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Constructal design of finned tubes used in air-cooled heat exchangers

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Abstract

The present study documents the constructal design and optimization of finned tubes used in air-cooled heat exchangers. The considered tubes are equipped with annular fins. The aim is to minimize the overall thermal resistance by morphing the geometry. The geometrical and thermo-physical parameters considered are the number of fins, ratio of fin height to tube diameter, Stanton number, ratio of fin conductivity to air conductivity, ratio of in-tube fluid conductivity to air conductivity and dimensionless pressure drop. Two constraints are applied in the optimization process: fixed overall volume of heat exchanger and fixed volume fraction of fin material. It is found that there exist optimal values for the number and the height of fins. Moreover, the optimal heat transfer has an extremum in a special volume fraction of fin material.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Mechanical Engineering, University College of Engineering, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran

    Hossein Shokouhmand & Shoeib Mahjoub

  2. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Isfahan University of Technology, Isfahan, 84156-83111, Iran

    Mohammad Reza Salimpour

Authors
  1. Hossein Shokouhmand
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  2. Shoeib Mahjoub
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  3. Mohammad Reza Salimpour
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Mohammad Reza Salimpour.

Additional information

Recommended by Associate Editor Ji Hwan Jeong

Hossein Shokouhmand is a professor of heat transfer in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Tehran, Iran, where he received his M.Sc in 1972. He received his Ph.D. in Universite Paris VI, France, in 1977. His research interests are heat engineering, heat transfer, and power plant equipment.

Shoeib Mahjoub is a Ph.D. candidate in the School of Mechanical Engineering, University of Tehran, Iran. He received his B.Sc. in mechanical engineering in 2001 from Petroleum University of Technology, Ahwaz, Iran, and his M.Sc. in mechanical engineering in 2003 from Sharif University of Technology, Tehran, Iran. He currently works on fluid flow, convective heat transfer, constructal theory and entropy generation analysis in thermo-fluid systems.

Mohammad Reza Salimpour is an associate professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, Isfahan University of Technology, Isfahan, Iran. He received his B.Sc., M.Sc., and Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from University of Tehran in 2001, 2003, and 2007, respectively. His major research areas are constructal design, electronics cooling, two-phase flow heat transfer, and thermodynamic design.

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Shokouhmand, H., Mahjoub, S. & Salimpour, M.R. Constructal design of finned tubes used in air-cooled heat exchangers. J Mech Sci Technol 28, 2385–2391 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12206-014-0145-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12206-014-0145-z

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