Computer-Aided Determination of the Air-Side Heat Transfer Coefficient and Thermal Contact Resistance for a Fin-and-Tube Heat Exchanger

Abstract

Plate fin-and-tube heat exchangers with oval tubes attract the broad scientific interest due to its large thermal efficiency, significant heat transfer rate between the mediums and compact shape [1-10]. The heat exchangers of this type are widely used in industrial plants and installations, as air-coolers, convectors for home heating and waste heat recovery for gas turbines. The large thermal efficiency is achieved by using the external fins, fixed at the oval tubes of the heat exchanger [1-3]. Mostly, fin-and-tube heat exchangers operate in the crossflow arrangements. A liquid (water or oil) flows through the tubular space of the heat exchanger, and gas (air, flue gas) flows across the intertubular space of the heat exchanger. Due to the use of external fins, a heat transfer rate increases when compared with tubes without fins. Moreover, the application of the oval tube shape reduces the pressure drop and improves heat transfer conditions on the gas side when compared to the circular shape [4-14, 17]. Since plate fin-and-tube heat exchangers operate in a cross-flow arrangement with the complex path of gas flow, hence in order to determine the velocity field and heat transfer characteristics, the numerical methods must be used [15-16, 18-25]. For the gas flow, with the use of the commercial CFD codes (ANSYS CFX [31], FLUENT), it is possible to calculate the local values of heat transfer coefficient. However, it is impossible to incorporate these values into the analytical formulas, which allow determining the overall heat transfer coefficient. These formulas are fundamental when designing cross-flow heat exchangers and use the average not local values of heat transfer coefficient. Therefore in this study authors present different methods for determination of the average heat transfer coefficient for gas flow in a plate fin-and-tube heat exchanger using the CFD simulations. The values of the heat transfer coefficient obtained using