Conjugate Heat Transfer in Air-to-Refrigerant Airfoil Heat Exchangers

A light and compact heat exchange system was realized using two air-to-refrigerant airfoil heat exchangers and a recirculated heat transport refrigerant. Its heat transfer performance was experimentally investigated. Carbon dioxide or water was used as a refrigerant up to a pressure of 30 MPa. Heat transfer coefficients on the outer air-contact and inner refrigerant-contact surfaces were calculated using an inverse heat transfer method. Correlations were developed for the Nusselt numbers of carbon dioxide and water on the inner refrigerant-contact surface. Furthermore, we proposed a method to evaluate a correction factor corresponding to the thermal resistance of the airfoil heat exchanger.