Thermodynamic and hydraulic design characteristics of the fin tube heat exchanger

Abstract

Heat exchangers are crucial devices that are used to exchange heat between two different fluids: one that is hot and one that is cold. Amongst them, finned tube heat exchangers play a vital role in today’s thermal industry. Due to the increased surface area of the tubes' outer surface (or fins) when utilizing finned tube heat exchangers, the heat transfer rate may be improved as a consequence of the increased surface area of the fins. It is often referred to as a compact heat exchanger in order to highlight the comparatively large heat transfer surface area to volume ratio of the exchanger. They have many vital applications in the field of refrigeration, air conditioning, IC engines, and power plants. The fin and tube heat exchanger has been analyzed for three different cases in the present study: preheater, condenser, and evaporator. The Engineering Equation Solver (EES) software has been used to analyze the heat exchanger for the various thermal, hydrodynamic, and design parameters. Results have been plotted by comparing the various thermal parameters such as overall and inside heat transfer coefficient, Nusselt number, and rate of heat transfer with respect to Reynolds number. Similarly, the hydrodynamic parameters such as Colburn factor, friction factor, and the design parameters such as the number of fins and fin spacing.