3-D numerical study on the effect of geometrical parameters on thermal behavior of dimple jacket in thin-film evaporator

The numerical simulations of dimple jacket constructions were performed by a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) program FLUENT in this work. The effects of geometrical parameters such as cone angle, arrangement, interval and height of dimple on heat transfer and pressure drop of dimple jackets in thin-film evaporator were investigated numerically. The results of numerical simulations were provided for comparison in order to get advisable configuration. The distance between dimples was found to have a considerable effect on heat transfer and in-line configuration was recommended because the pressure drop in it was smaller under the same heat transfer rate.