Heat Transfer Analysis of Compact Heat Exchangers Using Standard Curves

This article concentrates on compact heat exchangers and how to use standard curves for heat transfer analysis. Compact heat exchangers are a class of heat exchangers, which features at least one of the fluids, on one side, as a gas. Most of the applications for this type of heat exchangers are in the area of electronics cooling because of space for a cooling device is typically at a premium. The heat transfer coefficient on the air side is significantly smaller than the liquid side, hence increasing the surface area on the air side can compensate for the low value of the heat transfer coefficient.