Heat exchangers play a key role in the overall performance of thermoacoustic devices. Due to the complex nature of oscillatory flows, the underlying mechanism of heat transfer in oscillatory flows is still not fully understood. This work investigates the effect of fin length and fin spacing on the thermal performance of finned-tube heat exchangers. The heat transfer rate between two finned-tube heat exchangers arranged side-by-side in an oscillatory flow was measured over a range of testing conditions. The results are presented in terms of heat transfer coefficient and heat transfer effectiveness. Comparisons are made between experimental results of this work and a number of models, such as, the Time-Average Steady-Flow Equivalent (TASFE) model, the Root Mean Square Reynolds Number (RMS-Re) model and the boundary layer conduction model, as well as several empirical correlations in literature. A new empirical correlation is proposed to be used for the prediction of thermal performance for finned-tube heat exchangers in oscillatory flows. The uncertainties associated with the measurement of heat flux are estimated.

Heat exchangers are important components of thermoacoustic devices. In oscillatory flow conditions, the flow and temperature fields around the heat exchangers can be quite complex, and may significantly affect heat transfer behaviour. As a result, one cannot directly apply the heat transfer correlations for steady flows to the design of heat exchangers for oscillatory flows. The fundamental knowledge of heat transfer in oscillatory flows, however, is still not well-established.The aim of the current work is to develop experimental apparatus and measurement techniques for the study of heat transfer in oscillatory flows. The heat transferred between two heat exchangers forming a couple was measured over a range of testing conditions. Three couples of finned-tube heat exchangers with different fin spacing were selected for the experiment. The main parameters considered were fin spacing, fin length, thermal penetration depth and gas displacement amplitude.Their effects on the heat exchanger performance were studied. The results were summarised and analysed in terms of heat transfer rate and dimensionless heat transfer coefficient: Colburn-j factor.In order to obtain the gas side heat transfer coefficient in oscillatory flows, the water side heat transfer coefficient is required. Thus, an experimental apparatus for unidirectional steady test was also developed and a calculation method to evaluate the heat transfer coefficient was demonstrated.The uncertainties associated with the measurement of heat transfer rate were also considered.

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This paper studies water transport behaviours in proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cell gas diffusion layers (GDLs) under the effects of a microporous layer (MPL) and some GDL structure parameters, namely thickness and pore size. Different paper GDL samples with and without MPL treatment were used in this study. The breakthrough pressure of liquid water and the amount of water retention in the GDL were measured. The results indicate that applying MPL on the GDL substrate has a greater impact on water transport behaviours in the GDL than changing the structure parameters of the GDL substrate. Compared to the GDL without MPL, the results show that applying MPL on the GDL surface considerably increases breakthrough pressure up to 4.3 times, while it greatly decreases water retention in the GDL by up to 13.7 times. For the GDL thickness, the results indicate that thicker GDL of the same structure requires up to 60% higher pressure to break through the GDL, while it can retain up to 4.8 times more water in its structure than thinner versions. Besides, the results indicate that twice-larger mean pore size GDL requires about 1.4 times lower breakthrough pressure, while it retains approximately twice more water in the GDL.

In thermoacoustic devices, an acoustic wave interacts with internal solid structures such as thermoacoustic stacks (regenerators), to either produce acoustic power due to an imposed temperature gradient, or to produce a heat pumping effect by an acoustic excitation. A cold and hot heat exchangers are usually placed on either side of these internal solid structures to enable heat communication between the thermoacoustic devices and their surroundings. Heat exchangers of various geometries have been extensively studied in steady flows and results are available from a collection of published articles and handbooks. However, there is still a lack of data for heat exchangers in an oscillatory flow, because the interaction of oscillatory flow with the solid boundary is governed by complicated fluid flow and heat transfer processes that are not fully understood. This work is a step towards a better understanding of the heat transfer mechanisms in the acoustically induced oscillatory flow within thermoacoustic systems, in particular obtaining the quantitative description of the heat transfer between heat exchangers and the stack. The assembly of a stack and heat exchangers is replaced by a simplified “stack-less” pair of heat exchangers, in order to focus on the generic heat transfer processes rather than the intricacies of practical thermoacoustic systems. The fins of the hot and cold heat exchangers are kept at constant temperatures by virtue of resistive heating and water cooling, respectively. Planar Laser Induced Fluorescence (PLIF) and Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) are used to obtain the temperature and velocity fields around the fins. The heat flux between the heat exchanger fins and the fluid is analyzed phase-by-phase. The time dependent local heat transfer coefficient is obtained from the temperature gradient in the thermal boundary layer. The measurements are conducted at various levels of acoustic excitation in order to study the correlation between the non-dimensional heat transfer coefficient Nu and the Reynolds number. The effect of the flow behaviour at the end of the plates on the temperature field in the region is also studied. It is hoped that this work could lead to a better understanding of heat transfer on short plates in the acoustically induced oscillatory flows.