Numerical Investigation of Micro-Channeled Louver Fin Aluminum Heat Exchangers at Low Reynolds Number

Abstract

Extensive studies are being carried out by several researchers on the performance prediction of aluminum heat exchangers with different fin and tube geometrical configurations mostly for Reynolds number higher than 100. In the present study, the air-side heat transfer and pressure drop characteristics of the louvered fin micro-channeled, Aluminum heat exchangers are systematically analyzed by a 3D numerical simulation for very low Reynolds number from 25 to 200. Three different heat exchanger geometries obtained for the experimental investigation purposes with constant fin pitch (14 fins per inch) but varied fin geometrical parameters (fin height, fin thickness, louver pitch, louver angle, louver length and flow depth) are numerically investigated. The performance of the heat exchangers is predicted by calculating Colburn j factor and Fanning friction f factor. The effect of fin geometrical parameters on the heat exchanger performance at the Reynolds number range specified is evaluated. The air-side performance of the studied heat exchangers for the specified Reynolds number range is compared with experimental heat exchanger performance data available in the open literature and a good agreement is observed. The present results show that at the studied range of Reynolds number the flow through the heat exchanger is fin directed rather than the louver directed and therefore the heat exchanger shows poor performance. The effect of geometrical parameters on the average heat transfer coefficient is computed and design curves are obtained which can be used to predict the heat transfer performance for a given geometry.