Intensification of heat-transfer and mixing in multifunctional heat exchangers by artificially generated streamwise vorticity

Compact heat exchangers are well known for their ability to transfer a large amount of heat while retaining low volume and weight. The purpose of this paper is to study the potential of using this device as a mixer as well as a chemical reactor, generally called a multifunctional heat exchanger (MHE). Indeed, the question arises: can these geometries combine heat transfer and mixing in the same device? Such a technology would offer many potential advantages, such as better reaction control (through the thermal aspect [S. Ferrouillat, P. Tochon, H. Peerhossaini, D. Della Valle, Open-loop thermal control of exothermal chemical reactions in multifunctional heat exchangers, Int. J. Heat Mass Transfer, in press]), improved selectivity (through intensified mixing, more isothermal operation and shorter residence time, and sharper residence time distribution (RTD)), byproduct reduction, and enhanced safety.