International Journal of Thermal Sciences 49 (2010) 2037e2041

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International Journal of Thermal Sciences

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ijts

Enhanced performance of heat recovery ventilator by airflow-induced film

vibration (HRV performance enhanced by FIV)
Yanhua Lu a, Yiping Wang a, b, Li Zhu b, *, Qi Wang a
a
School of Chemical Engineering and Technology, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300072, PR China
b
School of Architecture, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300072, PR China

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Heat recovery of air ventilation is a means of energy conversation in buildings. In the present paper,
Received 4 November 2009 a plastic film heat recovery ventilator that works under cross-flow mode was developed. The thin film
Received in revised form vibrates when airflow passes through the channels, which enhances heat exchange performance.
19 March 2010
Experiments, as well as theoretical analyses, were carried out to study the performance of such a unit.
Accepted 1 June 2010
Available online 2 July 2010
Results show that the effectiveness of the heat exchanger varies from 0.65 to 0.85 with airflow rate and the
pressure drop is less than 20.0 Pa. Film vibration induced by airflow can improve heat transfer. The extent
of the enhancement is proportional to film vibration intensity that increases with airflow rate while
Keywords:
Energy conservation
decreases with film thickness.
Heat recovery ventilator Ó 2010 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.
Flat plate heat exchanger
Flow-induced vibration
Heat transfer enhancement

1. Introduction
Due to the scarcity of conventional energy sources, many efforts
have been made in energy conservation for buildings. As building
efficiency is improved with insulation and weather-stripping, build-
ings are intentionally made to become more airtight. Consequently,
buildings become less well ventilated since natural ventilation is no
longer sufficient. Ventilation load has become more significant with
upgraded insulation standards. Ventilation now accounts for 30% or
more of the total HVAC energy demand. As much as 70% of this energy
can be reclaimed using heat recovery ventilators (HRVs). HRVs can be
operated independently or built into existing HVAC systems.
Many types of HRVs have been used, including compact air-to-
air type, rotary wheel, heat pipe, runaround loop, thermosyphon,
and twin tower enthalpy recovery loop [1]. Research on compact
air-to-air heat exchangers (HEXs) has mostly focused on the plate
materials [2], such as porous hydrophilic membrane [3], hollow
fiber polymer membranes [4], and cellulose acetate membranes [5].
Many investigations have been conducted to obtain the thermal
performance and to ensure the efficient and reliable operation of
heat pipe HEXs [6e10]. Numerical solutions have been provided,
predominantly investigating the influence of thermal resistance on
* Corresponding author. Tel./fax: þ86 22 27404771.
E-mail address: zly_tj@163.com (L. Zhu).
heat and mass diffusion within the desiccant material of rotary
wheels [11,12]. Ghodsipour [13] estimated maximum effectiveness
as a function of rotational speed and hot/cold air velocities. Heat
reclaiming efficiency can reach as high as 70e80% for these units e
a significant contribution to building energy savings. However, the
HRVs currently used in buildings are directly introduced from the
industry without special considerations regarding the characteris-
tics of heat exchange between fresh and exhaust air. Related defects
include complex structure, difficult maintenance, cross-contami-
nation, high cost and so on. The desired air-to-air HEX is featured
highly efficient, small in size, lightweight, simple in structure and
low in cost.
The air-to-air heat exchange intrinsically has low heat transfer
coefficients because the conductivity of air is quite limited. Although
metallic plate materials are used in conventional units, the control
step relies on the air boundary layers. In the surface vibration
method, heat transfer coefficients can be increased up to 20e400%
of forced convection situations [14]. Flow-induced vibration is
a common phenomenon in many applications involving heat
transfer. The interaction between flow and structure may cause flow
separation, or secondary flow, and interrupt thermal boundary
layers near the heat transfer surface. With proper design, vibration
induced by fluid flow can be an alternative technique to improve the
heat transfer performance of the thermal system, especially in shell-
and-tube HEXs [15e17] and heat sinks in advanced computers
[18,19].

1290-0729/$ e see front matter Ó 2010 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.ijthermalsci.2010.06.001
2038 Y. Lu et al. / International Journal of Thermal Sciences 49 (2010) 2037e2041
Nomenclature
a width of heat exchanger plate channel (m)
A the cross-sectional area of the flow, heat transfer area
(m2)
b height of heat exchanger plate channel (m)
cp specific heat at constant pressure (kJ/kg  C)
Cmax maximum heat capacity of cold and hot side of the heat
exchanger (kW/ C)
Cmin Minimum heat capacity of cold and hot side of the heat
exchanger (kW/ C)
C variable, defined by Eq. (4)
DH hydraulic diameter of flow path within the heat
exchanger (m)
h average heat transfer coefficient (W/m2  C)
k thermal conductivity (W/m  C)
L length of channel section at airflow
measuring station (m)
m mass airflow rate (kg/s)
n variable, defined by Eq. (6)
NTU number of transfer unit
Nu Nusselt number
Instead of using high-conductivity metal plates, polyethylene
terepthalate (PET) was applied as it is low-cost and easy to vibrate
under airflow. The conductivity of PET is hundred-fold lower than
that of copper or aluminum plates and ten-fold higher than air.
Moreover, Vibration caused by the passing-through airflow can
disturb air boundary layers at the heat exchange surfaces, which
could enhance heat transfer. In the present paper, based on the
analyses above, a new type of HRV is proposed. Experiments were
carried out to determine the performance of the innovative cross-
flow plastic film heat exchanger for heat recovery. Investigations on
the effects of temperature difference, plate thickness, and various
airflow rates were conducted in detail by evaluating heat recovery
effectiveness and pressure drop.
2. Experimental
2.1. Experimental apparatus
The experimental setup design and construction is shown in
Fig. 1. Ambient air was used directly as the cold air through Fan2,
and was heated by an electric heater such that it becomes hot air,
Heater Fan1
U-manometer
T Heat
Ambient air exchanger
core
Fan2
Computer
Hot-Wire Anemometer
Fig. 1. Schematic of the experimental apparatus.
Nu average Nusselt number
Pr Prandtl number
Q actual heat transfer rate (kW)
Re Reynolds number
T temperature ( C)
U overall heat transfer coefficient of heat
exchanger (W/m2  C)
Greek Symbols
D temperature difference between the hot
and cold air ( C)
3 effectiveness of the heat exchanger
d film thickness (mm)
Subscripts and Superscripts
a air
c cold
h hot
s film
i inlet
o outlet
and then transported into the core heat exchanger by Fan1. After
heat exchange, the air was discharged. The two fans were of the
same size and each had a rated power of 30 W. The electric heater
had a power of 2.0 kW. All of ducts and heat exchanger were
insulated with 2 mm polyethylene to minimize the heat loss.
A total of 16 data channels for temperature were connected to
a computer for data acquisition equipped with a National Instruments
SWP-LED, and T-type thermocouples (0.1  C) were used to measure air
temperature at the heat exchanger inlet and outlet. Airflow rate was
determined by the average air velocity at the duct cross-section, which
was measured by a KIMO hotwire thermo-anemometer with an
uncertainty of 3%. An alcohol U-manometer (0.1 mm CH3CH2OH) was
used to measure the pressure drop of the heat exchanger.
Fig. 2 gives the diagram of the core structure. The core was made
up of a top cover, flat film plates, strip seals, a bottom cover, and
reinforcements, and no swirl flow device or extended surfaces.
The measurement of the core unit was 300 mm (L)  300 mm
(W)  180 mm (H), and the measurement of the films was 300 mm
(L)  300 mm (W).
As shown in Fig. 3, the film plate was bonded to a strip seal by a
strong adhesive, and a rectangular channel was formed. Air streams
SWP-LED
Fig. 2. Schematic of the cross-flow heat exchanger core structure.
 Y. Lu et al. / International Journal of Thermal Sciences 49 (2010) 2037e2041 2039

600

500
+5%

400
-5%
300

Qh, W
200

100

0
0 100 200 300 400 500 600
Qc, W
Fig. 3. Schematic of the connection between films and strip seals.
Fig. 4. Energy balance between the two fluids under various conditions.

flowed on opposite sides of each film plate in the mode of cross- 0:0668  ðL=DH Þ  Re  Pr
flow and did not mix. Nu ¼ 3:66 þ (9)
1 þ ð0:04  ðL=DH Þ  Re  PrÞ2=3

2.2. Performance evaluation Based on Equations (2)e(9), the analytical results for the effec-
tiveness of a conventional cross-flow HEX can then be determined
Effectiveness and pressure drop are the most common param- under real operation conditions.
eters to evaluate the performance of heat exchangers, especially for
a heat recovery device [1]. 3. Results and discussion
As discussed in [20], the effectiveness using laboratory
measurements is generally expressed as 3.1. Energy balance analyses

3 ¼ DTðmCp Þ =ðThi  Tci Þ (1) For the heat exchanger experiments, energy balance between
min
the hot and cold fluids is the basic information to assess experiment
Without considering the interaction between the airflow and accuracy. The heat amount transferred to the cold air was calcu-
the film, the analytical results for the effectiveness of a cross-flow
lated for all the experiments, as well as the heat released from the
heat exchanger can be calculated using the correlation suggested by hot air. Results, which are plotted in Fig. 4, clearly indicate that the
Kays and London [21], in which the effectiveness is a function of the
relative errors for the energy balance between the two currents are
number of transfer units, NTU, and the heat capacity ratio of the two less than 5%.
air currents.
  3.2. Effect of the temperature difference
expðNTUCnÞ  1
3 ¼ f ðNTU; CÞ ¼ 1  exp (2)
Cn
Theoretically, the temperature variation of the heat exchange
where the variables n, C, and NTU are defined as follows: fluid has no effects on the heat transfer coefficient of the heat
exchanger. The experimental results for film thicknesses of 0.115
n ¼ NTU 0:22 (3) and 0.175 mm under airflow rates of 40 and 90 m3/h are given in
Fig. 5. Minor changes relied on the temperature difference between
C ¼ Cmin =Cmax (4)

NTU ¼ UA=Cmin (5)

Assuming a clean air, the thermal resistance of fouling can be
neglected. Thus, the equation for U is restated as

U ¼ 1=ð1=hc þ d=ks þ 1=hh Þ (6)

The heat transfer coefficients can be derived in terms of
the Nusselt number, Nu, thermal conductivity of air, ka, and the
hydraulic diameter of a flow pipe, DH, such that

h ¼ Nu  ka =DH (7)
where DH, for a rectangular duct, is defined as

DH ¼ 4A=P ¼ 4ab=ð2a þ 2bÞ ¼ 2ab=ða þ bÞ (8)

The Nusselt number, Nu, is calculated by the empirical rela-
tionship most relevant for narrow channels with short lengths [20]: Fig. 5. Effectiveness variation with temperature difference.
2040 Y. Lu et al. / International Journal of Thermal Sciences 49 (2010) 2037e2041

0.90 0.9
δ
0.060mm 0.175mm
0.75 Experimental 0.8 0.115mm 0.250mm
Analytical 0.150mm analytical results
0.60
0.7

0.45
ε

0.6

ε
0.30
0.5
0.15
0.4
0.00
60 80 100 120 140 160 30 60 90 120 150 180
3
3 V, m /h
V, m /h

Fig. 6. Validation of the analytical method in comparison to the experimental data. Fig. 8. Comparisons between the experimental results and analytical results for
various film thicknesses.

the hot and cold air under any condition, even when the heat
exchange plates were vibrating. Thus, the average effectiveness which are further verified in Fig. 7, indicate that the effectiveness of
over different temperature difference was used. the heat exchange with different thicknesses is nearly the same.
However, thin films vibrate during a passing-through airflow,
which enhances heat transfer performance. In Fig. 8, wherein the
3.3. Effect of the flow-induced film vibration
real collected data during experiments are plotted against the
analytical curve, all curves of the experimental results have steep
The effect of flow-induced film vibration on the heat transfer
changes initially, after which they show slow variations. The best
performance was obtained by comparing the experimental
heat transfer performance was obtained at film thickness of 0.060
data attained with vibration and the analytical results calculated
and 0.175 mm, and worst at 0.150 mm. Marked differences can be
without considering vibration. Experiments were carried out on
observed between predicted and real performance. The difference
five different film thicknesses (0.060, 0.115, 0.150, 0.175, and
increases with airflow rate, as verified in Fig. 9. This is mainly
0.250 mm) and film placing of 3.0 mm.
because film vibration induced by airflow can improve heat trans-
The analytical method first needs to be validated. To test the
fer. The extent of the enhancement is proportional to film vibration
analytical results, the thick plates that were not able to vibrate were
intensity.
used for the ventilator. Film thickness was 2.000 mm and film
During the experiment, it was found that these films are easy to
placing was 5.0 mm. Real data are presented in Fig. 6 parallel with
vibrate. Film vibration intensity increases with the airflow rate and
the calculated results from Equations (2)e(9). The two curves are
decreases with film thickness. The upper and lower films of the
quite close, which represents good agreement between real data
channels come into contact with each other at high airflow rates.
and analytical results. Slight difference between the curves at some
Film vibration, which is highly non-linear and transient, may cause
flow rates were mainly results of experimental errors and simpli-
vibration of velocity boundary and thermal boundary near the film
fication of empirical relationships during calculation.
surface, and lead to an enhanced heat transfer. However, the
As shown above, the conductivity of PET is ten-fold higher than
existing experimental methods cannot obtain detailed information
air. The control step relies on the air boundary layers in the progress
on the variables for airflow and film interaction (i.e. velocity,
of air-to-air heat transfer. Film thickness has ignorable effects in
pressure, and temperature fields in the channels, and frequency
terms of heat transfer efficiency if no vibration exists. These results,

0.35
0.9
δ
δ 0.30 0.060mm
0.8 0.060mm 0.115mm
0.115mm 0.25 0.150mm
0.150mm 0.175mm
0.20
0.7 0.175mm 0.250mm
0.250mm 0.15
Δε
ε

0.6 0.10

0.05
0.5
0.00
0.4 30 60 90 120 150 180
30 60 90 120 150 180 3
V, m /h
3
V, m /h
Fig. 9. Variation of the heat transfer effectiveness difference with the hot airflow rate
Fig. 7. Analytical results for various film thicknesses without considering vibration. for various film thicknesses.
 Y. Lu et al. / International Journal of Thermal Sciences 49 (2010) 2037e2041
18
δ of 0.05. Higher air flow rate tends to decrease effectiveness to the
0.060mm
0.150mm
15 0.175mm
12
Δp
9 Atlanta, GA, 2008.
6 long term savings with a membrane-based energy recovery ventilator in Hong
3 recovery ventilator. Journal of Membrane Science 163 (1999) 29e38.
30 60 90 120 150 180
3 [5] L.Z. Zhang, C.H. Liang, L.X. Pei, Heat and moisture transfer in application scale
v,m /h
Fig. 10. Pressure drops of the heat exchanger for various film thicknesses.
and amplitude of film vibration). Detailed information, especially in
the local domain, is vital to explain the experimental results and to
further understand the mechanism of heat transfer enhancement
by film vibration. The mechanism will be further investigated in
detail by means of numerical simulation.
3.4. Pressure drop in heat exchangers
The changing curves of pressure drop with flow rate were
plotted for the three different film thicknesses and the film placing
of 3.0 mm (Fig. 10). Pressure drop increases with airflow rate and
decreases with film thickness. Film vibration changes the shape of
the channel, which then leads to increase in flow resistance. The
use of thin film results in higher vibration intensity under the same
airflow rate, and thus, larger deformation occurs at the channels. As
a result, a higher flow resistance leads to a higher pressure drop.
Similarly, the maximum value is less than 20.0 Pa and much lower
than 99.6 Pa, which is the minimum value of the existing HRV [1].
Results indicate that the new type of HRV has the advantage of low
resistance.
4. Conclusions
The effectiveness of the proposed air-to-air heat exchanger
varies between 0.65 and 0.85 with airflow rate, and the pressure
drop is less than 20.0 Pa. Film vibration induced by airflow can
improve heat transfer. The extent of the enhancement is propor-
tional to the film vibration intensity that increases with the airflow
rate and decreases with the film thickness. The effectiveness
2041
changes slightly with the temperature difference at a varying range
point where the channel films come in contact with each other,
resulting in inferior heat transfer performance.
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