Micro segment analysis of supercritical methane thermal-hydraulic performance and pseudo-boiling in a PCHE straight channel

The printed circuit heat exchanger (PCHE) is receiving wide attention as a new kind of compact heat exchanger and is considered as a promising vaporizer in the LNG process. In this paper, a PCHE straight channel in the length of 500 mm is established, with a semicircular cross section in a diameter of 1.2 mm. Numerical simulation is employed to investigate the flow and heat transfer performance of supercritical methane in the channel. The pseudo-boiling theory is adopted and the liquid-like, two-phase-like, and vapor-like regimes are divided for supercritical methane to analyze the heat transfer and flow features. The results are presented in micro segment to show the local convective heat transfer coefficient and pressure drop. It shows that the convective heat transfer coefficient in segments along the channel has a significant peak feature near the pseudo-critical point and a heat transfer deterioration when the average fluid temperature in the segment is higher than the pseudo-critical point. The reason is explained with the generation of vapor-like film near the channel wall that the peak feature related to a nucleate-boiling-like state and heat transfer deterioration related to a film-boiling-like state. The effects of parameters, including mass flow rate, pressure, and wall heat flux on flow and heat transfer were analyzed. In calculating of the averaged heat transfer coefficient of the whole channel, the traditional method shows significant deviation and the micro segment weighted average method is adopted. The pressure drop can mainly be affected by the mass flux and pressure and little affected by the wall heat flux. The peak of the convective heat transfer coefficient can only form at high mass flux, low wall heat flux, and near critical pressure, in which condition the nucleate-boiling-like state is easier to appear. Moreover, heat transfer deterioration will always appear, since the supercritical flow will finally develop into a film-boiling-like state. So heat transfer deterioration should be taken seriously in the design and safe operation of vaporizer PCHE. The study of this work clarified the local heat transfer and flow feature of supercritical methane in microchannel and contributed to the deep understanding of supercritical methane flow of the vaporization process in PCHE.