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Heat transfer and pressure drop characteristics of the tube bank fin heat exchanger with fin punched with flow redistributors and curved triangular vortex generators

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Abstract

The heat transfer performance of the tube bank fin heat exchanger is limited by the air-side thermal resistance. Thus, enhancing the air-side heat transfer is an effective method to improve the performance of the heat exchanger. A new fin pattern with flow redistributors and curved triangular vortex generators is experimentally studied in this paper. The effects of the flow redistributors located in front of the tube stagnation point and the curved vortex generators located around the tube on the characteristics of heat transfer and pressure drop are discussed in detail. A performance comparison is also carried out between the fins with and without flow redistributors. The experimental results show that the flow redistributors stamped out from the fin in front of the tube stagnation points can decrease the friction factor at the cost of decreasing the heat transfer performance. Whether the combination of the flow redistributors and the curved vortex generators will present a better heat transfer performance depends on the size of the curved vortex generators. As for the studied two sizes of vortex generators, the heat transfer performance is promoted by the flow redistributors for the fin with larger size of vortex generators and the performance is suppressed by the flow redistributors for the fin with smaller vortex generators.

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Abbreviations

A :

Heat transfer area (m2)

A a :

Total air-side surface area (m2)

A e :

Heat transfer area of the flow domain formed by two adjacent fins (m2)

A f :

Fin surface area in contact with air (m2)

A t :

Tube surface area in contact with air (m2)

A w :

Inside surface area of the tube (m2)

c p :

Specific heat at constant pressure (J kg−1 K−1)

D e :

Hydraulic diameter (m)

D i :

Inner diameter of the tube (m)

D o :

Outer diameter of the tube (m)

f :

Friction factor

F T :

Correction factor of logarithmic-mean temperature difference

h :

Heat transfer coefficient (W m−2 K−1)

H :

Height of curved vortex generators (m)

L :

Base length of curved vortex generators (m)

L f :

Length of fin along flow direction (m)

m :

Mass flow rate (kg s−1)

Nu :

Nusselt number

p :

Pressure (Pa)

Pr :

Prandtl number

Q :

Heat transfer rate (W)

r c :

Outside radius of fin collar (m)

Re :

Reynolds number

S 1 :

Transversal distance of tubes (m)

S 2 :

Longitudinal distance of tubes (m)

t :

Temperature (°C)

T :

Temperature (K)

T p :

Fin spacing (m)

u :

Velocity (m s−1)

U :

Overall heat transfer coefficient (W m−2 K−1)

V e :

Volume of the flow domain formed by two adjacent fins (m3)

k :

Thermal conductivity (W m−1 K−1)

η :

Fin efficiency

η o :

Overall fin efficiency

μ :

Dynamic viscosity (kg m−1 s−1)

ρ :

Density (kg m−3)

δ :

Fin thickness (m)

Δp :

Pressure drop (Pa)

Δt :

Temperature difference (K)

ΔT m :

Logarithmic-mean temperature difference

a:

Air-side

f:

Fin

in:

Inlet

m:

Mean value

max:

Maximum value

out:

Outlet

t:

Tube

w:

Water

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Acknowledgements

The support of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 51376086) is acknowledged.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Mechanical Engineering, Lanzhou Jiaotong University, Lanzhou, 730070, Gansu, People’s Republic of China

    Song Liu, Hua Jin, KeWei Song, Xiang Wu & LiangBi Wang

  2. Key Laboratory of Railway Vehicle Thermal Engineering of MOE, School of Mechanical Engineering, Lanzhou Jiaotong University, Lanzhou, 730070, Gansu, People’s Republic of China

    Song Liu, Hua Jin, KeWei Song, LiangChen Wang, Xiang Wu & LiangBi Wang

  3. School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering Science, Lanzhou Jiaotong University, Lanzhou, 730070, Gansu, People’s Republic of China

    LiangChen Wang

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  1. Song Liu
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  2. Hua Jin
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  5. Xiang Wu
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Correspondence to LiangBi Wang.

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Liu, S., Jin, H., Song, K. et al. Heat transfer and pressure drop characteristics of the tube bank fin heat exchanger with fin punched with flow redistributors and curved triangular vortex generators. Heat Mass Transfer 53, 3013–3026 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00231-017-2044-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00231-017-2044-1

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