Numerical model improvement of a plate-fin heat exchanger filled with catalyst for hydrogen liquefaction

The continuous ortho-para hydrogen conversion technology represented by the plate-fin heat exchanger filled with catalyst (PFHEFC) is one of the key technologies for the breakthrough of large-scale hydrogen liquefaction system. An appropriate numerical model of the PFHEFC can provide reference and guidance for its design. The thermal-hydraulic behaviors of the catalyst filled layer (CFL) are essential for the model development of the PFHEFC. In this paper, the thermal-hydraulic correlations of the high-pressure and low-temperature hydrogen in the CFL are investigated by the numerical simulation and then used to improve the existing numerical models of the PFHEFC. The results show that the simulation results of the face centered cubic (FCC) packing structure are close to the results of some classical correlations of the CFL with most relative deviations within ±10% and can be used to approximate the actual CFL. And taking 40 K as the dividing point, the new thermal-hydraulic correlations of the high-pressure and low-temperature hydrogen in the CFL are obtained with the relative deviations within ±10%. Further, the New model of the PFHEFC is developed with the new thermal-hydraulic correlations. The New model has some margin in the heat transfer performance, considers the special thermal-hydraulic performances of the high-pressure and low-temperature hydrogen in the CFL, and is consistent with the existing numerical models in the ortho-para hydrogen conversion performance. It shows the New model is more suitable for the PFHEFC and can provide more accurate results for the design of the PFHEFC than the existing numerical models.