PARAMETRIC MODELING OF WATER-TO-AIR HEAT EXCHANGER BASED ON CFD ANALYSIS

A method has been investigated for numerical modelling a water-to-air heat exchanger using computational fluid dynamics (CFD), the results of which were used as inputs to a surrogate modeling technique to create a parametric model which is ultimately intended for rapid studies of building cooling systems. Main design variables included number of fins per inch, number of passes, and air and water temperatures and flows. The CFD models were evaluated for proper meshing and convergence and exhibited the types of trends that would be expected of a water-to-air hear exchanger system. A Design of Experiment was then created to define sample analysis cases to be used as inputs for a surrogate modeling process, which achieved a good fit to the original cases. This resultant model enables fast parametric analysis of a water to air heat exchanger with little sacrifice in original CFD model accuracy. Implications of scale-up to water-to-air heat exchangers with a more realistic density of finsper-inch are discussed.