Abstract
A numerical analysis of a heat pipe heat exchanger is described and coupled to an exergy analysis in order to determine the best configuration for a waste heat recovery application. One advantage of the heat pipe heat exchanger configuration is the high velocity flow that it can produce as compared to a conventional heat exchanger design. The heat pipe heat exchanger analysis includes sonic flow limitations and two-phase flow conditions. Results for the temperature, pressure and quality distributions in the flow directions are given. The second law efficiency is calculated using the results from the numerical model. The conventional heat exchanger design has the largest second law efficiency of the examined cases. The problem also illustrates the use of the exergy analysis as a design tool.
