Numerical and experimental study of heat exchanger designed forwaste heat recovery system from exhaust gases based on rankine cycle

International audienceThis article presents a numerical and experimental study of the heat exchanger impact on the overall efficiency of waste heat recovery system based on Rankine cycle. An 0D physical model of the heat exchanger was developed as well as a simulation code in Python(x,y). For experimental study a heat exchanger prototype was constructed. The working fluid circulates inside twenty three helical tubes situated along the length of the evaporator. The heat exchanger is countercurrent with heat exchange surface about 1.8 m2 . Both numerical and experimental results revealed that the evaporator is one of the most important elements of Rankine cycle. The highest overall efficiency of Rankine cycle was observed to be 5.14% and 4.81%. These values were obtained by numerical and experimental study, respectively. On the bases of this study we can conclude that in order to increase the efficiency of the cycle it is needed to improve the heat exchanger design as heat exchanger coefficient has to be increased