The paper presents four 1-dimensional models of thermal resistance of walls in a heat exchanger with rectangular minichannels. The first model is the simplest one, with a single wall separating two fluids. The second model of the so called equivalent wall takes into account total volume of intermediate walls between layers of minichannels and of side walls of minichannels. The next two more complicated models take separately into account thermal resistance of these walls. In these two models side walls are treated as fins. The results of models comparison are presented. It is shown that thermal resistance may be neglected for metal walls but it should be taken into account for the walls made of plastics. For the case of non-neglected wall thermal resistance the optimum wall thickness was derived. Minichannel heat exchangers made of plastic are larger than those built of metal, but are significantly cheaper. It makes possible to use of such exchangers in inexpensive microscale ORC installations.

The numerical simulation of the heat transfer in the flow channels of the minichannel heat exchanger was carried out. The applied model was validated on the experimental stand of an air heat pump. The influence of louver heights was investigated in the range from 0 mm (plain fin) to 7 mm (maximum height). The set of simulations was prepared in Ansys CFX. The research was carried out in a range of air inlet velocities from 1 to 5 m/s. The values of the Reynolds number achieved in the experimental tests ranged from 93 to 486. The dimensionless factors, the Colburn factor and friction factor, were calculated to evaluate heat transfer and pressure loss, respectively. The effectiveness of each louver height was evaluated using the parameter that relates to the heat transfer and the pressure drop in the airflow. The highest value of effectiveness (1.53) was achieved by the louver height of 7 mm for the Reynolds number of around 290.

The paper presents the results of experimental investigation and the new statistical method for the determination of pre-liminary thermal characteristics of a prototype compact minichannel heat exchanger with laminar flows and significant heat transfer in the manifolds. The exemplary heat exchanger consists of 9 straight, parallel, square-shaped channels and two rectangular-shaped manifolds milled on both sides of the single aluminium plate. The design of the investigated heat exchanger is quite particular, as the heat transfer area of both pairs of manifolds provides almost 1/3 of the total heat transfer area. In the new statistical method presented in this paper, the manifolds’ and channels’ heat flows are considered separately. The heat exchanger’s thermal characteristic was obtained statistically on the basis of the experimental results and is presented in the form of the overall heat transfer rate. The developed thermal characteristic model accounts for two effects, among many others, which may affect heat transfer in the exchanger, i.e. the heat loss to the ambient and the significant heat transfer in the manifolds. It is proved that the heat transfer to the surroundings was negligible due to the suitable thermal insulation. In order to demonstrate that the heat transfer in the manifolds is significant, two calculation variants are presented. The relative differences (residuals) between the experimental and statistically corrected heat transfer rates and the coefficient of determination R² are determined in both variants. In the first variant the heat transfer in the manifold pairs is neglected and in the second model it is included. It was observed that the lack of consideration of the heat transfer in the manifold pairs provides drastic dispersion between the experimental and statistical results. In turn, in the second model, where the manifolds are accounted for, a significant enhancement in the consistency of the results is noticed. The relative residuals are much lower, and the corresponding coefficient R² is improved from R² = 0.8827 in the first variant to R² = 0.9335 in the second one, respectively.