Off-design performance of a louvered fin-tube heater core in an automotive climate control system

Abstract

Louvered fin-and-tube heat exchanger cores, operating inside of an automotive climate control system (ACCS), are used to control temperature and humidity in a passenger cabin. The thermal performance of these cores is typically sensitive to flow features inside the core, which have been well studied for uniform flow fields as well as some non-uniform and inclined flow-fields upstream of the core. The compact geometry of an ACCS unit results in the flow-fields upstream of the core being different from those used in previous studies. When measuring the performance of a louvered fin-and-tube heater core inside a commercially manufactured ACCS unit, up to a 60% reduction in the core’s thermal performance compared to the performance when exposed to a uniform upstream flow is detected. Such a drastic performance reduction has not been reported in the literature. As such a systematic breakdown is made to elaborate how some key and specific ACCS unit features designed for the sake of compactness could play a detrimental role in reducing the overall thermal performance of a given louvered fin-and-tube heater core. By mimicking the actual ACCS features the performance deterioration in the commercial unit could be largely replicated. The individual contributing effects of the various fluidic features such as flow separation and recirculation are determined. Only 50% of the measured 60% deterioration, however, could be accounted for, suggesting that other ACCS unit properties not assessed in detail in this study may also adversely affect the core’s performance.