The Parametric Study of an Innovative Offset Strip-Fin Heat Exchanger

Abstract

Offset strip-fin heat exchangers have numerous applications throughout various industries because they can provide a large amount of heat transfer area in a small volume. The widespread use of the offset strip-fin design has ensured that there are numerous dimensional variations and shown that changes in dimensional parameters affect performance. It is then important to understand how the geometry of an offset strip-fin heat exchanger can affect its performance. Therefore, an investigation into the parametric effects on the global performance of an innovative high-temperature offset strip-fin heat exchanger was numerically performed in this study, where the numerical solution was obtained through a finite-volume method. Computations were carried out for each of the heat exchanger’s geometrical parameters: fin thickness (t), fin length (l), channel height (H), spanwise pitch (px), and the newly introduced gap parameter (g). Also, the effects of rounding the fins leading and trailing edges were investigated, while the heat exchanger’s volume, mass flow rates, and inlet temperatures were kept constant. The results are presented in the form of pressure drops and heat transfer rates, and the coefficient of performance parameter shows that fins with rounded leading and trailing edges outperform fins with rectangular edges.