A method to reduce the flow depth of a plate heat exchanger without a loss of heat transfer performance

With the aim of improving heat exchanger compactness, this study investigates how the optimum configuration of an air–liquid plate heat exchanger changes as the heat exchanger depth decreases. In this respect, optimization of an air–liquid plate heat exchanger with a given frontal area and a given depth is achieved. The optimum fin pitch and plate pitch are obtained to maximize the heat transfer rate based on heat transfer and pressure loss correlations in finned channels. Then, the focus of this study is placed on how the optimum channel configuration changes when the heat exchanger depth decreases for compactness. The results illustrate that the heat transfer performance can remain unchanged if the geometric parameters, such as the plate thickness, the plate pitch, the fin thickness, and the fin pitch, are reduced proportionally to the square root of the flow depth reduction given that the flow remains laminar. This finding is arranged into a simple scaling rule to obtain the configuration of a more compact heat exchanger from an existing configuration. In addition, the scaling arguments are extended to practical situations where the fin thickness and the plate thickness are not properly reduced following the scaling rule due to limitations on available material thicknesses.     

平壁三角形直肋装置肋化热阻系数曲线图

提供了工程计算用的平壁三角形直肋装置肋化热阻系数曲线图。从图上可清楚地看出肋基厚、肋高和肋间距对肋装置传热性能的影响 ,有助于最佳尺寸的确定 ,简化传热计算。     

电机冷却用翅管换热器传热和阻力特性研究

研究了一种电机冷却用新型翅片开孔结构换热器的性能,对三种结构的翅片管换热器进行了换热和阻力性能测试,新型翅片换热器结构为翅片间距2.1 mm且翅片上具有开孔结构,对照组换热器分别为翅片间距2.1 mm无开孔换热器和翅片间距2.3 mm无开孔换热器。试验结果表明,相同Re数下,该种具有开孔结构换热器在所有换热器中换热性能最好,较2.1 mm无孔提升38%～39%,但同时压降损失也最大,较2.1 mm无孔提升41.9%～42.9%。采用j/f评价综合性能,结果显示,Re>6700时,新型翅片换热器性能优于同翅片间距无开孔换热器。文章还对这三种结构翅片管换热器进行了传热和阻力关联式拟合,可为相关理论研究和工程选用提供参考。     

Conjugate heat transfer in channels with heat-conducting inclined fins

Conjugate heat transfer in a finned channel with equally spaced fins placed transversely to the flow direction following in-line and staggered arrangements is evaluated. The fins and channel walls are heat-conducting and are fully coupled to a turbulent fluid flow problem. The hydrodynamic and thermal effects of the fin blockage ratio, fin angle, and flow velocity were investigated. The simulations show that the fin arrangement is of paramount importance on the performance of the heat exchanger: the staggered fin configuration provided lower pressure drop and higher heat transfer rate than the in-line fin arrangement for different flow conditions.     

Performance investigation of plain and finned tube evaporatively cooled heat exchangers

The performance of two evaporatively cooled heat exchangers is investigated under similar operating conditions of air flow rates and inlet hot water temperatures. The heat exchangers are plain and plate-finned circular tube types which occupy the same volume. Spray water, which is circulated in a closed circuit, is injected onto the exposed surfaces of the tubes and fins. The contact between air and spray water results in evaporative heat transfer. The tubes are copper, 10 mm o.d. The finned configuration is constructed by introducing 0.5 mm thick copper plates between the tubes, with a total area ratio of four. A substantial increase in heat transfer takes place for the plate-finned tubes. The increase is 92–140% for air velocities from 1.66 to 3.57 m s⁻¹. A model is used to calculate the thermal performance of the plain and finned tubes assuming a constant spray water temperature in the heat exchanger. The wet-finned surfaces show low fin efficiency compared with dry surfaces. An energy index defined as the ratio of volumetric thermal conductance to air pressure drop per unit length is found to be close for the two heat exchangers. This reveals higher thermal utilisation of the occupied volume by the finned tubes with the same energy index.     

Constructal design of longitudinally finned tubes cooled by forced convection

The constructal design method is used in the present study to find the configuration of longitudinally finned tubes cooled by forced convection. The finned tubes are arranged in parallel inside a fixed two‐dimensional domain. Two degrees of freedom inside the domain are considered for the design. The first degree of freedom is the tube‐to‐tube spacing, and the second is the length of the longitudinal fin. For both these degrees of freedom, a three‐fin position inside the domain is considered. The fin is placed in the front, back, and front and back of the tube in the first, second, and third positions, respectively. Maximization of the heat flow density (heat transfer/volume) from the finned tubes to the cold cross flow is the objective function of the present study. For the three fin positions, the constant pressure difference between the upstream and the downstream drives the cross flow. The dimensionless continuity, momentum, and energy equations for two dimensional, steady, and incompressible flows are solved by discretizing it according to the finite volume method. The thermal condition of the fins and the tubes is constant surface temperature. The dimensionless pressure drop known as Bejan number is varied in the range of 10³ ≤ Be ≤ 10⁵. The fin length is changed from L_f = 0 (unfinned tube) to L_f = 0.2, 0.4, and 0.4. The tubes are cooled by air (Prandtl number = 0.71). The results illustrated that for the considered Bejan numbers and fin positions, the spacing between the unfinned and the finned tubes can be adjusted to optimal spacing such that the heat flow from the tubes to the coolant is maximum.     

Influence of channel geometry on the performance of a counter flow microchannel heat exchanger

Microchannel heat exchangers (MCHE) can be made with channels of various geometries. Their size and shape may have considerable effect on the thermal and hydraulic performance of a heat exchanger. In this paper numerical simulation is carried out to solve 3D developing flow and 3D conjugate heat transfer of a balanced counter flow microchannel heat exchanger (CFMCHE) to evaluate the effect of size and shape of channels on the performance of CFMCHE for the same volume of heat exchanger. The effect of shape of the channels on its performance is studied for different channel cross-sections such as circular, square, rectangular, iso-triangular and trapezoidal. Results show that for the same volume of a heat exchanger, increasing the number of channels lead to increase in both effectiveness and pressure drop. Moreover circular channels give the best overall performance (thermal and hydraulic) among various channel shapes. New correlations are developed to predict the value of heat exchanger effectiveness and performance index as a function of relative size of channels with overall heat exchanger volume, Reynolds number and thermal conductivity ratio.     

Channel cross section effect on heat transfer performance of oblique finned microchannel heat sink

In the present work, the effect of channel cross section on the heat transfer performance of an oblique finned micro-channel heat sink was investigated. Water and Al₂O₃/water nanofluid of volume fraction 0.25% were used as a coolant. The oblique finned microchannels are designed with three channel cross-sections namely square, semicircle and trapezoidal. The primary work of this paper is to study the heat transfer and hydrodynamic characteristics in the oblique finned microchannel. The experimental setup and procedure are validated using water as coolant in a micro-channel heat sink. Heat transfer and flow characteristics are examined for three cross-sections of varying mass flux. The trapezoidal channel cross-section increases the considerable heat transfer rate improvement for both water and nanofluid by 3.133% and 5.878% compared to square and semicircle cross section. Also, the pressure drop is higher in the trapezoidal cross-section over the square and semicircle cross section. This is due to increase in friction loss of trapezoidal cross section. The results indicate that trapezoidal cross-section oblique finned micro-channel is more suitable for heat transfer in the electronic cooling application.     

Experimental study of convective heat transfer on a finned rotating cylinder

In this study, the local convective heat transfer from a rotating finned cylinder to the surrounding air was evaluated using an infrared thermographic experimental set up. Solving the inverse conduction heat transfer problem allows the local convective heat transfer coefficient to be identified. We used the specification function method, along with spatio-temporal regularization, to develop a model of local convective heat transfer in order to take lateral conduction and 2D geometry into account. This model was tested using rotational Reynolds numbers (based on the cylinder diameter and the peripheral speed) between 4300 and 17 900. The local heat transfer on the fin surface was analyzed to determine the influence of the rotational Reynolds number and the influence of the height and spacing of the fins. In this paper, we propose an efficiency definition that allows the optimal geometrical configuration of the finned cylinder to be identified for the given operating conditions.     

A comparative study of the airside performance of heat sinks having pin fin configurations

This study performs an experimental study of pin fin heat sinks having circular, elliptic, and square cross-section. A total of twelve pin fin heat sinks with inline and staggered arrangements were made and tested. The effect of fin density on the heat transfer performance is examined. For an inline arrangement, the circular pin fin shows an appreciable influence of fin density whereas no effect of fin density is seen for square fin geometry. This is associated with the unique deflection flow pattern accompanied with the inline circular fin configuration. For the staggered arrangement, the heat transfer coefficient increases with the rise of fin density for all the three configurations. The elliptic pin fin shows the lowest pressure drops. For the same surface area at a fixed pumping power, the elliptic pin fin possesses the smallest thermal resistance for the staggered arrangement.     

Forced convection heat transfer and pressure drop for a horizontal cylinder with vertically attached imperforate and perforated circular fins

In this study, the effect of holes placed on perforated finned heat exchangers on convective heat transfer experimentally investigated. Six millimeter-diameter holes were opened on each circular fin on a heating tube in order to increase convective heat transfer. These holes were placed on the circular fins in such a way as to follow each other at the same chosen angle. The holes created turbulence in a region near the heating tube surface on the bottom of the fin. Some experiments were then performed to analyze the effect of this turbulence on heat transfer and pressure drop. These experiments were carried out at six different angular locations in order to determine the best angular location. In addition, a perforated finned heater was compared with an imperforate finned heater to observe the differences. In the cases of the Re above the critical value, Nusselt numbers for the perforated finned positions are 12% higher than the Nusselt numbers for the imperforate state. Moreover, a correlation has been obtained between the Re and Nu in the Re number above the critical value and the Re below the critical value. Meanwhile, correlations regarding pressure drops in the flow areas have been obtained.     

Convective heat transfer on a rotating finned cylinder with transverse airflow

The present experimental investigation relates to the convective heat transfer determination around annular fins mounted on a rotating cylinder with air crossflow. The mean convective heat transfer coefficient can be identified by solving the inverse conduction heat transfer problem during the fin cooling process. We used an inverse method, based on the mean squared error, to develop a model of mean convective heat transfer, taking lateral conduction into account. Tests were carried out for rotational Reynolds numbers Re_ω between 2150 and 17,200, air crossflow Reynolds numbers Re_U between 0 and 39,600, and fin spacings u in the range 10 mm to ∞, u = ∞ corresponding to the single disk case. For each fin spacing, the relative influences of the rotational and airflow forced convections on the heat transfer were analyzed and correlations of the mean Nusselt number on the fin, relative to both Reynolds numbers, are proposed. Moreover, an efficiency definition, that allows optimal geometrical configurations of the finned cylinder to be identified for the given operating conditions, is proposed.     

Development of Colburn j Factor and Fanning Friction Factor Correlations for Compact Surfaces of the Triangular Perforated Fins Using CFD

The necessity of increased heat transfer surface area has resulted in the development of compact heat exchangers, which are widely used in the aerospace and automobile industries. Hence perforations are made on triangular plain fins to study the effects on the heat transfer coefficient. A numerical model has been developed for the perforated fin of a triangular plate fin heat exchanger. Perforated fin performance has been analyzed with the help of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) by changing the various parameters of the fin. The Colburn j factor and the Fanning friction factor are calculated for different Reynolds numbers. The values of the Colburn j factor and the Fanning friction factor are validated for known geometric fins with available data in the literature and extended to triangular perforated fins. The correlations have been developed between Reynolds number, Colburn j factor, and Fanning friction factor by taking into account fin height, fin thickness, and fin spacing. The present numerical analysis is carried out for air media.     

Pool boiling heat transfer on horizontal rectangular fin array in saturated FC-72

The flow patterns and pool boiling heat transfer performance of copper rectangular fin array surfaces immersed in saturated FC-72 were experimentally investigated. The effects of the geometry parameters (fin spacing and fin length) on boiling performance were also examined. The test surfaces were manufactured on a copper block with a base area of 10 mm × 10 mm with three fin spacing (0.5 mm, 1.0 mm and 2.0 mm) and four fin lengths (0.5 mm, 1.0 mm, 2.0 mm and 4.0 mm). All experiments were performed in the saturated state at 1 atmospheric condition. A plain surface was used as the reference standard and compared with the finned surfaces. The photographic images showed different boiling flow patterns among the test surfaces at various heat fluxes. The test results indicated that closer and higher fins yielded a greater flow resistance that against the bubble/vapor lift-off in the adjacent fins. Moreover, as the heat flux approached to critical heat flux (CHF), numerous vapor mushrooms periodically appeared and extruded from the perimeter of the fin array, causing dry-out in the center of the fin array. Closer and higher fins provide more heat transfer. The results also showed that overall heat transfer coefficient decayed rapidly as the fin spacing decreased or the fin length increased. The maximum value of CHF on the base area was 9.8 × 10⁵ W m⁻² for the test surface with a 0.5 mm fin spacing and a 4.0 mm fin length, which has a value five times greater than that of the plain surface.     

Numerical prediction of flow and heat transfer in a channel in the presence of a built-in circular tube with and without an integral wake splitter

A numerical investigation was carried out to study the heat transfer behavior of a circular tube in cross-flow configuration with a longitudinal fin attached at the rear of the tube. The investigated configuration is intended to model either an element of a cross-flow heat exchanger or an element of the array of pin fins. The longitudinal finning of a circular tube is assumed to be in a configuration where the fin is attached at the back of the circular tube. The longitudinal fins, built-in with the tubes, are called integral splitter plates. The splitter plate creates a streamlined extension of the circular tube. It brings about enhancement of heat transfer from the tube surface. A reduction in the size of the wake zone in comparison with the wake of a circular tube is observed. Narrowing of the wake zone reduced convective heat transfer from the tube surface but the splitter plate itself generated an extra fin area for conduction. Overall, there is an improvement in heat transfer past the circular tube with an integral splitter plate compared with the case of flow past a circular tube without a splitter plate. Flow and heat transfer results are presented for three different chord lengths of the splitter plate and three different values of the Reynolds numbers (500, 1000 and 1500). The heat transfer enhancement obtained by finning was compared with that obtained by increasing the diameter of the unfinned tubes.     

Enhancing heat transfer rates from closed-sided,open-topped heat exchangers,each having vertical rectangular fins extending upwards from a horizontal base

The almost two-dimensional steady-state rates of heat loss from arrays of uniformly-spaced vertical rectangular fins, extending upwards—in otherwise stagnant air—from horizontal heated bases, have been measured. (The vertical air gaps between the fins were closed at their sides, by insulated vertical end-barriers.) The effects of various combinations of height, thickness and spacing of the fins, for different base temperatures (in the range 40 to 100°C), have been studied.For the configuration considered, in a normal ambient environment (～ 20°C), there is an optimal fin spacing (? 16 mm) corresponding to the greatest steady-state rate of free convective/conductive heat loss through the air from the finned system, and this is almost independent of the temperature of the heat exchanger base (in the range 40–100°C). At this optimal spacing for base temperatures not greater than 50°C, the convective/conductive heat transfer rate from the array increases with the fin height up to about 60 mm, so that it would be uneconomic to employ taller fins if convection/conduction is dominant compared with radiation.If the radiation contribution is also considered, then the optimal spacing corresponding to the maximum total steady-state rate of heat loss through the air is somewhat less than the optimal spacing for which, under the same temperature conditions, the maximum steady-state rate of convective/conductive heat leak occurs. The greater the emissivity of the heat exchanger surfaces, the narrower the optimal uniform gaps between the fins.A two-dimensional finite-difference computer program has been composed to predict the temperature distribution throughout the heat exchanger for a stipulated ambient environmental temperature and experimentally-determined distribution of the heat transfer coefficient over the surfaces of the exchanger. This enables, for instance, any hot spots to be located prior to a proposed design being built.     

Simultaneous heat and mass transfer characteristics for wavy fin-and-tube heat exchangers under dehumidifying conditions

The present study proposes a new reduction method to calculate the heat and mass transfer characteristics of the wavy fin-and-tube heat exchangers under dehumidifying conditions. For fully wet conditions, the sensible heat transfer and mass transfer characteristics are relatively insensitive to the inlet relative humidity. The heat and mass transfer performances show appreciable influence of fin spacing at 1-row configuration. Both the heat and mass transfer performances increase when the fin spacing is reduced. However, the difference becomes less noticeable when Re_Dc > 3000. For 1-row configuration, larger wave height shows much larger difference with the fin spacing. However, the effect of inlet conditions and geometrical parameters on the heat and mass performance becomes less significant with the rise of number of tube rows. Test results show that the heat and mass transfer analogy is roughly applicable (the ratios of h_c,o/h_d,oC_p,a are in the range 0.6–1.1, and is insensitive to change of fin spacing). The correlations are proposed to describe the heat and mass transfer characteristics. These correlations can describe 94.19% of the j_h factors within 15% and 83.72% of the j_m factors within 15%. Correspondingly, 93.02% of the ratios of h_c,o/h_d,oC_p,a are predicted by the proposed correlation within 15%.     

Finite circular fin method for wavy fin-and-tube heat exchangers under fully and partially wet surface conditions

The present study proposes the finite circular fin method for analyzing the heat and mass transfer characteristics of wavy fin-and-tube heat exchangers under fully and partially wet surface conditions. The analysis is carried out by dividing the wavy fin-and-tube heat exchanger into many tiny segments. The tiny segments can be analyzed based on surface conditions, i.e. fully wet, fully dry or partially wet surface condition. From the experimental results, it is found that the heat and mass transfer characteristics are insensitive to the inlet relative humidity but the effect of relative humidity on mass transfer characteristic become more pronounced when the partially wet surface condition takes place. The heat transfer characteristic is independent of the fin spacing. Effect of fin spacing on mass transfer characteristic is small when fin spacing is larger than 2.5 mm. However, at smaller fin spacing, the mass transfer characteristic slightly decreases when the relative humidity increases. The ratios of h_c,o/h_d,oC_p,a are in the range of 0.6–1.2. Correlations are proposed to describe the heat and mass transfer characteristics. These correlations can describe 95.63% of the heat transfer characteristic within 15% and 95.14% of the mass transfer characteristic within 20%. Correspondingly, 94.68% of the ratios of h_c,o/h_d,oC_p,a are predicted by the proposed correlation within 20%.     

Numerical study of heat transfer enhancement and fluid flow with inline common‐flow‐down vortex generators in a plate‐fin heat exchanger

Three‐dimensional numerical simulations are performed on a plate‐fin heat exchanger (with triangular fins as inserts between the plates) to evaluate the laminar heat transfer and fluid flow characteristics with longitudinal vortex generators (LVGs). The effect with an inline rectangular winglet pair (RWP) with a common‐flow‐down (CFD) configuration is studied. The numerical results indicate that the application of inline LVGs effectively enhances the heat transfer of the channel. The heat transfer further increases with the increase in the Reynolds number from 200 to 500 and angle of attack from β = 15° to 22.5°. The computations are also performed to find the best location for the second RWP. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Heat Trans Asian Res; Published online in Wiley Online Library ( wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/htj ). DOI 10.1002/htj.20414     

Maximization of heat transfer density from radially finned tubes in cross-flow using the constructal design method

The maximization of volumetric heat transfer density from radially finned tubes in cross-flow is investigated in this study based on the constructal design method. A row of radially finned tubes is placed in cross-air flow. The tubes and the radial fins are heated at uniform temperatures and cooled by the air cross-flow. The cross-air flow is generated by a finite pressure difference. Two dimensionless pressure differences (Bejan number) are considered (Be = 10³ and Be = 10⁵). The objective function, the degrees of freedom, and the constraints in the constructal design method should be identified. The objective function is the maximization of the heat transfer density from the finned tubes. The degrees of freedom are; the fin tip-to-fin tip spacing, the number of fins, the tube diameter, the fin thickness, and the angle between the fins. The constraints are the length and height of the space occupied by the finned tubes. The pressure-driven flow and energy equations (steady, two-dimensional, and incompressible) are solved by means of the finite volume method. The ranges of the dimensionless fin tip-to-fin tip spacing are (0.2 ≤ S ≤ 1 for Be = 10³ and 0.05≤ S ≤ 0.3 for Be = 10⁵). The number of fins is changed as (N = 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, and 12). The dimensionless tube diameter is changed as (D = 0.25, 0.5, and 0.75). The dimensionless fin thickness is changed as (T = 0.001, 0.01, and 0.05). The results showed that for both (Be = 10³) and (Be = 10⁵), the highest value of the maximum volumetric heat transfer density is for (N = 2) and decreases as the number of fins increases. In addition, the minimum values of the maximum volumetric heat transfer density occur when the vertical fins exist at (N = 4, 8, and 12).