Abstract: Under the strategic framework of "reducing oil output while increasing chemical production," the refining and petrochemical industry is progressively shifting toward high-end new-material manufacturing. This transition generates highly viscous polymer melts which give rise to thick thermal boundary layers and a high tendency for wall fouling, thereby posing severe challenges to conventional heat-transfer technologies. As an active heat transfer enhancement technique, ultrasonic heat transfer enhancement intensifies heat transfer via acoustic cavitation and acoustic streaming effects. This paper presents a systematic review of the underlying mechanisms of ultrasonic-enhanced heat transfer, along with recent experimental and numerical advances in double-pipe, coiled-tube, shell-and-tube, plate and microchannel heat exchangers. Meanwhile, to address the energy-efficiency bottleneck of standalone ultrasonic enhancement, the electro-thermal coupling concept is introduced. A strategy for comprehensively trading off ultrasonic power consumption against system-level benefits including heat transfer improvement, pump power saving and extended operating cycle is proposed. On this basis, critical issues such as equipment scale-up and industrial reliability are discussed, which can serve as a reference for developing process packages of ultrasonic heat transfer enhancement.

Key words: ultrasoniclheat transfer enhancementlheat exchangerlelectric-thermal synergistic utilizationlindustrial scale-up