Numerical study on bionic airfoil fins used in printed circuit plate heat exchanger

Abstract

Airfoil printed circuit heat exchangers (PCHEs) possess exceptional comprehensive performance. In recent years, extensive research has been conducted on the layout and structure optimization of airfoil fins. As biomimetic technologies gradually mature, bionics has achieved numerous outcomes in optimizing airfoil aerodynamic characteristic. Inspired by the sailfish geometry, four types of bionic airfoils are proposed based on the NACA 0015 airfoil, to enhance the thermal-hydraulic performance of the airfoil PCHEs. The results show that while the four types of sailfish airfoils are effective in terms of drag reduction, their overall performance at the same pumping power is suboptimal, with only one type providing an advantage at the low Re region. Moreover, airfoils with concave head curves further increase the weakening of heat transfer by the velocity boundary layer.