Three-dimensional numerical study and field synergy principle analysis of wavy fin heat exchangers with elliptic tubes

Three dimensional numerical studies were performed for laminar heat transfer and fluid flow characteristics of wavy fin heat exchangers with elliptic/circular tubes by body-fitted coordinates system. The simulation results of circular tube were compared with the experiment data, then circular and elliptic (e = b/a = 0.6) arrangements with the same minimum flow cross-sectional area were compared. A max relative heat transfer gain of up to 30% is observed in the elliptic arrangement, and corresponding friction factor only increased by about 10%. The effects of five factors on wavy fin and elliptic tube heat exchangers were examined: Reynolds number (based on the smaller ellipse axis, 500  4000), eccentricity (b/a, 0.6  1.0), fin pitch (F_p/2b, 0.05  0.4), fin thickness (F_t/2b, 0.006  0.04) and tube spanwise pitch (S₁/2b, 1.0  2.0). The results show that with the increasing of Reynolds number and fin thickness, decreasing of the eccentricity and spanwise tube pitch, the heat transfer of the finned tube bank are enhanced with some penalty in pressure drop. There is an optimum fin pitch (F_p/2b = 0.1) for heat transfer, but friction factor always decreases with increase of fin pitch. And when F_p/2b is larger than 0.25, it has little effects on heat transfer and pressure drop. The results were also analyzed from the view point of field synergy principle. It was found that the effects of the five factors on the heat transfer performance can be well described by the field synergy principle.