Numerical investigation and comparison on thermal-hydraulic performance of H-type finned tube heat exchanger

Abstract

H-type finned tube heat exchangers have been widely used in boilers and waste heat recovery devices due to their advantages of wear resistance and anti-fouling. In order to improve the energy-saving effect, the flow and heat transfer characteristics of H-type finned tube heat exchangers with different tube bundle arrangements were studied. It was found that, at the same Re number, the column staggered arrangement can compensate for the limited heat transfer performance of the in-line arrangement and reduce the high pressure drop associated with the row staggered arrangement. Honeycomb arrangement was proposed based on the column staggered arrangement. Then, the effects of Re and tube pitches thermal-hydraulic performance of tube bundles with in-line and honeycomb arrangements were examined. The critical tube pitch or velocity at which the honeycomb tube bundle achieves the same thermal performance as the in-line tube bundle are determined. The results provide valuable insights for the practical application of flue gas heat exchangers with honeycomb arrangement.