Abstract
In the present work, the thermal contact resistance in a double fin-and-tube heat exchanger is investigated using multiphysics numerical approach. A three-dimensional (3D) Computational Fluid Dynamic (CFD) model is constructed in commercial software COMSOL Multiphysics® by coupling steady-state conjugate heat transfer and turbulent fluid flow. The impact of contact resistance at the fin and tube interface is analyzed by quantitatively evaluating the thermal-hydraulic characteristics. It is found that contact resistance of 3.3 × 106 Km2/W can reduce the overall performance by approximately 6% when compared without thermal resistance at the contact interface. The developed model can predict the effectiveness of the fin-and-tube heat exchanger design with or without thermal contact resistances. Furthermore, the model can be employed to improve the overall heat exchanger performance used in various applications.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Abbreviations
- A t :
-
Available heat transfer surface area [m2]
- C p :
-
Specific heat capacity [J/kg K]
- D h :
-
Hydraulic diameter [m]
- d :
-
Thickness of a thin resistive layer [m]
- f :
-
Flow friction factor [-]
- F :
-
Body force vector [N/m3]
- h :
-
Convective heat transfer coefficient [W/m2 K]
- j :
-
Colburn j-factor [-]
- k :
-
Thermal conductivity [W/m K]
- k e :
-
Turbulent kinetic energy [m2/s2]
- K pl :
-
Pressure loss coefficient [-]
- L :
-
Length [m]
- Nu:
-
Nusselt number [-]
- p :
-
Pressure [Pa]
- ∆p:
-
Pressure difference across gas domain [Pa]
- Pr:
-
Prandtl number [-]
- q :
-
Heat flux vector [W/m2]
- Q t :
-
Total power exchanged [W]
- Q :
-
Heat source or sink [W/m3]
- Re:
-
Average Reynolds number [-]
- T :
-
Temperature [K]
- ∆T:
-
Log mean temperature difference [K]
- u :
-
Flow velocity at the inlet [m/s]
- u :
-
Average velocity vector [m/s]
- U :
-
Overall heat transfer coefficient [W/m2 K]
- ρ :
-
Density [kg/m3]
- μ :
-
Dynamic viscosity [\({\text{Pa}} \cdot {\text{s}}\)]
- ε :
-
Turbulent dissipation rate [m2/s3]
- d :
-
Downside
- g :
-
Gas or gas domain
- in:
-
Inlet
- rl:
-
Resistive layer
- u :
-
Upside
- w :
-
Inner tube wall
References
Cengel YA, Cimbala JM, Turner RH (2012) Fundamentals of thermal-fluid sciences, 4th ed. in SI units. McGraw-Hills
Rocha LAO, Saboya FEM, Vargas JVC (1997) A comparative study of elliptical and circular sections in one- and two-row tubes and plate fin heat exchangers. Int J Heat Fluid Flow 18(2):247–252
Chen Y, Fiebig M, Mitra NK (2007) Conjugate heat transfer of a finned oval tube part a: flow patterns. Num Heat Transf Part A: Appl, An Int J Comput Meth 33(4):371–385
Erek A, Özerdem B, Bilir BL, Ilken Z (2005) Effect of geometrical parameters on heat transfer and pressure drop characteristics of plate fin and tube heat exchangers. Appl Therm Eng 25:2421–2431
Ibrahim TA, Gomma A (2009) Thermal performance criteria of elliptic tube bundle in crossflow. Int J Therm Sci 48(11):2148–2158
Singh S, Sørensen K, Condra T (2019) Investigation of vortex generator enhanced double-fin and tube heat exchanger. J Heat Transf 141(2)
Singh S, Sørensen K, Simonsen AS, Condra TJ (2017) Implications of fin profiles on overall performance and weight reduction of a fin and tube heat exchanger. Appl Therm Eng 115:962–976
Sheffield JW, Wood RA, Sauer HJ (1989) Experimental investigation of thermal conductance of finned tube contacts. Exp Therm Fluid Sci 2:107–121
Jeong J, Kim CN, Youn B (2006) A study on the thermal contact conductance in fin-tube heat exchangers with 7 mm tube. Int J Heat Mass Transf 49:1547–1555
Taler D, Ocłon P (2014) Thermal contact resistance in plate fin-and-tube heat exchangers, determined by experimental data and CFD simulations. Int J Therm Sci 84:309–322
Singh S, Sørensen K, Condra TJ (2016) Influence of the degree of thermal contact in fin and tube heat exchanger: a numerical analysis. Appl Therm Eng 107:612–624
Junjie H, Lianfa Y, Jinjie H, Jingyu J, Yulin H (2019) Experimental study on hydraulic expansion of tube-fin heat exchanger. IOP Conf Ser Mater Sci Eng 544:012035
Kuntysh VB, Sukhotskii AB, Farafontov VN, Dudarev VV, Sidorik GS (2019) Experimental study of heat exchange and aerodynamic and thermal contact resistance of staggered bundles of tubes with spiral rolled fins of air-cooled devices. Chem Petrol Eng 55:22–32
Borrajo-Peláez R, Ortega-Casanova J, Cejudo-López JM (2010) A three-dimensional numerical study and comparison between the air side model and the air/water side model of a plain fin-and-tube heat exchanger. Appl Therm Eng 30(13):1608–1615
Wilcox DC (1998) Turbulence modeling for CFD, 2nd ed. DCW Industries
COMSOL Multiphysics® (2020) https://www.comsol.co.in/documentation
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2021 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.
About this paper
Cite this paper
Singh, S., Dwivedi, N.K. (2021). Impact of Thermal Contact Resistance on Thermal-Hydraulic Characteristics of Double Fin-and-Tube Heat Exchanger. In: Sikarwar, B.S., Sundén, B., Wang, Q. (eds) Advances in Fluid and Thermal Engineering. Lecture Notes in Mechanical Engineering. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-0159-0_17
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-0159-0_17
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Singapore
Print ISBN: 978-981-16-0158-3
Online ISBN: 978-981-16-0159-0
eBook Packages: EngineeringEngineering (R0)