Abstract
Plate heat exchangers are widely used in energy systems. The offshore floating platform's ocean thermal energy conversion (OTEC) system will be affected by the sea surface's wind, waves, tides, and currents, resulting in various motion postures. The additional inertia force brought by different motion postures will change the heat transfer characteristics of the heat exchanger, among which yawing and heaving are representative. Therefore, this paper carries out an experimental study on the influence of yawing and heaving format on the heat transfer coefficient and pressure drop of a herringbone corrugated plate evaporator using a heat exchanger thermal performance testing system and a six-degree-of-freedom platform. The experimental results show that both yawing and heaving formats have enhanced effects on the heat exchange coefficient of the herringbone corrugated plate evaporator, and it is more evident in the heaving format. The total heat transfer coefficients of the heat exchangers under different swaying motion conditions are significantly improved compared with the land-based state, and the enhanced heat transfer ranges from 7.03% to 20.61%. The plate evaporator has sound resistance effects on the pressure drop of the evaporator in both yawing and heaving formats. The "herringbone" corrugated plate evaporator has good resistance to the pressure drop of the evaporator for both bow yawing and heaving format, and the pressure drop has no noticeable change compared with the stable working conditions in these two motions.