A study on the development of the wire woven heat exchanger using small diameter tubes

Abstract

This research focused on the experimental study of the performance characteristics of the wire woven heat exchanger with small diameter tubes. First, the wire woven heat exchangers were composed of small diameter tubes and thin wire fins: inner diameter of tube=1.3 mm, thickness of tube=0.25 mm, thickness of Al wire fin=0.5 mm, and tube length=295 mm. There were straight-fin type and spring-fin type wires. The experiments were carried out under the following conditions; evaporation pressure=0.6 MPa, air velocity=0.7–1.7 m/s, superheating=6–8 °C and working fluid=HCFC-22. The pressure drop and heat transfer coefficient of the heat exchangers were experimentally evaluated at various air velocities. The experimental results indicated that the pressure drop in the refrigerant side was lower than the typical fin-tube heat exchangers. This is due to the short tube length and many branch tubes. In spite of the small heat transfer surface, the wire woven heat exchanger had a high heat transfer coefficient. These results lead us to the conclusion that the wire woven heat exchanger using small diameter tubes (ID: 1.3 mm) is the compact heat exchanger with high performance and flexibility.