Thermohydraulic performance of a new internal twisted ribs automobile exhaust heat exchanger for waste heat recovery applications

Abstract

The performance of the thermoelectric-based waste heat recovery (WHR) system in an automobile greatly depends on the amount of heat extracted by the exhaust heat exchanger (EHE). In the present study, the thermohydraulic performance of the EHE having twisted ribs and the pressure drop across the entire heat exchanger have been experimentally investigated. The experiments were repeated for the various geometric parameters such as twist ratio (4-8), angle of attack (30°-90°), and pitch ratio (6-10) on the Reynolds number within the range of 2300 to 25,000. The heat transport and fluid flow characteristics were compared with an internally smooth EHE using the thermohydraulic performance parameter. The maximum heat transfer rate was improved at 164.22%. However, the specification of the twisted rib for superior performance has been obtained at twist ratio of 4 and pitch ratio of 8 with 60° angle of attack. The highest thermohydraulic performance parameter value revealed as 1.93 at the same configuration. With the change in twist ratio, the pitch ratio, angle of attack, and the heat transfer rate increased by 39.52%, 60.85%, and 40.70%, respectively. Thus, the efficient heat transfer with the twisted rib would improve the extent of WHR in automobiles. © 2020 John Wiley & Sons Ltd