Numerical modelling and characterization of a heat exchanger

Strong insulation in modern building and housing requires efficient ventilation systems. A popular solution is a decentralized set-up with one ventilation unit per room. The noise emitted by a ventilation unit then has a major impact on the room comfort. In order to reduce the heat transfer to the outside, a ventilation unit is typically designed as a double flux-system with a heat exchanger. This exchanger has a noticeable impact on the acoustic behavior of the ventilation unit. It is therefore of interest to study its effect through numerical simulations. The numerical modelling of a realistic heat exchanger is presented in this paper. The exchanger is placed inside its ventilation casing and modelled using a double equivalent fluid homogenization. Unknown homogenization properties are retrieved in two steps. Acoustic transfer functions are first measured experimentally in order to characterize the propagation paths through the heat exchanger. In a second step, an optimization loop is computed with the numerical model of the heat exchanger. This allows to determine the homogenization properties fitting the measured transfer functions for each frequency. Finally the results for the characterized heat exchanger homogenization model are compared against measurement.