Heat pipes are used to recover the waste heat from flue gas; what is the optimal mass flow rate in this context?
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Heat pipes are used to recover the waste heat from the flue gas, but due to the low flow rate, the heat pipes are relatively short, with a length of 220 mm. The mass flow rate of the flue gas facing these heat pipes is less than 1 kg/(m2·s), and the maximum mass flow rate is only a little over 1 kg/(m2·s). I’ve read in other publications that the optimal mass flow rate for waste heat recovery systems is between 2 and 3 kg/(m2·s); but given the small size of these heat pipes, is the mass flow rate I’ve achieved reasonable?
It mainly depends on whether the discrepancy in the settlement results is large or not.