Numerical Modeling of Heat Exchanger Filled with Octahedral Lattice Frame Porous Material

A numerical investigation into the fluid flow and heat transfer process in a 3D-printed shell-and-tube heat exchanger was carried out. The shell side of the heat exchanger was inserted with octahedral lattice frame porous material to enhance the heat transfer. In order to avoid establishing a complex grid system, the porous material of the shell side was modeled by a porous media model. The non-equilibrium model was adopted for the modeling of the heat exchange between the solid and fluid in porous media. An experimental investigation was carried out to validate the feasibility of this approach. The result indicates that the simplified approach is capable of providing an appropriate prediction of the pressure drop and heat transfer efficiency with moderate computational resources. The average error of pressure loss and heat transfer effectiveness is within 4% and 6.1%.