CoilDesigner

Overview
Key Features
Technology White Paper
Availability
System Requirements
Exhaustive Feature List

Overview

CoilDesigner is a flexible and user-friendly tool to aid in the design, simulation and optimization of air-cooled heat exchangers. CoilDesigner software is based on one of ISOC's heat exchanger design and modeling research projects.

Key Features

The various features of CoilDesigner include:

• A highly customizable tool for simulating tube-fin, micro-channel and wire-fin heat exchangers.
• Model validated with experimental data.
• Flexible tube-circuitry. Number of tube rows and columns limited by available computer memory.
• User can connect tubes on-screen via consecutive mouse-clicks and can undo connections.
• Can account for 2-dimensional air mal-distribution depending on inputs.
• Popular heat-transfer (11), pressure drop (9), and void fraction (13) correlations implemented in the tool for different refrigerant phases. Refrigerant specific (e.g., CO2 supercritical) correlations also implemented.
• Ability to add user-defined correlations (for heat-transfer, pressure drop and fin efficiency) in the form of external libraries.
• Support for multiple fin types and fins with holes.
• User can input correction factors (multipliers) for heat transfer coefficients and pressure drops.
• Interfaces and development assistance provided by ISOC personnel.
• Detailed results can be viewed in the program and plotted and can be exported to a spreadsheet program and optionally in formatted text. Tube circuitry can be printed and /or saved to a text file.
• User interface color scheme can be customized.
• Coil configurations can be saved in portable data format, such that other tools can use components designed with CoilDesigner.
• Built-in features include Programmable Calculator, Unit Converter & Refrigerant Thermo-physical Property Calculator.
• Ability to perform parametric analysis and create plots. Dimensions, refrigerant and air state can be varied.
• Can be coupled with Single/Multi-Objective Genetic Optimization Algorithms for optimization of cost, performance, fan power consumption etc. Results of such studies published.

Technology White Paper

Evaluate what CoilDesigner can do for your coil design and optimization requirements. CoilDesigner White Paper

Availability

The full version of the CoilDesigner software is currently available to ISOC members only.

For demonstration versions, please contact ISOC.

System Requirements

• Microsoft Windows® Operating System
• Processor speed 1GHz or higher
• RAM 256 MB minimum
• Disk space 10 MB

Exhaustive Feature List

• Simulates air-cooled tube-fin and micro-channel heat exchangers
• Model validated with experimental data
• User friendly graphical user interface
• Detailed Output Results
  The program gives detailed output results like overall heat exchanger parameters (heat load, average values of heat transfer coefficients, condensate etc.), refrigerant and air side state parameters for each segment of each tube. These results can also be plotted and exported to a spreadsheet program.
• Flexible tube-circuitry
  Tube can be connected via consecutive mouse clicks. Alternatively a Tube-connection tool is available for easy circuitry design
• Modeling of arbitrary circuitry
  The program can model heat exchangers with any kind of arbitrary tube circuitry, including any number of splits and merges. In addition, there is no upper limit on the number of tube banks, the number of tubes and the number of segments per tube.
• Heat transfer and pressure-drop correlations
  A number of popular heat transfer and pressure-drop correlations are implemented in the program. User can also choose from different correlations for each of the three refrigerant phases and for air. A correction factor (multiplication factor) can also be specified for these correlations. In addition the user-defined correlations can be used via dynamic link libraries or the even fixed values can be used.
• Expanded list of available fluids as refrigerants
  The program uses Refprop 7.0 [NIST] as refrigerant property database. Also included is support for ammonia-water properties available in AWMix.
• Parametric study and plots
  User can perform parametric analysis by varying a wide range of parameters and plot the results. The results can also be exported to a spreadsheet program.
• Saving in portable data format
  The heat exchanger can be saved in a portable data format, so that is can opened for later use and also for use in other system simulation tools.