A study on airside performance of geometry combination fins using large scale model

Abstract

This study investigated the pressure drop and heat transfer characteristics of heat exchanger according to the arrangement of fins as well as fin configuration by the similitude experiments with the finned-tube geometry scaled as large as four times. Colburn j factor, Fanning friction factor, f, and goodness factors are compared to each other to estimate performance of each case for four different kinds of fins, which are louver, double side slit, single side slit and plain fin. Results show that heat transfer would be altered by fin arrangement and that friction loss is more affected by fin configurations than by the fin arrangements. In particular, heat transfer depends more on the shape of front row than that of rear row. The heat transfer rate of combined fin arrangement increases a lot more under the same pressure drop than that of conventional fin arrangement. This indicates that the heat exchanger of higher efficiency would be designed by the proper combination of fins of different shapes.