The fluid flow and heat transfer characteristics in the channel formed by flat tube and dimpled fin

Abstract

The steady laminar fluid flow and heat transfer characteristics in the channel formed by the flat tube and the dimpled fin are investigated numerically. The results show that the dimple radius, the dimple pitch and the fin spacing affect the average Nusselt number and friction factor, while the effect of the dimple radius and the fin spacing is larger than that of the dimple pitch. The average Nusselt number, the friction factor and the intensity of secondary flow in the dimpled fin case are larger than those in the plain fin case at the same Re, respectively. The correlations of Nusselt number, the friction factor with Re and other parameters are reported. The significant result is that whenever the same intensity of secondary flow is produced by increasing the radius of the dimples or other structural parameter such as increasing the fin spacing and the dimple pitch, the same heat transfer intensity is obtained. This implies that the intensity of secondary flow determines the heat transfer characteristics on the fin surfaces.