Supercritical CO2 Brayton cycle systems have emerged as a
promising option for power generation, in particular at lager
scales, where it is necessary to adopt series or parallel heatexchanger arrangements in order to achieve large amounts of
heat exchange. In this work, a variety of heat exchanger
arrangement schemes (series, parallel, and hybrid) are proposed
and explored in the context of supercritical CO2 Brayton cycle
systems. The results show that the heat load depends not only on
the values of key parameters (thermal conductance, temperature
difference, etc.), but also on their distribution coordination.
Moreover, the whole coordination can be improved via suitably
adjusting the flow fraction among the heat exchangers,
eventually improving the overall heat load. An appropriate
adjustment of the flow fraction in heat exchangers that are in
series/parallel is preferable to improving the match between the
hot and cold fluids, leading to a decrease in the thermodynamic
irreversibility. Taking the generally recognised supercritical CO2
recompression Brayton cycle systems as a focal point for our
analysis, it is found that the optimal split ratio ranges from 0.3 to
0.5, which is in line with results reported in literature. The
optimal split ratio improves the distribution coordination of the
parameters in the low-temperature recuperator, eventually
reducing the irreversible loss. The present work provides
valuable guidance to the design and optimisation of heat
exchanger arrangements for supercritical CO2 Brayton cycle
systems as well as other relevant systems.