Effect of fin pattern on the air-side performance of herringbone wavy fin-and-tube heat exchangers

In the present study, new experimental data on the air-side performance of fin-and-tube heat exchangers having herringbone wavy fin configuration are presented. Different from most previous studies, the present experiments have been performed to determine the effects of fin patterns and edge corrugations on the air-side performance of the heat exchangers. The experimental apparatus consists essentially of a well-insulated open wind tunnel and herringbone wavy fin-and-tube heat exchangers made from aluminium wavy finned, copper tube. Two types of wavy fin patterns commonly in industrial use are investigated. Air and hot water are used as working fluids in air-side and tube-side, respectively. From the experimental results, it is found that the fin pattern has a significant effect on the heat transfer and flow characteristics. The corrugation at the fin edge enables the Colburn factor to decrease but it has almost no effect on the friction factor.     

Data reduction for air-side performance of fin-and-tube heat exchangers

The present study focuses on the data reduction method to obtain the air-side performance of fin-and-tube heat exchangers. The data reduction methodology for air-side heat transfer coefficients in the literature is not based on a consistent approach. This paper recommends standard procedures for dry surface heat transfer in finned-tube heat exchangers having water on the tube-side. Inconsistencies addressed include the -NTU relationships, calculation of the tube-side heat transfer coefficient, calculation of fin efficiency, and whether entrance and exit loss should be included in the reduction of friction factors. Use of the recommended standardized methodology will provide more meaningful data for use in the development of correlations, or for performance comparison purposes.     

Effect of salt spray corrosion on air-side hydrophilicity and thermal-hydraulic performance of copper-fin heat exchangers

The effect of salt spray corrosion on the air-side hydrophilicity and the thermal-hydraulic performance of copper-fin heat exchangers were experimentally investigated. Artificial accelerated method of salt spray corrosion on the copper-fin heat exchangers was used for simulating the actual corroded heat exchangers. The experimental results show that, the contact angles increase with the increase of salt spray corrosion hours, which results in the degradation of the hydrophilicity of copper fin. The air-side heat transfer coefficients decrease and pressure drops increase with the increase of corrosion hours. The effect of salt spray corrosion on the heat transfer coefficients and pressure drops become more obvious with the increase of inlet air velocity. The heat transfer coefficients of the corroded copper-fin heat exchangers decrease by 4.4–34.0% and the pressure drop increase by 5.2–26.1% comparing with those of the uncorroded copper-fin heat exchanger at the inlet air velocity ranging from 0.5 to 2.0 m/s.     

Influence of the position and number of decay heat exchangers on the thermal hydraulics of a slab test facility A comparison of analytical and experimental data

To assess the capability of passive decay heat removal systems of an advanced pool-type liquid-metal cooled reactor, natural circulation experiments have been performed to investigate the in-vessel cooling modes caused by the position and number of decay heat exchangers in operation. The rather simple slab test facility AQUARIUS is equipped with an electrically heated core and decay heat exchangers. Four different arrangements of heat exchangers are under consideration to study the temperature distribution and the flow behavior in the apparatus during both symmetrical and asymmetrical heat removal. The experiments have been carried out in water under laminar flow conditions.

Temperatures have been measured under quasi-steady-state conditions. The observed flow paths have been documented photographically. In case of asymmetrical heat removal, especially when a single heat exchanger is operated in one of both upper plena, the temperature distribution and the flow behavior are different from symmetrical cooling modes. A comparison of analytically predicted temperatures using the COMMIX-2(V) computer program with experimental data shows reasonably matches the findings. The results of the numerically determined velocity fields are in good agreement with the visual observations.     

Determination of heat transfer correlations for plate-fin-and-tube heat exchangers

This paper presents a numerical method for determining heat transfer coefficients in cross-flow heat exchangers with extended heat exchange surfaces. Coefficients in the correlations defining heat transfer on the liquid- and air-side were determined using a non-linear regression method. Correlation coefficients were determined from the condition that the sum of squared fluid temperature differences at the heat exchanger outlet, obtained by measurements and those calculated, achieved minimum. Minimum of the sum of the squares was found using the Levenberg-Marquardt method. The outlet temperature of the fluid leaving the heat exchanger was calculated using the mathematical model describing the heat transfer in the heat exchanger. Since the conditions at the liquid-side and those at the air-side are identified simultaneously, the derived correlations are valid in a wide range of flow rate changes of the air and liquid. This is especially important for partial loads of the exchanger, when the heat transfer rate is lower than the nominal load. The correlation for the average heat transfer coefficient on the air-side based on the experimental data was compared with the correlation obtained from numerical simulation of 3D fluid and heat flow, performed by means of the commercially available CFD code. The numerical predictions are in good agreement with the experimental data.     

Pulsating flows in heat exchangers — an experimental study

The effect of pulsating flows on the performance of a heat exchanger is studied experimentally. The experiments are conducted in a steam-water, double pipe heat exchanger for 500相似文献   

Experimental study on frost release on fin-and-tube heat exchangers by use of a novel anti-frosting paint

Frost formation on heat exchangers is an undesirable phenomenon that almost inevitably exists in refrigeration and cryogenic equipment; it can significantly affect the thermal efficiency of heat exchangers and reduce the performance of the refrigeration system. In this paper, a newly developed anti-frosting paint was used to spray on the heat exchanger fins with coating thickness of 30 μm, and a series of comparative experiments were conducted to test its effectiveness in restraining frost deposition under different repeated frosting–defrosting cycles. The experimental results demonstrated that the anti-frosting time of the coated heat exchanger was substantially longer when compared with the uncoated heat exchanger. In addition, there was no appreciable frost deposition on the coated fins surface during the whole test.     

Effects of contact angle on condensate topology, drainage and efficiency of a condenser with minichannels

Epoxy coatings with good adhesion characteristics have been developed that are suitable for large-scale manufacturing and application in compact heat exchangers. Two of them, with a static contact angle for water of 105° and 79° have been tested in a finned-tube condenser comparing flat plate minichannels on the gas-side. Contrary to the expectation, the thermal efficiency of the 105° condenser is slightly less than that of the 79° one. This is due to a reduction of condensate drop size at detachment, resulting in relatively small dry paths after drainage. In the present study, geometry and coating thickness of the two coated exchangers used have not been optimized, since emphasis has been on the effect of contact angle. The finned-tube geometry is shown to be less favourable, for a condenser, than the compact cross-flow plate geometry with minichannels on both the gas- and coolant side that was tested previously.     

A review on transient test techniques for obtaining heat transfer design data of compact heat exchanger surfaces

Accurate and reliable dimensionless heat transfer characteristic is very essential for the analysis of heat exchangers. It is also required for the rating and sizing problems of heat exchangers. One of the important experimental methods used to determine the heat transfer coefficient between the heat transfer surface of the heat exchanger and the flowing fluid is transient test techniques. The transient test techniques are usually employed to establish Colburn factor versus Reynolds number characteristics of a high NTU heat exchanger surfaces like compact or matrix heat exchangers. In those situations, a single-blow test, where only one fluid is used, is employed to conduct the transient test. The transient technique may have the fluid inlet temperature having a step change, periodic or an arbitrary rise/drop. In this paper, various transient test techniques that are used for the determination of heat transfer characteristics of high NTU heat exchanger surfaces are discussed.     

Experimental and numerical investigation on air-side performance of fin-and-tube heat exchangers with various fin patterns

Air-side heat transfer and friction characteristics of five kinds of fin-and-tube heat exchangers, with the number of tube rows (N = 12) and the diameter of tubes (D_o = 18 mm), have been experimentally investigated. The test samples consist of five types of fin configurations: crimped spiral fin, plain fin, slit fin, fin with delta-wing longitudinal vortex generators (VGs) and mixed fin with front 6-row vortex-generator fin and rear 6-row slit fin. The heat transfer and friction factor correlations for different types of heat exchangers were obtained with the Reynolds numbers ranging from 4000 to 10000. It was found that crimped spiral fin provides higher heat transfer and pressure drop than the other four fins. The air-side performance of heat exchangers with the above five fins has been evaluated under three sets of criteria and it was shown that the heat exchanger with mixed fin (front vortex-generator fin and rear slit fin) has better performance than that with fin with delta-wing vortex generators, and the slit fin offers best heat transfer performance at high Reynolds numbers. Based on the correlations of numerical data, Genetic Algorithm optimization was carried out, and the optimization results indicated that the increase of VG attack angle or length, or decrease of VG height may enhance the performance of vortex-generator fin. The heat transfer performances for optimized vortex-generator fin and slit fin at hand have been compared with numerical method.     

Experimental determination of correlations for average heat transfer coefficients in heat exchangers on both fluid sides

This paper presents an experimental–numerical method for determining heat transfer coefficients in cross-flow heat exchangers with extended heat exchange surfaces. Coefficients in the correlations defining heat transfer on the liquid- and air-side were determined based on experimental data using a non-linear regression method. Correlation coefficients were determined from the condition that the weighted sum of squared liquid and air temperature differences at the heat exchanger outlet, obtained by measurements and those calculated, achieved minimum. Minimum of the sum of the squares was found using the Levenberg–Marquardt method. The uncertainty in estimated parameters was determined using the error propagation rule by Gauss. The outlet temperature of the liquid and air leaving the heat exchanger was calculated using an analytical model of the heat exchanger.     

Condensate carryover phenomena in dehumidifying, finned-tube heat exchangers

An experimental study has been conducted to investigate the condensate carryover phenomena in dehumidifying heat exchangers. Two wavy finned-tube coils were tested, for which the fin surfaces were treated to provide either low or high contact angles. The receding contact angle on the fins of the two coils were 70° and 10°, respectively. The distribution of condensate carryover was measured along the tunnel bottom downstream from the coil for different air frontal velocities. As the frontal velocity increases, the quantity of condensate carryover increases, and the condensate is blown further from the coil. The receding contact angle on the fin surface is a key factor controlling the condensate carryover characteristics. The coil having a 10° receding contact angle shows significantly less condensate carryover than the coil having a 70° receding contact angle. Numerous condensate droplets and bridges were observed on the fin surfaces of the 70° receding contact angle coil; however, few were seen for the 10° receding contact angle coil. The dominant carryover results from droplets formed from bridged condensate, and the diameter of the resulting droplets is approximately 3.0 mm.     

Numerical study of heat transfer enhancement of finned flat tube bank fin with vortex generators mounted on both surfaces of the fin

Tube bank fin heat exchanger is one of the most compact heat exchangers, and it is widely used in industry equipments. The flat tube bank fin heat exchangers with vortex generators (VGs) have significant good heat transfer performance, and are used as radiators of locomotive. Here, we study heat transfer enhancement of a new fin where VGs are mounted on both surfaces of the fin. The heat transfer performance of this pattern is evaluated by a numerical method, and the results are compared with those obtained, under identical mass flow rate, when the VGs are mounted only on one surface of the fin. The results reveal that using this new pattern the height of VGs can be reduced and still obtain satisfactory heat transfer enhancement, while the pressure drop is reduced. The results also reveal that if VGs on one surface of the fin is determined, the locations where VGs are mounted on other surface of the same fin are very important, with configurations studied in this paper, depending on the value of Reynolds number, there exists an optimum location with which best heat transfer performance can be obtained.     

Experimental Analysis of the Turbulent Flow Behavior of a Textured Surface Proposed for Asymmetric Heat Exchangers

In this study the Stereoscopic Particle Image Velocimetry (S-PIV) technique was used to analyze the aerodynamic behavior of a textured surface. This textured surface is supposed to cover the inside of the hot wall of asymmetric heat exchangers. A high heat transfer coefficient and a low pressure drop are desired for the studied module receiver. The proposed textured geometry consists of an association of actuators (i.e., vortex generators) and riblets (used as vortex handlers). To determine the flow structure near the walls with good accuracy, an experiment was carried out in a large-scale boundary layer wind tunnel. The post-processing of the velocity fields obtained with the S-PIV technique allows us to obtain indicators of the pressure drop and of the heat transfer coefficient even if the stream is isothermal for these experiments. Nine riblet-actuator couples are studied and compared to the results obtained for an untextured surface. This work points out that the configuration including actuators and riblets of large dimensions is the best performing. This result is qualitatively validated by the analysis of the three components and two-dimensional averaged velocity fields.     

A study on the correlation between the thermal contact conductance and effective factors in fin–tube heat exchangers with 9.52 mm tube

The thermal contact resistance is a principal parameter interfering with heat transfer in a fin–tube heat exchanger. However, the thermal contact resistance in the interface between tubes and fins has not been clearly investigated. The objective of the present study is to examine the thermal contact conductance for various fin–tube heat exchangers with tube diameter of 9.52 mm and to find a correlation between the thermal contact conductance and effective factors such as expansion ratio, fin type, fin spacing and hydrophilic coating. In this study, experiments have been conducted only to measure heat transfer rate between hot and cold water. To minimize heat loss to the ambient air by the natural convection fin–tube heat exchangers have been placed in an insulated vacuum chamber. Also, a numerical scheme has been employed to calculate the thermal contact conductance with the experimental data. As a result, a new correlation including the influences of expansion ratio, slit of fin and fin coating has been introduced, and the portion of each thermal resistance has been estimated in the fin–tube heat exchangers with 9.52 mm tube.     

Shell-and-double concentric-tube heat exchangers

This study concerns a new type of heat exchangers, which is that of shell-and-double concentric-tube heat exchangers. These heat exchangers can be used in many specific applications such as air conditioning, waste heat recovery, chemical processing, pharmaceutical industries, power production, transport, distillation, food processing, cryogenics, etc. The case studies include both design calculations and performance calculations. It is demonstrated that the relative diameter sizes of the two tubes with respect to each other are the most important parameters that influence the heat exchanger size.     

Heat transfer and heat transfer fouling in Kraft black liquor evaporators

A large number of experiments have been performed with New Zealand Forest Products Kraft black liquor to measure heat transfer coefficients and fouling rates during convective and subcooled flow boiling heat transfer as a function of surface temperature, bulk temperature, velocity, and solids concentration. Results from experiments with two chemical fouling inhibitors, with Teflon surface coating and in plate and frame heat exchangers, also are presented. The fouling deposits are analyzed with respect to appearance, composition, and process conditions for which they were obtained. With the assumption of chemical reaction-controlled fouling, a deposition model is developed and compared with the experimental data.     

Flow boiling heat transfer of R134a in the multiport minichannel heat exchangers

The flow boiling heat transfer characteristics of R134a in the multiport minichannel heat exchangers are presented. The heat exchanger was designed as the counter flow tube-in-tube heat exchanger with refrigerant flowing in the inner tube and hot water in the gap between the outer and inner tubes. Two inner tubes were made from extruded multiport aluminium with the internal hydraulic diameter of 1.1 mm for 14 numbers of channels and 1.2 mm for eight numbers of channels. The outer surface areas of two inner test sections are 5979 mm² and 6171 m², while the inner surface areas are 13,545 mm² and 8856 mm² for 14 and eight numbers of channels, respectively. The outer tube of heat exchanger was made from circular acrylic tube with an internal hydraulic diameter of 25.4 mm. The experiments were performed at the heat fluxes between 15 and 65 kW/m², mass flux of refrigerant between 300 and 800 kg/m² s and saturation pressure ranging from 4 to 6 bar. For instance the boiling curve, average heat transfer coefficients are discussed. The comparison results of two test sections with different the number of channels are investigated. The results are also compared with nine existing correlations. The new correlation for predicting the heat transfer coefficient was also proposed.     

A simplified model of heat transfer in heat exchangers and stack plates of thermoacoustic refrigerators

A simplified model of heat transfer was developed to investigate the thermal behavior of heat exchangers and stack plates of thermoacoustic devices. The model took advantage of previous results describing the thermal behavior of the thermoacoustic core and heat transfer in oscillating flow to study the performance of heat exchangers attached to the core. The configuration considered is a flat tube (with a working fluid flowing in the tube) of the thickness of the stack plate attached to both ends of the stack plate. Geometrical and operational parameters as well as thermophysical properties of the heat exchangers, transport fluids in the heat exchangers, stack plate and the thermoacoustic working fluid were organized into dimensionless groups that allowed accounting for their impact on the performance of the heat exchangers. Two types of thermal boundary conditions were considered: constant temperature and constant heat flux along the heat exchanger tubes. Numerical simulations were carried out with the model introduced in the paper. The temperature distributions and heat fluxes near the edge of the stack plate were found to be nonlinear. The influence of system parameters on the thermal performance of the heat exchangers was analyzed.This article is dedicated to Prof. D. Mewes, whose knowledge, creativity, enthusiasm and dedication to engineering science was an inspiration to me and to many students, scientists, engineers and colleagues all over the world (C. Herman).     

Transport processes in narrow channels with application to rotary exchangers

Rotary solid storage elements, combining heat and mass transfer, are used for dehumidizing air, solvents recovery or separation. The performance of the rotor mainly depends on its single channels parameters and the type of flow material combinations employed as sorbents and carrying structures. The local heat transfer along the ducts was investigated by holographic interferometry. Fundamental tests were conducted to determine the loading behaviour of different rotary heat and mass exchanger samples. In further experiments the loading progression of different samples after an increase of humidity were determined. Finally a method of the numerical simulation of the combined heat and mass transfer in rotary exchangers is described briefly. Received on 23 September 1998