Applied Thermal Engineering 93 (2016) 995–1005

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Applied Thermal Engineering

j o u r n a l h o m e p a g e : w w w. e l s e v i e r. c o m / l o c a t e / a p t h e r m e n g

Research Paper

Development of diffusion welded compact heat exchanger technology

M.V.V. Mortean a, L.H.R. Cisterna a, K.V. Paiva b,*, M.B.H. Mantelli a
a Heat Pipe Laboratory, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Federal University of Santa Catarina, Florianopolis, SC, Brazil
b Mobility Engineering Center, Federal University of Santa Catarina, Joinville, SC, Brazil

H I G H L I G H T S

• Four new fabrication technologies for compact heat exchanger cores are presented.
• The heat exchangers tested are fabricated by diffusion bonding process.
• Results showed that cut-plate heat exchanger is the most promising technology.
• Experimental results were compared favorably with numerical and analytical results.

A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T

Article history: Compact heat exchangers are heat transfer equipment employed in applications where weight and volume
Received 6 July 2015 are significantly relevant constraints, such as vehicles (automotive, maritime, avionics and space). The
Accepted 8 September 2015 main characteristic of this equipment is the high heat transfer rate for small volumes. Only recently compact
Available online 21 October 2015
heat exchangers have received greater attention from the researchers, and therefore, manufacturing pro-
cesses and mathematical modeling still demand development. The main objective of this work is to present
Keywords:
and analyze four new fabrication technologies for compact heat exchanger cores, resulting in small cross
Compact heat exchanger
sectional controlled geometry. Three of them consist of sandwiches of flat plates filled with: parallel cir-
Diffusion bonding
Cross-flow heat exchanger cular wires, rectangular wires or rectangular tubes. The fourth consists of stacking flat plates interfiled
with water jet machined plates. In all these procedures, stacks of metal layers are formed and diffusion
bonding process is proposed for soldering. Copper prototypes were constructed to test the fabrication
technologies. Results showed that stacking layers of machined comb-like plates interfiled with flat plates
is the most promising fabrication technology, which was used to construct a copper prototype that was
tested using water as both hot and cold fluids. The present technology was compared for both the vol-
umetric power and the overall heat transfer coefficients with other heat exchangers, presenting an
intermediate performance. Experimental results were compared favorably with numerical and analyt-
ical results from the literature.
© 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction well as by the high heat transfer coefficients observed between

Among the several heat exchangers available in the market, the
shell and tube type is the most popular one for industries. Al-
though robust and reliable, such devices are characterized by their
large volumes, which make them not appropriate in many cases.
On the other hand, compact heat exchangers are considered suit-
able for applications that require high thermal performance and
where the volume and weight are strong limitations. However, the
main disadvantage of these equipment is their high costs.
In the literature, compact heat exchangers are characterized by
a high ratio between their heat transfer areas and their volumes as
* Corresponding author. Tel.: +55 48 3721 9937 ext. 262; fax: +55 48 3721 9937
ext. 201.
E-mail address: kpaiva@labtucal.ufsc.br (K.V. Paiva).
fluxes. They have wide applicability and high commercial poten-
tial, especially in situations where weight and space requirements
are important. Diffusion bonding is one of the most successful tech-
niques applied to the fabrication of compact heat exchangers, as the
resulting equipment can withstand high pressures, up to 500 bar
[1,2]. Aircrafts are examples of compact heat exchanger applica-
tions, as airplanes require high efficient and light equipment of very
small volumes. According to Dixit and Ghosh [3], Tuckerman and
Pease (1981) were the first to apply mini and micro channel con-
cepts to improve the thermal performance of heat sinks. They realize
that one way to increase the heat transfer coefficients is by reduc-
ing the hydraulic diameter of the channel. Based on these studies,
hot and/or cold streams should flow through small cross section area
channels, in compact heat exchangers [3].
Most of the fabrication processes of compact heat exchangers
involve machining micro/mini grooves in plates, stacking them and

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.applthermaleng.2015.09.021
1359-4311/© 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
996 M.V.V. Mortean et al./Applied Thermal Engineering 93 (2016) 995–1005
soldering the resulting piles [4,5]. The soldering can be a problem
as most usual welding processes involve addition of material and
can block the channels partially, decreasing the performance of the
device. Diffusion welding can be a solution, as no addition mate-
rial is required, although production costs are still high.
The purpose of the present study is to present new technolo-
gies developed for manufacturing compact heat exchanger cores.
Actually, the core is the main component, as the nozzle housing and
supporting frames are very similar to those used for other heat ex-
changer technologies. Based on the proposed technologies, small-
scale compact heat exchanger prototypes were designed, built and
tested. The thermal performance of the equipment was compared
with other heat exchangers and the experimental data were com-
pared with analytical and numerical results.
2. Literature review
According to Li et al. [6], compact heat exchangers are charac-
terized by high heat transfer area surfaces (β – defined as the ratio
between the total heat transfer area of one layer of the core to the
volume between plates of that layer) as well as by high heat trans-
fer coefficients between fluids. Therefore, compact heat exchangers
are usually lighter, occupy smaller spaces and require smaller support
structures when compared to traditional heat exchangers [2]. Reay
[7] highlights that these characteristics made them very suitable
for aerospace and naval applications.
Shah and Sekulic [2] propose that heat exchangers, operating with
gas, can be considered compact if the surface area density is higher
than 700 m2/m3. However, heat exchangers operating with liquids
or phase change fluids can be considered compact for densities larger
than 400 m2/m3. Actually, the literature reports studies of compact
heat exchangers operating with gas flows in a laminar regime, with
surface area density of 3000 m2/m3 and hydraulic diameters varying
between 100 μm and 1 mm, while micro heat exchangers can have
surface area densities of 15,000 m2/m3 or larger and hydraulic di-
ameters ranging between 1 μm and 100 μm. Just for comparison,
shell tube heat exchangers present density values lower than
100 m2/m3.
Heat exchangers can also be characterized by its volumetric heat
transfer coefficient [5,8], defined as:
UA
Uv =
V 3.1. Square cross section tubes
where U is the overall heat transfer coefficient, A is the total heat
transfer area on one side and V is the heat exchanger volume.
Cross and Ramshaw [29] studied a laminar flow heat exchanger
that presented a coefficient of 7 MW/m3 K, which compared with
a 0.2 MW/m3 K shell and tube heat exchanger [8] of similar exter-
nal geometry.
Kew and Reay [9] stated that the evolution of compact heat ex-
changers (CHE) occurred due to two key factors. The first one is the
industry requirement for smaller and more efficient equipment (elec-
tronic and chemical industries, for instance). Second, the material
science progress allowed for the manufacture of small objects, with
high accuracy, in large quantities and with low cost.
According to Li et al. [6], the reduced dimensions of the fluid
channels of the compact heat exchange cause two main effects: (1)
the fluid flow tends be laminar and (2) high pressure drops are ob-
served within the channel. Different solutions have been proposed
to solve the problem of the low coefficient of heat transfer associ-
ated with laminar flows, resulting in several compact heat exchanger
technologies. Some of these equipment have been commercial-
ized for years, others are in the process of being introduced in the
market and some are still in development.
The core is the main component of compact heat exchanger and
varies according to the fabrication technology employed. One usual
fabrication process involves the stacking of several metal layers,
which have different geometries, forming channels [10]. The stack
is bonded together by a welding process. In a traditional compact
heat exchanger, the hot fluid flows through channels in one of the
core layers, heating the walls by forced convection. The heat dif-
fuses through the core material and reaches the other layer, where
the cold fluid flows, absorbing this thermal energy. In this case, the
channel walls also act as extended surfaces (fins).
Diffusion bonding is used as fabrication process not only for ap-
plications where space or volume is restricted but also for corrosive
or chemically reactive fluids and for cases where dissimilar mate-
rials are not tolerated [1]. Printed circuit and plate-fin heat
exchangers are examples of diffusion bonding equipment [8]. Among
the most studied diffusion bonding heat exchangers (see [11–13]),
the printed circuit are characterized by their semi-circular chan-
nels produced by chemical milling, which radius typically ranges
from 0.5 to 2.0 mm [8].
As already mentioned, the high pressure withstand capacity, due
to the high bonding strengths [6], are among the advantages of dif-
fusion bonding process, which consists of joining two solid materials
by atomic diffusion, activated by high temperatures and facili-
tated by the application of high external pressures. Time is another
main parameter involved in this process [14]. Besides, this method
enables the welding of dissimilar materials and large metal pieces.
This technique is widely used when structural requirements are im-
portant requisites for the equipment [15]. As disadvantages, one can
mention: high cost of the soldering equipment, long heat cycle
periods, small production and limitations of the welding geome-
try [15–18].
3. Development of new diffusion welding manufacturing
technologies
The main objective of the work presented in this paper is to
propose new diffusion bonding technologies for fabrication of
compact heat exchanger cores. Two different techniques are applied
to fabricate the cores: parallel wires (square cross section tubes, rect-
angular and circular wires) and comb-shaped machined plates,
manufactured using water jet machining. Small prototypes in copper
were produced with each of these techniques to test the proposed
manufacturing procedures.
(1)
In this case, square cross section tubes are positioned side by
side, forming a layer. The walls of the tubes work as fins while the
tubes work as fluid flow channels. The layers are stacked and ar-
ranged in a 90° angle fashion, allowing the cross flux currents
between the hot and cold streams. Different from the other stack-
ing techniques proposed (see next sections), in this case no
intermediate flat plates are used. Once the set is assembled, it is
welded by diffusion bonding. A picture of the resulting bonded block
is shown in Fig. 1.
Analyzing the prototype produced with this procedure (Fig. 1),
one can see that the resulting core does not present uniform chan-
nels. Actually, during the fabrication process, the tubes are not able
to bear the applied pressure, deforming. Some tubes are partially
or totally smashed, blocking several channels. In addition, the re-
sulting layers are not flat and smooth and the surfaces to be welded
are not in full contact, resulting in a not complete union.
3.2. Circular and square cross section wires
In this procedure, sandwiches between flat plates and wires
compose the core layers. Circular cross section wires are neatly po-
sitioned in parallel configuration, keeping a fixed spacing between
 M.V.V. Mortean et al./Applied Thermal Engineering 93 (2016) 995–1005
Fig. 1. Core produced using square cross section tubes.
them. In fact, the void space between the wires determines the region
of fluid flow. Also, the wires act as fins, conducting heat from the
fluid to the metal matrix. The layers are stacked with the wire layers
forming angles of 90°. After stacking the layers, the assembly is dif-
fusion welded. The prototype manufactured using circular wires can
be seen in Fig. 2.
Although the fabrication process resulted in controlled chan-
nels, this technology is not considered suitable for compact heat
exchanger fabrication because the contact angles between plates
and wires are very sharp, causing large pressure drops when the
fluids flow through the channels. This geometry is much more ad-
equate for capillary pumping effect and so this technique could be
employed for the manufacture of multilayer heat pipes (see [19]).
3.3. Square cross section wires
The manufacturing process using square cross section wires is
similar to that employed for circular cross section wires. Sand-
wiches are formed between flat plates and square cross section wires
evenly spaced in parallel configuration. The core is formed by stack-
ing layers with the wires positioned in a 90° configuration. The space
between the wires characterizes the flow region and the wires act
as both channel walls and as fins. The complete set is welded by
diffusion bonding.
For this case, the pressure drop is not considered high, similar
to that expected for flows inside rectangular channels. The block
fabricated with this technology (see Fig. 3) showed good results in
terms of compactness and quality of the channel, but the manu-
facturing process can be considered slow, when compared to other
technologies, such as the one presented in the next section.
3.4. “Comb shape” plate-flat plate technology
The last proposed technique for manufacturing compact heat ex-
changer cores involves the stacking of plates, cut in the shape of
“combs” and interfiled by flat plates. Water jet cutting machine is
used to make groves in a flat plate. The sandwich formed between
cut and flat plates (or intermediate plates) forms the channels, within
Fig. 2. Core produced using circular cross section wires.
997
which the fluids flow. The intermediate plates are responsible for
separating the hot and the cold fluxes, while the “comb teeth”
(channel sidewalls) work as heat transfer fins. For cross current heat
exchanger cores, the comb teeth of adjacent layers are disposed in
90° arrangements.
The channels and fins resulting from this manufacturing process
always present rectangular cross section, with geometry con-
trolled by the dimensions of the groove machined in the flat plates.
The fluid flow paths depend on the cut plate design, which can be
straight, S shaped, zig-zag or wavy.
Once the assembly is mounted, the core is welded by diffusion
bonding. Actually, the diffusion welding occurs in the contact area
between the intermediate and cut plates. Fig. 4 shows a picture of
the prototype after the removal of excess of material from the sides
of the core, by a water jet cutting machine.
Among the several technologies proposed for the manufacture
of compact heat exchanger cores by diffusion bonding, the last one
presents the best results in terms of construction facility, ease of
controlling the channel and fin geometries and quality of the re-
sulting channels. The heat exchangers produced with this technology,
from now on, are referred to as “Cut-Plate Heat Exchanger”. Heat
exchanger prototypes using this technology are produced and their
heat transfer characteristics are tested, as shown in the next section.
One should note that in this work, only small prototypes for
testing the fabrication technologies were constructed and that they,
by no means, represent actual heat exchanger configurations. Real
equipment must be produced from diffusion bonded blocks of much
larger sizes. Due to the geometry dimension limitations of diffu-
sion welding furnaces, probably several blocks need to be fabricated
and connected in series or in parallel to produce the complete heat
exchanger core. After the core is fabricated, nozzles and supports
must be attached to the core. Only then, the equipment is fin-
ished and ready to be installed.
4. Experimental works
The prototype produced for the thermal tests was manufac-
tured using the cut-plate heat exchanger technology, composed of
998 M.V.V. Mortean et al./Applied Thermal Engineering 93 (2016) 995–1005

Fig. 3. Core produced using square cross section wires.

stacks of full and comb-like machined flat copper plates, both with
the external dimensions: 60 mm of width, 60 mm of length. The
comb-like geometry was obtained by machining square cross section
grooves of 2 mm of edge and 62 mm of length in the plates. These
plates are then piled, intercalating full and comb-like plates, so that
their teeth formed angles of 90°, in order to produce a cross flow
heat exchanger. Fourteen layers were stacked, seven for the hot
stream and seven for the cold stream.
Once assembled, the prototype was welded by diffusion bonding.
To finish the manufacture process, excess material was removed from
the sides. The resulting complete core has 60 mm of length (L),
60 mm of width (W) and 35 mm of height (H). Nozzles were then
welded. Fig. 5 shows the complete prototype and Table 1 presents
the geometrical characteristics of the heat exchanger, where β is the
ratio between the total heat transfer area considering one of the
flow streams (A) and the volume between plates for the same stream
and dh is the hydraulic diameter of the channel:
4 Achannel
dh =
p ference between the inlet and outlet temperatures. The effectiveness
where Achannel and p are the channel cross section area and perim-
eter, respectively. As the hot and cold sides have the same geometry,
A, β and dh are the same for both hot and cold sides.
In order to check the operation of the equipment, an experi-
mental test apparatus was developed. Hot and cold water streams,
with temperatures controlled by thermal baths, exchange heat
through the heat exchanger. The tests were carried out maintain-
ing inlet temperatures constant, at 30 °C for the cold side and 55 °C
for the hot side. Five levels of mass flow rates were tested, for each
Fig. 5. Prototype and experimental test apparatus.
stream. Therefore, during tests, the flow of one side was kept con-
stant, while the other stream flow varied from the minimum to the
maximum. The parameters of temperature (T), pressure (P) and flow
 ), applied on the tests, are presented in Table 2, where the
rate ( m
subscripts c and h are the cold and hot flow, and in and out are the
inlet and outlet parameters. The uncertainties of these param-
eters are presented in Table 3.
Data obtained for heat transfer rate (q) and effectiveness (ε) are
presented in Figs. 6 and 7, respectively. The heat transfer rate is
defined as
 hc p ΔTh = m
q=m  c c p ΔTc (3)
(2) where cp is the specific heat at constant pressure and ΔT is the dif-
of the heat exchanger is defined as the ratio between the heat trans-
fer rate and the maximum heat transfer rate (qmax):
q
ε= (4)
qmax
where qmax is
qmax = ( mc
 p )min ( Th,in − Tc ,in ) (5)
where ( mc  p )min is the minimum value of this product between the
two flows.
In Figs. 6 and 7, c1_h12345 means that the mass flow of the cold
side was kept constant (c1 – lowest available flow for the cold side),
while the hot side flow was varied from the lowest (h1) to the highest
flow (h5). The same is valid to the other indexes: c5_h12345,
h1_c12345 and h5_c12345.
Fig. 6 shows that the heat exchange rate ranged from 1.326 kW
to 1.997 kW, with the highest and lowest values observed for the
combination of the highest flow rates (h5_c5) and lowest flow rates
(c1_h1), respectively. The effectiveness ranged from 0.156 to 0.219,
as shown in Fig. 7, with the highest effectivities registered in cases
where one of the flows was the maximum and the other was the
minimum: c1_h5 and c5_h1.

Table 1
Geometrical characteristics of the heat exchanger.

L (m) W (m) H (m) dh (m) A (m2) β (m2/m3)

0.06 0.06 0.0355 0.002 0.047 933

Fig. 4. Core produced using cut and flat plates.
 M.V.V. Mortean et al./Applied Thermal Engineering 93 (2016) 995–1005 999

Table 2
Parameters collected during the tests.

Test Th,in (°C) Tc,in (°C) Th,out (°C) Tc,out (°C) Reh Rec Ph,in (kPa) Pc,in (kPa)

c1_h1 55.52 29.13 50.92 33.77 702 436 104 103

c1_h2 55.86 29.05 52.24 34.71 947 109
c1_h3 54.87 29.11 51.70 34.75 1076 112
c1_h4 55.43 29.19 52.34 35.08 1163 114
c1_h5 55.46 29.16 52.45 35.13 1228 115
c5_h1 55.10 30.01 49.85 32.93 695 895 104 110
c5_h2 55.44 30.21 51.12 33.62 939 109
c5_h3 55.18 30.16 51.23 33.75 1078 112
c5_h4 55.38 30.82 51.65 34.49 1160 114
c5_h5 55.46 30.94 51.79 34.66 1226 115
h1_c1 55.52 29.13 50.92 33.77 696 435 104 102
h1_c2 54.88 29.56 49.99 33.22 672 106
h1_c3 55.03 29.27 49.83 32.64 772 108
h1_c4 55.02 29.22 49.71 32.41 837 109
h1_c5 55.04 29.25 49.62 32.28 871 110
h5_c1 55.28 30.05 52.33 35.65 1227 444 115 102
h5_c2 55.43 30.21 52.08 34.81 683 106
h5_c3 55.53 30.28 51.94 34.47 790 108
h5_c4 55.58 30.76 51.94 34.66 866 109
h5_c5 55.46 30.94 51.79 34.66 904 110

4.1. Thermal performance comparison with other technologies
Observing Fig. 7, one can note low values of the heat exchanger
effectiveness, varying from 0.15 to 0.22. However, the amount of heat
transferred, taking into account the volume of the exchanger, can
be considered high. As the tested heat exchanger, which has a volume
of 1.26 × 10−4 m3, was able to transfer heat power rates between
1.326 kW and 1.997 kW, the volumetric power (expressed as the heat
exchange rate by the volume) varied from 9.71 to 15.85 MW/m3.
This can be considered a good performance when compared with
similar literature equipment.
Mylavarapu [20] designed, fabricated and tested printed circuit
heat exchangers. The tests conducted by the researcher, using helium
gas on the hot and cold streams, aimed to investigate the influence
of some parameters, such as mass flow rate and inlet temperature,
in the heat exchange rate. Among the tests performed by this re-
searcher, the one that presented the smallest Reynolds numbers for
both hot and cold streams, 964 and 898, respectively, showed a heat
exchange rate of 4.639 kW, for a heat exchanger volume of
2.66 × 10−4 m3 and so, the volumetric power was 17.44 MW/m3.
As already mentioned, in the present study, the mass flows of
hot and cold streams varied. The test in which the streams pre-
sented Reynolds number values closer to that of Mylavarapu [20]
was c5_h2 (Reynolds numbers of 939 for the hot and 890 for the
cold streams). In this test, the heat exchange rate was 1.818 kW for
a volume of 1.26 × 10 −4 m 3 , therefore a volumetric power of
14.43 MW/m 3 , which is similar to the Mylavarapu [20] data
(17.44 MW/m3), despite the fact that different fluids were used.
Also, Luo et al. [21] studied a mini cross flow aluminum heat ex-
changer, with 56.5 mm of length, 56.5 mm of width and 56.5 mm
of height, composed of circular channels with 2.5 mm of diame-
ter, tested with water. This prototype presents geometric
characteristics and operation parameters close to the one tested in
the present work, since both are cross flow heat exchangers and work
with water. Luo et al. [21], in their test, fixed the Reynolds number
and the inlet temperature of the hot stream (363 and 30 °C, re-
spectively), varying the Reynolds number of the cold stream, keeping
the inlet temperature fixed (4 °C). They obtained heat exchange rates
ranging from 940 to 1200 W, with the Reynolds number of the cold
side varying from 50 to 260. According to the authors, the volu-
metric power of this mini cross flow heat exchanger is around
6.67 MW/m3.
In the present work, the lowest Reynolds number flow was for
the test case c1_h1 (Reh = 702 and Rec = 435 for the hot and cold
streams, respectively). In this case, the heat exchange rate was
1.326 kW, which resulted in a volumetric power of 10.52 MW/m3,
a much higher value than that obtained for the mini cross flow heat
exchanger studied by Luo et al. [21]. Table 4 presents these
comparisons.
Shah and Sekulic [2] adopt the overall heat transfer coefficient
(U) as the thermal performance comparison parameter for differ-
ent heat exchanger technologies. In terms of this parameter, the heat
transfer rate is:
q = UAΔTlm (6)
where A is the total heat transfer area and ΔTlm is the logarithmic
mean temperature difference of one of the streams, defined as:
( Th,in − Tc ,out ) − ( Th,out − Tc ,in )
ΔTml = (7)
ln ( ( Th,in − Tc ,out ) ( Th,out − Tc ,in ) )
Table 5 shows the ratio between the heat exchange rate (q) and
the logarithmic mean temperature difference (ΔTlm) and the overall
heat transfer coefficient, for several technologies described in the
literature, using water as the hot and cold stream fluids [1]. The last
line of this table shows the best result obtained in the present work,
for the test case c5_h5, which presented the highest q/ΔTlm ratio from
all tested configurations.
Analyzing Table 5, one can see that the present work configu-
ration shows better coefficients of heat transfer when compared to

Table 3
The uncertainty of the parameters.

Parameter Temp. (°C) Differential Pressure Mass flow rate (g/s)

temp. (°C)
c1/h1 c2/h2 c3/h3 c4/h4 c5/h5

Uncertainty 0.24 0.16 1% of reading 2.0/1.6 0.9/1.7 1.1/1.2 1.8/0.9 1.2/1.8

1000 M.V.V. Mortean et al./Applied Thermal Engineering 93 (2016) 995–1005

Table 5
Comparative analysis of the overall heat transfer coefficient among several heat ex-
changers [1].

Heat exchanger q/ΔTlm (W/K) U (W/m2 K)

Printed circuit heat exchanger [1] 1000 3230

Compact shell and tube heat exchanger [1] 1000 938
Plate heat exchanger (welded) [1] 1000 1328
Plate heat exchanger (gasket) [1] 1000 3457
Cut-plate heat exchanger (Present study) 100 2077

formance of the studied heat exchanger can improve, reaching or

surpassing the more conventional technologies (plate heat exchang-
ers and printed circuit). The main advantage of the present
technology is the easy control of the channel geometry and the fa-
cility to construct larger equipment.
Fig. 6. Heat exchange rate as a function of Reynolds numbers.

both compact shell and tube heat exchangers and to the welded plate
heat exchangers [1]. However, it presents lower U values than the
printed circuit and gasket plate heat exchangers [1]. Also, one should
note that 10 cut-plate heat exchangers associated in series would
be needed to reach the same q/ΔTlm values observed for other heat
exchangers of Table 5, keeping the same Reynolds numbers and inlet
temperatures of the tests conducted. However, in this case, the global
U parameter would not change.
Actually, the current study heat exchanger presents similar or
better thermal performance than other heat exchangers widely used
in industry, as can be seen in Tables 4 and 5. However, it is impor-
tant to note that, while the printed circuit and gasket welded heat
exchangers are well known equipment and so they are expected to
be optimized, the present studied equipment prototype was just the
first one tested. Therefore, the present authors believe that, after
the application of design optimization procedures, the thermal per-
5. Modeling
5.1. Theoretical model
To simulate the thermal behavior of the cut-plate heat ex-
changer studied, a theoretical model for a cross flow heat exchanger,
employing the εNUT approach, was developed and implemented
by Mortean [22], using the software EES – Engineering Equation
Solver.
According to Mortean [22], the heat exchanger overall heat trans-
fer coefficient (U) can be obtained based on the convection (cold
and hot sides) and the wall conduction thermal resistances. Due to
the high thermal conductivity of the copper and to the geometry
of channels (the channel walls can be considered as fins), the overall
efficiency of the fin array can be considered as unitary. So the overall
heat transfer coefficient can be expressed as:
1 1 a 1
= + + (8)
UA hh Ah km Aw hc Ac

where Ah and Ac are the total heat transfer area of the cold and hot
sides, respectively, Aw, h, km and a represent the wall cross section
conduction surface area (between hot and cold streams), heat trans-
fer coefficient, thermal conductivity of the material and the thickness
of the flat plate.
As the wall resistance is very small, it can be neglected and, as
the heat transfer area for both sides is the same, this equation can
be simplified to:

1 1 1
= + (9)
U hh hc

The overall heat transfer coefficient can be related to the number

of transfer units (NTU) resulting:

UA
NTU = (10)
Fig. 7. Effectiveness as a function of Reynolds numbers. ( mc
 p )min

Table 4
Comparison between the present study and two different technologies.

Present study Mylavarapu [20] Luo et al. [21]

Heat exchanger Cut-plate heat exchanger Printed circuit heat exchanger Mini cross flow heat exchanger
Material Copper Alloy 617 Aluminum
Structure Cross flow Counter flow Cross flow
Volume 1.26 × 10−4 m3 2.66 × 10−4 m3 1.80 × 10−4 m3
Channels Rectangular Semi circular Circular
Fluid Water Helium gas Water
Heat exchange rate 1.818 kW 4.639 kW 1.2 kW
Volumetric power 10.25–14.43 MW/m3 17.44 MW/m3 6.67 MW/m3
 M.V.V. Mortean et al./Applied Thermal Engineering 93 (2016) 995–1005 1001

The effectiveness for a cross flow heat exchanger can be written

as [10]

⎡⎛ 1 ⎞ ⎤
ε = 1 − exp ⎢⎜ ⎟ ( NTU )
⎣⎝ C r ⎠
0 ,22
{ 0 ,78
}
exp ⎡⎣ −C r ( NTU ) ⎤⎦ − 1 ⎥
⎦
(11)

where Cr is the ratio between the smaller and the larger capacity
rates:

( mc
 p )min
Cr = (12)
( mc
 p )max

Employing Eqs. (4) and 5, and the effectiveness given by Eq. (11),
it is possible to calculate the heat transfer rate (q) of the equip-
ment using the following equation:
Fig. 8. Analytical, experimental and numerical heat exchange rates as a function of
q = ε qmax = ε ( mc
 p )min ( Th,in − Tc ,in ) (13) the hot stream Reynolds numbers.

The heat transfer coefficient is written as a function of the Nusselt

number (Nu), the hydraulic diameter and the thermal conductivi- To calculate the pressure drop inside the heat exchanger chan-
ty of the working fluid (kf), as: nels, a correlation for Darcy’s friction factor (f) as a function of the
dimensionless hydrodynamic length (L+), proposed by Muzychka and
k f Nu Yovanovich [27], was used. The literature reports that these authors
h= (14)
dh developed an analytical model to simulate the pressure drop be-
havior of flows in small channels that compared favorably with
Due to the small dimension of the heat exchanger, the heat flux numerical results, resulting in the following correlation:
through the wall and the radial temperature are assumed con-
stant. The fluid flow is considered laminar. However, due to the small l dh
L+ = (18)
channel dimensions, the thermal boundary layer can be consid- Re
ered fully developed or in development.
12
The literature reports [23] that a stream can be considered ther- ⎡ ⎞ ⎤
2
⎛
⎢ ⎟ ⎥
⎛ 3, 44 ⎞ ⎜⎜
mally fully developed if the dimensionless thermal length (L*) is 2
24
lower than the dimensionless thermal input length (z*), both defined f = ⎢⎜ ⎟ + ⎟ ⎥ Re (19)
⎢⎝ L+ ⎠ ⎜ 2⎛ 192 ⎛ πφ ⎞ ⎞ ⎟ ⎥
as: ⎢ ⎜(1 + 1 φ )⎜ 1 − tanh ⎜ ⎟⎟ ⎟ ⎥
⎝ φπ ⎝ 2 ⎠⎠ ⎠ ⎦
5
⎣ ⎝
l dh
L* = (15)
One should note that, when compared with flows in channels
RePr
with cross section with the following geometries: ellipse, circle, tri-
z* = −1.275 × 10−6 φ 6 + 4.709 × 10−5 φ 5 − 6.902 × 10−4 φ 4 + 5.014 angle and rectangle, this correlation provides predictions that are
(16) in the range of 1.11%–8.72% of error. Specifically for rectangular ge-
× 10−3 φ 3 − 1.769 × 10−2 φ 2 + 1.845 × 10−2 φ + 5.691 × 10−2
ometry, the error ranges from 1.16 to 3.33%, a quite precise result.
where l, Re, Pr and ϕ are the channel length, the Reynolds number, The pressure drops for the flow inside the channels are calculated
the Prandtl number and the ratio between the largest and the small- by:
est edge of the channel, respectively. The following Nusselt number
G 2l
correlation proposed by Stephan and Preußer [24], which takes into ΔP = f (20)
dh 2 g c ρ
account the dimensionless thermal length (L*), was then imple-
mented. This correlation was originally developed for circular tubes, where ρ is the density of the fluid, gc = 1, and G is the mass veloc-
but they provide good results for non-circular ducts [25,26]. ity, given by:
0.086 (1 L*)
1.33
m
Nu = 4.364 + (17) G= (21)
1 + 0.1Pr (Re Dh L*)
0.83
A fr

The comparison between experimental data and model results
is shown in a plot of the heat transfer rate as a function of the Reyn-
olds number, for the test c1_h12345 (see Fig. 8). In this case, the
cold stream flow was kept constant (Rec = 436), while the Reyn-
olds number of the hot stream varied from 700 to 1230. This case
was selected because the hot and cold fluxes present small Reyn-
olds numbers, which means that both flows can be considered
completely laminar. This graphic shows that the theoretical model
follows the same behavior of the experimental results and that the
model is within the range of uncertainty of the experimental data.
For this case, the average difference between data and model is ap-
proximately 2% and, therefore, the theoretical model can be
considered suitable for the prediction of the thermal behavior of
the cut-plate heat exchanger studied and so it can be applied as a
design tool.
where A fr is the free flow area.
5.2. Numerical simulation
The pressure drop and thermal behavior of the cut-plate heat
exchanger were numerically simulated, with the main objective of
predicting the fluid flow parameters. The software ANSYS-CFX was
used in this study.
Three different numerical simulations were carried out inde-
pendently. The first one focused only on the pressure drop inside
the rectangular channel. The second one aimed to simulate the pres-
sure drop behavior of the entire equipment, including the full core
and the headers. The third simulation studied the thermal behav-
ior of the heat exchanger, considering only two layers of the core
(one for the hot and one for the cold side), using a symmetric
1002 M.V.V. Mortean et al./Applied Thermal Engineering 93 (2016) 995–1005
Fig. 9. Numerical and analytical results of the pressure drop in the core.
condition, which decreases the number of nodes necessary for the
numerical analysis.
The differential equations of conservation of mass, momentum
and energy were discretized by the finite volume method and solved
in an iterative way. These equations can be written as:
∇ ( ρVφ ) = ∇ ( Γφ ∇φ ) + Sφ
where ϕ corresponds to the transported property for which the
balance is carried, including the components of velocity u, v, w and
the temperature T, while Γϕ is the product between the diffusivity
and the specific mass of the transported property, and Sϕ is the source
term [28].
In the first simulation, a hexahedral mesh was used with an or-
thogonal quality of 1 (the maximum possible). This complex mesh
could be employed due to simple geometry studied. The pressure
drop inside one rectangular channel was considered the same over
the whole core (actually, this methodology was adopted for both
analytical and numerical simulation studies). The analysis of the
number of mesh elements was performed based on the pressure
drop measured in test c1_h1. The number of elements considered
varied from 2.5 × 102 to 4.8 × 105 with root mean square (RMS) of
Fig. 10. Absolute pressure distribution of the heat exchanger hot fluid stream.
10−10 as the pressure drop convergence criterion. It was observed
that, using 2.5 × 105 elements, the pressure drop observed is almost
the same (difference of approximately 1.8%) as that obtained using
4.8 × 105 elements. For the present work, a mesh with 3.3 × 105 el-
ements was chosen, resulting in a pressure drop difference of less
than 1% for the more refined mesh.
Simulated results for the case c1_h12345 (same as that pre-
sented in Section 4.1), without considering the headers, are compared
with analytical solutions in Fig. 9. From this figure, one can see that,
for the range of Reynolds numbers studied, the numerical and an-
alytical curves exhibit the same behavior, with an average difference
of about 2%. This value is within the error range of the friction factor
correlation employed [27], within 1.16 and 3.33%.
In the second simulation performed, the pressure drop of the
entire heat exchanger was studied, including headers and chan-
nels. The objective was to verify the influence of headers and
channels on the total equipment pressure drop. A total of 1.3 × 106
unstructured hexahedral and tetrahedral mesh elements were
applied, with orthogonal quality of 0.92.
Fig. 10 shows the numerical results for the pressure distribu-
tion of the hot fluid stream of the cut-plate heat exchanger, for the
case c1_h1 (see Table 2). As already highlighted, this case pres-
ents the smaller Reynolds numbers, 436 for the cold and 700 for
(22) the hot streams, which means that the flows present fully devel-
oped laminar characteristics. These results show that the headers
are responsible for 52% of the pressure drop of the complete heat
exchanger, while the core is responsible for 48%.
Fig. 11 presents the fluid streamlines for the hot fluid stream for
the same c1_h1 case. One can observe that the stream is quite un-
organized in the left (inlet) nozzle, but becomes organized is it flows
through the core and through the outlet nozzle. In addition, one can
see that the headers induce an almost homogeneous distribution
of fluid within the core channels. A liquid flow average speed of
0.187 m/s is observed in the channels, while the maximum veloci-
ties occur in the central channels, reaching 0.23 m/s, and the
minimum is observed in the corner channels, with a value about
0.15 m/s.
The numerical simulation also aimed to study the thermal be-
havior of the heat exchanger and to compare these results with
 M.V.V. Mortean et al./Applied Thermal Engineering 93 (2016) 995–1005 1003

Fig. 11. Fluid streamlines of the heat exchanger hot fluid stream.

analytical solutions and experimental data. The numerical solu-
tions for the heat transfer equations were obtained using the
conjugate heat transfer method (conservative interface fluxes). The
domain was divided into three regions: hot fluid, cold fluid and solid
matrix (heat exchanger core). Symmetry and interfacial coupling
conditions were applied. The convergence criterion adopted was a
root mean square difference of 10−10 between successive iterations.
The analysis of the number of mesh elements was performed
based on the heat transfer rate measured in test c1_h1. The number
of elements considered varied from 2.5 × 102 to 4.8 × 105. It was ob-
served that, using 2.91 × 105 elements, the temperature distribution
was almost the same (difference of approximately 0.02%) as that ob-
tained using 4.8 × 105 elements. For the present work, a mesh with
2.91 × 105 elements was chosen. The orthogonal mesh quality was
0.90.
Fig. 12 shows the temperature distribution of the fluids inside
the channel. The image on the left side represents the bottom half
of the cold side channel and the image on the right represents the
upper half of the hot side channel.
One can see that, in the cold stream (left side), the wall has higher
temperature levels than the center, as expected, as the heat is de-
livered to the fluid by the walls. On the other hand, in the hot
streams, the higher temperature levels are observed at the center
of the channel, as the heat is actually conducted from the liquid flow
to the channel walls. The largest temperature differences ob-
served in a cross section of both channels are around 16 °C; this
difference is high because the convection heat transfer is small for
low velocity streams.
In Fig. 8, a comparison between the heat exchange rate ob-
tained from experimental work, analytical model and numerical
simulation, for the set of tests c1_h12345, is shown. According to
this figure, the numerical results present the same behavior of the
experimental data and analytical predictions, with an average dif-
ference of around 3% in relation to both experimental and theoretical
results.
Table 6 presents a compilation of the difference among numer-
ical data, theoretical analysis and experimental results, for both
pressure drop and thermal studies. In general, the comparison is
quite good, with the numerical results presenting an average dif-
ference of 2% for the pressure drop and 3% for the thermal studies,
considering both theoretical and experimental approaches.
Concluding this section, one can say that, for the range of Reyn-
olds number studied, the numerical simulation has well succeeded
in the representation of the hydraulic and thermal physical

Fig. 12. Temperature distribution of the cold and hot fluids, respectively, inside the channel.
1004 M.V.V. Mortean et al./Applied Thermal Engineering 93 (2016) 995–1005

Table 6 Nomenclature
Comparative analysis between the numerical, analytical and experimental results,
for the pressure drop and thermal behavior.
a Thickness of the flat plate [m]
Theoretical results Experimental results A Total heat transfer area of one flow stream [m2]
Pressure Thermal Pressure Thermal Achannel Cross section area of the channel [m2]
drop behavior drop behavior Afr Free flow area [m2]
Numerical results 2% 3% – 3% Aw Average wall surface area [m2]
C Heat capacity rate [W/K]
Cp Specific heat at constant pressure [J/kg]
Cr Ratio between the smaller and the larger capacity rate
dh Hydraulic diameter [m]
phenomena of the studied problem. The differences between the f Darcy friction factor
experimental and numerical results can be associated with the un- G Flow-stream mass velocity [m/s]
certainty of the experiment, validating the developed models, which h Heat transfer coefficient [W/m2 K]
can be used as a design tool for this type of equipment. H Height of the core [m]
k Thermal conductivity [W/m K]
l Channel length [m]
6. Conclusion
L Length of the core [m]
L+ Dimensionless hydrodynamic length
In the present study, new technologies, for compact heat ex-
L* Dimensionless thermal length
changer core fabrication, welded by diffusion bonding, were
m  Mass flow rate [kg/s]
developed. The manufacture process of these technologies con-
NTU Number of heat transfer units
sists of stacking several metal layers, which are pressed, heated to
Nu Nusselt number
a certain temperature for a controlled time, in a controlled atmo-
p Duct perimeter [m]
sphere, causing the diffusion welding of the set. The cores were
P Pressure [kPa]
produced with basically two techniques. The first technology con-
Pr Prandtl number
sists of flat plate sandwiches filled with parallel tubes of square cross
q Heat transfer rate [W]
section geometry, or with circular or square full cross section wires.
Re Reynolds number
The second technology consists of stacking plates in the shape of
T Temperature [K]
combs, machined using water jet cut, which are interfiled with flat
U Overall heat transfer coefficient [W/m2 K]
full plates. Among these technologies, the last process presented
Uv Volumetric heat transfer coefficient (W/m3 K]
the best results in terms of ease of manufacturing, geometry control
V Heat exchange volume [m3]
and channel quality.
w Width of the channel [m]
A prototype constructed using the cut-plate technology was
W Width of the core [m]
manufactured and tested in an experimental test apparatus. The
z* Dimensionless thermal input length
measurement showed that the core was able to transfer heat rates
between 1.326 kW and 1.997 kW, with a volumetric power ranging
Greek symbols
from 9.71 to 15.85 MW/m3 and a heat exchanger effectiveness
β Heat transfer area surface [m2/m3]
ranging from 0.156 to 0.219. The thermal performance of the equip-
Δ Denotes difference
ment was compared with other heat exchangers from the literature.
ε Effectiveness
The configuration studied, first one produced with this technolo-
ϕ Ratio between the largest and the smallest edge of the
gy (therefore not subjected to any optimization procedures), showed
channel
an intermediate performance, for both the volumetric heat trans-
ρ Density of the fluid [kg/m3]
fer power and the overall heat transfer coefficients. As the geometry
of the device can be easily controlled, the present authors believe
Subscript and abbreviations
that the proposed technology has great potential and can be used
c Cold side
to produce very efficient heat exchangers. Therefore, the applica-
f Fluid
tion of optimization design techniques is proposed for future work.
fr Free flow
The theoretical thermal model developed for cut-plate heat ex-
h Hot side
changers (present technology) is shown to be very precise for
in Inlet
predicting the heat transfer rate. The theoretical heat transfer rate
m Material
results compared quite well with the experimental data (within 2%,
max Maximum
on average, for low Reynolds numbers), showing to be an efficient
min Minimum
tool for designing heat exchanger cores with the proposed tech-
out Outlet
nology. The pressure drop and thermal behavior of the equipment
w Wall
were also simulated using numerical methods. The pressure drop
1 Flow level 1
predictions using theoretical model and numerical simulation
2 Flow level 2
showed similar trends, with a difference of 3%. As a general rule,
3 Flow level 3
both thermal and hydraulic models can be applied for predicting
4 Flow level 4
the thermal and pressure drop behaviors in cut-plate heat
5 Flow level 5
exchangers.

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