Heat Exchanger Modeling Guidelines

Heat exchangers and air conditioners are common elements in AEC, Data Center, and other architectural applications, and play a significant role in their thermal management. Proper simulation of both is essential for optimizing thermal behavior. The following guidelines describe effective use of the Heat Exchanger material model.

Build the heat exchanger (1) so that it is not immersed within the system (2)

Construct a volume at the inlet (1) and outlet (2) to offset the device from the system

The heat exchanger should not touch the system. The material of both extensions should be the system working fluid.

Construct the inlet (1) and outlet (2) with a single, separate, planar surface

Note: Openings consisting of multiple surfaces are not supported.

At the conclusion of the simulation, the Heat exchanger openings are listed in the Summary file as system openings:

CRAC units

When simulating data center CRAC units, it is not always feasible to build the device completely outside of the system (as shown above).

A good technique is place the heat exchanger device (1) inside of the CRAC unit (2), and suppress (don't mesh) the CRAC unit part.

The heat exchanger device does not touch the mesh on the system (except at the inlet and outlet). This satisfies the requirement that the heat exchanger not be immersed within the system.

For an example of defining a heat exchanger device in a CRAC, click here.

Considerations and Limitations

Note: Use the Flag Manager to enable the flag called inlet_is_vol_flow_bc if the heat exchanger device must be positioned near a pressurized area.