Enhanced flow and heat transfer of aviation kerosene in porous media microchannels

The increasing turbine inlet temperature of the aero-engine requires higher heat transfer capability of the thermal management system. To improve the compactness of the air-fuel heat exchanger in the aero-engine, the heat transfer capability of kerosene can be enhanced by using porous media with a larger surface area per unit. Enhancement of supercritical RP -3 aviation kerosene heat transfer in microchannels by a porous structure and optimization of the structure to reduce pressure loss were investigated through experiments and numerical simulations. It is found that porous structures increase the heat transfer area by more than double, change the flow state, destroy the boundary layer structure, and produce more vortex and secondary flow. At the same time, the kerosene reaches the supercritical state earlier. These factors collaborate to enhance heat transfer with a local Nusselt number approximately six times. Filling the porous structure in the part where the flow has not been sufficiently developed is the main factor of heat transfer enhancement. The flow of the hexagonal shape is more uniform, and its heat transfer capability is better. Using alternating rotating porous microchannels can increase the local convective heat transfer coefficient by 18.6 %. And the optimized design of a partially filled porous microchannel can reduce the pressure loss by 40.7 %.