame structures, metal foams, woven textile, and micro-machining techniques were assessed. Textile structures were selected as an appropriate medium to replace the internal folded fin of the SolarCAT recuperator. The relatively long flow (>150mm) path through the proposed screen wafers requires a model for fully-developed forced convective flow between parallel plates. A mathematical model was developed by integrating the results from the work of several authors in the field of textiles and porous media. #100 mesh sintered screen wafers were brazed between two 0.25mm stainless steel sheets and destructively tested to assess their tensile strength. Although iii optimization of the braze parameters was not completed, it was found that many samples survived exposure to internal pressures in excess of 50MPa. This study found that the use of sintered screen wafers to replace the internal folded fin of the SolarCAT recuperator would have advantages over the current design with respect to both overall recuperator effectiveness, size, and cost. Textile structures can be tailored to have wide range of fluid and heat-transfer properties depending on the application. The manufacturing process is relatively simple and could be cost-effective for high-volume production.

Solar radiation offers phenomenal potential for energy conversion with energy densities on the order of 1000W/m2 in locations with regularly clear skies. As always, the difficulty lies in finding a solar-electric conversion technology capable of producing electricity at a competitive cost. The SolarCAT (Solar Compressed Air Turbine) system produces electricity by releasing stored compressed air through a series of turbines with solar dish concentrators providing the required heat for efficient conversion to electricity. To minimize impact on capital cost, high recuperator effectiveness targets are sought but unlike typical fuel-fired micro-turbines, raising the recuperator effectiveness of the solar power system yields a benefit in overall system capital cost. Improving efficiency lowers the size and cost of the largest element of the system, namely the dish. In this study potential techniques for achieving a highly compact heat-transfer media were reviewed. Folded fin, packed beds, micro-tubes, lattice frame structures, metal foams, woven textile, and micro-machining techniques were assessed. Textile structures were selected as an appropriate medium to replace the internal folded fin of the SolarCAT recuperator. The relatively long flow (>150mm) path through the proposed screen wafers requires a model for fully-developed forced convective flow between parallel plates. A mathematical model was developed by integrating the results from the work of several authors in the field of textiles and porous media. #100 mesh sintered screen wafers were brazed between two 0.25mm stainless steel sheets and destructively tested to assess their tensile strength. Although iii optimization of the braze parameters was not completed, it was found that many samples survived exposure to internal pressures in excess of 50MPa. This study found that the use of sintered screen wafers to replace the internal folded fin of the SolarCAT recuperator would have advantages over the current design with respect to both overall recuperator effectiveness, size, and cost. Textile structures can be tailored to have wide range of fluid and heat-transfer properties depending on the application. The manufacturing process is relatively simple and could be cost-effective for high-volume production.