Performance evaluation of sea water heat exchanger installed in concrete structure of pontoon

At the viewpoint of energy saving and the increasing needs of seaside leisure activities in Korea, floating architecture is recently to be focused on, but it is in the early stage of technological development. Considering the features of floating structures that can float and move on sea and/or river, this study proposes Single-U type Sea Water Heat Exchanger (SWHEx) and Spring type SWHEx that installed into or outside the submerged concrete structure of pontoon, respectively. As the results from CFD and mock-up tests, it is found out that the mean temperature difference is 3°C between the inlet and outlet temperatures of working fluid which flows inside the Single-U type SWHEx and 1.5°C for Spring type SWHEx. Also it is clear that the heat exchange performance of Single-U type SWHEx is better than Spring type.