Proceedings of GT2005
ASME Turbo Expo 2005: Power for Land, Sea and Air
NUMERICAL SIMULATION OF GAS FLOW AND HEAT TRANSFER IN CROSS-WAVY PRIMARY
SURFACE CHANNEL FOR MICROTUBINE RECUPERATORS
H.X. Liang, Q.W. Wang, L.Q. Luo and Z.P. Feng
School of Energy and Power Engineering
Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an, Shaanxi, 710049, P.R. China
ABSTRACT
Three-dimensional numerical simulation was conducted to
investigate the flow field and heat transfer performance of the
Cross-Wavy Primary Surface (CWPS) recuperators for
microturbines. Using high-effective compact recuperators to
achieve high thermal efficiency is one of the key techniques in
the development of microturbine in recent years. Recuperators
need to have minimum volume and weight, high reliability and
durability. Most important of all, they need to have high
thermal-effectiveness and low pressure-losses so that the gas
turbine system can achieve high thermal performances. These
requirements have attracted some research efforts in designing
and implementing low-cost and compact recuperators for gas
turbine engines recently. One of the promising techniques to
achieve this goal is the so-called primary surface channels with
small hydraulic dimensions. In this paper, we conducted a three-
dimensional numerical study of flow and heat transfer for the
Cross-Wavy Primary Surface (CWPS) channels with two
different geometries. In the CWPS configurations the secondary
flow is created by means of curved and interrupted surfaces,
which may disturb the thermal boundary layers and thus
improve the thermal performances of the channels. To facilitate
comparison, we chose the identical hydraulic diameters for the
above four CWPS channels. Since our experiments on real
recuperators showed that the Reynolds number ranges from 150
to 500 under the operating conditions, we implemented all the
simulations under laminar flow situations. By analyzing the
correlations of Nusselt numbers and friction factors vs.
Reynolds numbers of the four CWPS channels, we found that
the CWPS channels have superior and comprehensive thermal
performance with high compactness, i.e., high heat transfer area
to volume ratio, indicating excellent commercialized application
in the compact recuperators. [Keywords: microturbine;
recuperator; cross-wavy primary surface channels; numerical
simulation]
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June 6-9, 2005, Reno-Tahoe, Nevada, USA
GT2005-68292
INTRODUCTION
Recently, plate heat exchangers have been the subject of
increasing research due to the attractive possibility of improving
their performances, the application of recuperators is mandatory
to meet the low emission requirements of pollutants and to
reduce the operating cost of the power plant by improving the
cycle efficiency and thus cut down the fuel consumption for the
microturbine, see Utriainen and Sunden [1]. The requirements
on recuperators may be summarized as high effectiveness, low
pressure losses, minimum volume and weight, high reliability
and low cost, etc. It is widely recognized that a heat exchangers
is called compact if the heat transfer area to volume ratio is
larger than 700 m2/m3. The design trend today is to increase
compactness and improve the heat transfer properties of the
ducts, for achieving low weight, small volume recuperator.
Corrugated plates are the elementary component in plate
and frame heat exchangers and in compact regenerators and
recuperators. In both types of heat exchangers the metal plates
are closely packed in a frame so that the orientation of the
corrugation between adjacent plates is non-aligned, this
configuration improves heat transfer by providing a large
effective surface area and by generating a complex flow
structure in the patterns between the plates. Corrugations also
strengthen the plates and give a high structural stability due to
the multitude of contact points. For any given overall flow rate,
as the density and thermal conductivity of gases are both much
lower than those of liquids, the heat transfer performance is poor.
Passive enhancement techniques may be used to reduce the
physical size of the recuperator core. In the passive techniques
secondary flow structures could be often generated. The
secondary gas and air flow structures in heat exchangers disturb
the insulating near wall layers and thus improve the thermal
properties of the duct.
Since the corrugation geometry determinates the
thermohydraulic performance of heat exchangers, a large variety
of corrugated profiles has been investigates for many different
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 cross-sections [2-11]. The CW (Cross Wavy) and CC (Cross
Corrugated) Primary Surfaces (PS) show superior performance,
however CC surface is not commercially available in any gas
turbine recuperator. The CWPS consists of corrugated, flow
separating, metal sheets where the corrugations are in the main
flow direction. These sheets are stacked that the waviness of the
upper and low duct halves are 180 degree relative to each other.
The primary surface type of heat transfer surfaces offers heat
transfer enhancement by accompanying acceptable increase of
the pressure losses. For this type of surface, the ratio of heat
transfer enhancement to pressure loss increase is often about
unity.
In an earlier work, Mehrabian and Poulter [12] studied
velocity and temperature distribution in the corrugated channels
using CFD technique. In further experimental investigations the
overall heat transfer and the pressure drop for different
dimensionless wavelengths have been presented for the laminar
and turbulent in periodicity flow regimes [13-15].
The nature of the fluid flow in the furrows of CWPS
channels is intrinsically three-dimensional. Thus, numerical
analysis is a very convenient tool to get the complete picture of
the complex flow structures over the domain. Furthermore, the
flexibility of numerical methods in handling changes in
geometric parameters, Reynolds number or boundary conditions
helps the comprehension of the mechanisms affecting the flow
and temperature fields.
In this paper, we investigate the velocity and temperature
distributions and the heat transfer coefficient in the periodical
CWPS channels. The aim was to discuss the influence of
different ratio of the wavelength (L) to internal height (A) of the
corrugation in flow direction on the heat transfer performance.
The numerical investigations of fluid flow and heat transfer in
corrugated channels has significant advantages compared to
experiment, the variation of geometric parameters is much
easier and less costly than in experimental investigations.
Furthermore, numerical results give detailed information of flow
structure that the experiments are not able to supply. All
simulations have been performed for laminar flow situations
because an investigation of real recuperators showed that with
the operating mass flow rates and small hydraulic diameters, the
Reynolds number is usually much less than 1000. Thus laminar
flow prevails. The simulated region of Reynolds numbers is
from 150 to 500. The four CWPS surfaces have same equivalent
hydraulic diameter (1.48mm), and the surfaces compactness
(ratio of heat transfer surfaces area to recuperator total volume),
are about 1438m2/m3 for L/A=7.4, 1491m2/m3 for L/A=5.55,
1564m2/m3 for L/A=3.7 and 1787m2/m3 for L/A=1.85.
NOMENCLATURE
A amplitude of waviness [mm]
As wall heat transfer area [m2]
Ac area of flow [m2]
cp Specific heat of fluid [J kg-1 K-1]
de hydraulic diameter [m]
f Fanning friction factor
H internal Height [mm]
j Colburn factor
L length of unitary cell [mm]
Lc flow length of unit cell [m]
m Mass flow rate of fluid [kg s-1]
Nu Nusselt number
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P pitch [mm]
p static pressure [Pa]
p′ periodic pressure [Pa]
Pr Prandtl number
qw heat flux from wall [W m-2]
R radius of circle in flow cross-section [mm]
rr radius of circle in waviness of the duct [mm]
Re Reynolds number
S circumferential length [m]
T temperature [K]
T′ periodic temperature [K]
Ui, Uj velocities using tensor notation [m/s]
Ū averaged velocity in the flow direction [m/s]
xi, xj coordinate directions using tensor notation [m]
Greek
µ dynamic viscosity [kg m-1 s-1]
δαβ Kroneckers delta, equal to 1whenα=β,otherwise 0
ρ fluid density [kg m-3]
λ thermal conductivity [W m-1 k -1]
∆P pressure loss unit cell [Pa]
COMPUTATIONAL MODEL AND NUMERICAL
PROCEDURE
Figure 1 shows the picture of one piece of CWPS. This is a
commercially available primary surface concept, the hydraulic
diameter has great influence on the compactness of the
recuperator core and also on the total volume of the recuperator
unit. Real exchangers are composed of a large number of flow
passages. For the CWPS design considered, a periodical element
of the channels, as shown in Figure 2(a), is chosen as the
computational domain. The upper and lower plate of a generic
couple share the same basic geometry, the surface geometry
parameters of pitch P, internal height H, wavelength L and
internal height A of the corrugation in flow direction are the
primary determinants which may influence heat transfer and
pressure drop of channels. The flow cross-section and waviness
of the channel in flow direction are shown in Figures 2(b) and
(c). The geometry parameters of the flow cross-section (z=0 or
z=L) are described by pitch P, internal height H and radius R. In
the present study, the magnitudes of these three geometry
parameters (P, H and R) are fixed. The waviness of the channel
along flow direction (z) is shown in Figure 2(c). In the four
configurations investigated in the present study, the three
geometry parameters (L, rr and A) shown in Figure 2(c) are
variable to give different duct length to amplitude of waviness
ratios. Here, we concentrate on four configurations, L/A=1.85,
3.7, 5.55 and 7.4 under P/H=0.60.
Figure 1 Picture of CWPS
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 (c) y= ±H
Figure 2 Geometry of CWPS

The constant-property conservation equations on a

generalized curvilinear coordinate system are as follows,
Equation of continuity
∂U i
=0 (1)
∂xi
Navier-Stokes equation of momentum conservation

∂   ∂U i ∂U j  
∂
∂x j
( )
ρ ⋅U j ⋅Ui = −
∂p′
+ µ +  + β ⋅ δ
∂xi ∂x j   ∂x j ∂xi   3i (2)
  
where p′behaves periodically and gives no contribution to the
pressure drop over a repeated unit cell [16], assuming linear
pressure drop characteristics in the flow direction is:
∂p
β = (3)
∂xi
The pressure p in the flow direction is written as:
p = p′ − β ⋅ z (4)
（a）Numerical Model for CWPS Energy equation

∂  µ ∂T ′ 
∂xi
( ρ ⋅U i ⋅T ′) = ∂∂x   − ρ ⋅ U i ⋅ σ ⋅ δ 3i (5)
i  Pr ∂xi 
where the extra source term is defined by
∂Tb qw⋅ A
s
σ = = (6)
∂z m⋅c p⋅L
The temperature T is written as:
T = T′ + σ ⋅ z (7)
The corresponding computational domains have been
discretized by 56×56×30, 56×56×60, 56×56×90, and 56
×56×120 by using the same grid spacing for L/A=1.85, 3.7,
5.55 and 7.4 respectively, and the grid for L/A=5.55 is shown in
Figure 3. In a similar work by Utriainen and Sunden[16], the
typical cell mesh used was 40×33×32. Therefore the above
four grids in the present study are fine enough to obtain the grid-
(b) z=0 or z=L independent solutions.

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 Figure 3 Grid and BCs description for L/A=5.55
As for the boundary conditions, it is assumed that the
(a) L/A=1.85
CWPS channel walls are kept at constant temperature. The
periodical boundaries are applied in the transverse flow
direction (PCB-A and PCB-B in Figure 3). The gas temperature,
pressure and flow rate are given at the inlet, while the outlet is
fully developed. A finite volume, steady state method with
body-fitted grid was employed for the computations, the
commercially available CFD code FLUENT has been used for
the numerical predictions of the present CWPS channel
performance. As mentioned above, the simulations have been
performed for laminar flow situations.
The definition of Reynolds number is
ρUde
Re = (8)
µ
and the friction factor f can be characterized by
∆p de
f = (9)
ρ LcU 2 / 2
The average Nusselt number is determined by
qw d e
Nu = (10)
(
λ Tw −T f ) (b) L/A=3.7

The hydraulic diameter de in the above equations is defined as

de = 4 A / S (11)
c
The Colburn factor, j, is as follows
Nu
j= (12)
Re Pr1/ 3

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

The gas flow of a recuperator for a microturbine with the
following conditions: -inlet temperature 920K, -outlet
temperature 525K, -inlet pressure 1.2 bar, -mass flow 0.9kg/s.
The flow field and heat transfer are investigated in the laminar
flow regime for the four geometry characterized by L/A=1.85,
3.7, 5.55 and 7.4 in the Reynolds number range from 150 to 500
for gas (Pr=1.137). Particular focus has been investigated how
the flow structure affects the performance of the CWPS
channels. Typical velocity distribution at Re=327 in the cross
section (y/H=0) for planes of PCB-A and PCB-B (Figure 3) is
(c) L/A=5.55
shown in Figure 4.

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 best performance by using a performance criterion based on
pumping power per unit heat transfer area, small L/A indicates a
small volume of the recuperator core but it does not say
anything of the shape of the volume. However, from the area
goodness diagram, the ratio of the Colburn number and the
Fanning friction factor (j/f) vs. the Re indicated that large L/A
exhibits a small flow area of the recuperator [18]. Then the
authors suggested that it should combine these two diagrams to
avoid very flat recuperators. The result shown in Figure 7 is
consistent with area goodness diagram in [18]. It is important to
limit the total pressure drop of gas and air to a proper range
(Usually, it is expected that the total relative pressure drop does
not exceed 5%). Based on this point, it is maybe more
reasonable to combine the above two diagrams to obtain an
optimal L/A in order to meet the designing requirements of
microturbine recuperators.

L/A=1.85
L/A=3.7
L/A=5.55
10 L/A=7.4
(d) L/A=7.4
Figure 4 Velocity distribution for planes of PCB-A (left) and
PCB-B (right) (y/H=0)

As shown in Figure 4, Two channels with L/A=1.85 and

Nu

3.7 have highly complex structure, which may induce large

vortices on the flow in the furrows. It can also be seen that the
decrease of L/A (from 7.4 to 1.85) will increase the recirculation
area of flow, and thus decreases the mean flow velocity by
42.5%. This is caused by the steady longitudinal vortices, which
imply a considerable increase in pressure losses owing to the
strong mixing produced by the interactions between streams and 1
200 300 400 500
furrows of corrugation structures. So low L/A should lead to an
enhancement in heat transfer coefficient as well as that in Re
pressure drop. It can be concluded that the ratio of L/A in the
main flow direction is a major parameter who may influence the Figure 5 Average Nusselt Numbers vs. Reynolds Numbers
thermohydraulic performance of CWPS, because any change in
L/A will affect the flow structure and then disturb the thermal L/A=1.85
boundary layer, which is the primary factor influencing pressure L/A=3.7
drop and heat transfer rate. L/A=5.55
Figure 5 shows the variation of the average Nusselt L/A=7.4
numbers (Nu) versus Reynolds numbers ranged from 150 to 1
500. The Nu for lower L/A are higher than those for larger L/A,
which can be attributed to the strong vortices for the lower
wavelength. Figure 6 shows the variation of the friction factor
(f) as a function of the average Reynolds numbers. The vortices
effects between the fluid streams in channel at high Reynolds
f

numbers cause an improvement of heat transfer and an increase

of pressure drop. From Figures 5 and 6, it can be seen that
although heat transfer is enhanced at higher L/A, the penalty in
pressure drop will also increase. So it is important to evaluate 0.1
them more fairly. Therefore, Figure 7 gives the variation of j/f
with Reynolds numbers, which shows clearly that under gas
flow and heat transfer conditions of recuperator for
microturbine, L/A=7.4 is perhaps more appropriate. 200 300 400 500
Utriainen and Sunden [17-18] have compared several Re
different heat transfer surfaces for small gas turbine, they
concluded that from the volume goodness diagram, short ducts Figure 6 Friction Factors vs. Reynolds Numbers
with high amplitudes of the waviness (small L/A) exhibit the

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 L/A=7.4
L/A=5.55
L/A=3.7
0.1 L/A=1.85
j/f
0.01
200 300 400 500
Re
Figure 7 j/f vs. Reynolds Numbers
CONCLUSIONS
The amplitude of waviness of the duct has a big influence
on the enhancement of the heat transfer of the CWPS channel,
because not only the direction of the main flow is deflected, but
also it opens up the passages to adjacent ducts thus creating
large scale of secondary flow in the flow domain under
consideration. For the gas boundary conditions in this study,
although the decrease of L/A (from 7.4 to 1.85) will increase the
recirculation area of flow, and thus lead to an increase in heat
transfer coefficient due to the strong vortices, the penalty in
pressure drop will also increase. So under gas flow and heat
transfer conditions of recuperator for microturbine, it is more
reasonable to combine the volume and area diagrams to obtain
an optimal L/A in order to meet the designing requirements
Acknowledgments
This work is supported by the National High Technology
R&D Project of China (No. 2002AA503020) and Higher
Academy Young Teacher Foundation Project of Fok Ying-Tung
Education Foundation (No.91056).
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