The paper describes the issues related to the pressure drop that accompanies the phenomenon of maldistribution of working fluid between the channels of a model minichannel plate heat exchanger. The research concerns a single exchanger's plate containing 51 (in every geometry) parallel rectangular minichannels of hydraulic diameters 461 µm, 571 µm, 750 µm and 823 µm. In addition, the more complex geometry has been investigated,...

Analysis of the state of-the-art in research of minichannel heat exchangers, especially on the topic of flow maldistribution in multiple channels, has been accomplished. Studies on minichannel plate heat exchanger with 51 parallel minichannels with four hydraulic diameters, i.e., 461 μm, 574 μm, 667 μm, and 750 μm have been presented. Flow at the instance of filling the microchannel with water at low flow rates has been visualized. The...

The topic of boiling heat transfer in miniscale geometries has focused the ever increasing interest of researchers in recent years. However, most of the works are related to mini- and microchannels and much less to minigaps. Meanwhile, minigaps allow for more comprehensive experimental studies, i.e. flow visualisations due to the flat, two-dimensional configuration of the flow. The results of the experimental investigations of...

Considering the development of energy sector, distributed small-scale power generation, e.g., gas micro-CHP, is attracting considerable interest. In such installations, the heat exchanger is one of the key components possessing a significant influence on overall performance. Most studies concentrate on units operating below 900C, which do not fulfil the requirements of gas micro-CHP. Therefore, there remains a challenge to design...

In the paper an experimental analysis of passive heat transfer intensification technique employed in the case of the plate heat exchanger is presented. The passive intensification was obtained by a modification of the heat transfer surface. The roughness of surface was increased by a use of glass micro-beads. Single-phase convective heat transfer in the water-water system was studied. The experiment was accomplished in two stages....