Air-side thermal hydraulic performance of an integrated fin and micro-channel heat exchanger

Abstract

An integrated fin and micro-channel heat exchanger has been proposed. For 11 heat exchanger samples with different flow depth, fin height, fin pitch and fin thickness, a series of tests were conducted to determine their effect on the air-side thermal hydraulic performance. The heat transfer coefficient and pressure drop for heat exchangers with different geometrical configurations were reported in terms of Colburn factor j and Fanning friction factor f, as functions of Reynolds number. The general correlations for j and f factors were derived and can predict 96% and 92% of the experimental data, within rms errors of ±10% and ±12%, respectively. The air-side heat transfer and flow characteristics of the integrated fin were compared with that of the multi-louver fin and the wavy fin.