A numerical study on the heat-transfer characteristics of an array of alternating horizontal or vertical oval cross-section pipes placed in a cross stream

In this paper, a numerical study on the flow of an array of alternating horizontal or vertical oval cross-section pipes placed in a cross stream, resembling that encountered in a real cross-flow heat exchanger, is presented. The results include temperature contours and velocity vectors on the surface of the pipe and at several selected cross-sections, the local and sectional averaged Nusselt number distributions, and the overall Nusselt number variations versus the internal and external flow Reynolds numbers. The computation shows that the wall temperature varies dramatically along both the circumferential and the axial directions of the pipe, and is far different from a constant wall temperature distribution assumed in most previous studies. In general, the portion of the pipe with external wall facing forwards the cross-flow stream has lower temperature and higher local heat-transfer rate than the portion with wall facing backwards the cross-flow stream. At the maximum external flow Reynolds number, Re = 40, considered in this paper, the magnitude of pipe's overall Nusselt number is about one-sixth the magnitude of that calculated based on the ideal constant wall temperature assumption.     

Effect of axial conduction on the ice crystal growth in laminar falling filmsEffet de la conduction axiale sur la vitesse de formation de cristaux de glace à l'intérieur de films tombants laminaires

A finite volume numerical code has been developed to numerically approximate the rate of ice crystal growth in a laminar falling film flowing down a cooled vertical plate. The governing energy equation contains the phase energy as the source term. Enhancement of heat transfer as a result of suspended ice crystals is accounted for in the use of effective values of thermal conductivity, viscosity, thermal diffusivity, and specific heat as function of volumetric concentration of ice crystals in the falling film. Nusselt number, overall heat transfer coefficients between the fluid and cooled plate, and ice crystal growth rate were calculated for different film thicknesses with and without axial diffusion. Nusselt number and ice crystal growth rates were found to be dependent on film thickness. Axial diffusion effects were found to be negligible for larger film thickness (large flowrate).     

Local and global heat transfer coefficients of a stabilised ice slurry in laminar and transitional flows

The thermal behaviour of a new two-phase secondary refrigerant has been analysed. The “stabilised ice slurry” is a suspension in a low viscosity oil of ultraporous polymeric particles filled with water. In order to determine the convective heat transfer coefficient of this secondary refrigerant with water–ice phase change, an experimental set-up was built. It allows determining the local heat transfer coefficients inside two heat exchangers, having rectangular sections (80 × 8 mm²) of 1 m length, by mean of fluxmeters located along the working section. The slurry is first cooled and frozen in one of the exchangers, then heated and melted in the other exchanger. The results obtained for laminar or transitional flows shows that the heat transfer coefficients of the ice slurry are obviously higher than the heat transfer coefficients obtained with the single-phase fluid (oil). Correlations giving the local and global Nusselt numbers, depending on the Graetz or Reynolds numbers and on the particle mass fraction, have been established.     

Friction factor correlation and pressure loss of single-phase flow inside herringbone microfin tubes

Pressure drop of single-phase turbulent flow inside herringbone microfin tubes of different fin dimensions has been measured experimentally to develop a general correlation of single-phase friction factor for the herringbone tubes. Water has been used as a working fluid and the mass flow rate has been varied from 0.03 to 0.2 kg/s, where the Reynolds number range is 10⁴ to 6.5 × 10⁴. Comparison of experimental data of the herringbone microfin tubes with those of helical microfin and smooth tubes shows that pressure drop of the herringbone tube is significantly higher than the helical and smooth tubes depending on the fin geometric parameters and mass velocity of the working fluid. Through semi-analytical approach and using the present experimental data, a new correlation of single-phase friction factor for the herringbone microfin tubes has been proposed incorporating the effects of fin geometric parameters. The proposed correlation can predict the experimental data within ±10%.     

Experimental investigation of ice slurry heat transfer in horizontal tube

Heat transfer of ice slurry flow based on ethanol–water mixture in a circular horizontal tube has been experimentally investigated. The secondary fluid was prepared by mixing ethanol and water to obtain initial alcohol concentration of 10.3% (initial freezing temperature -4.4 °C). The heat transfer tests were conducted to cover laminar and slightly turbulent flow with ice mass fraction varying from 0% to 22% depending on test performed. Measured heat transfer coefficients of ice slurry are found to be higher than those for single phase fluid, especially for laminar flow conditions and high ice mass fractions where the heat transfer is increased with a factor 2 in comparison to the single phase flow. In addition, experimentally determined heat transfer coefficients of ice slurry flow were compared to the analytical results, based on the correlation by Sieder and Tate for laminar single phase regime, by Dittus–Boelter for turbulent single phase regime and empirical correlation by Christensen and Kauffeld derived for laminar/turbulent ice slurry flow in circular horizontal tubes. It was found that the classical correlation proposed by Sieder and Tate for laminar forced convection in smooth straight circular ducts cannot be used for heat transfer prediction of ice slurry flow since it strongly underestimates measured values, while, for the turbulent flow regime the simple Dittus–Boelter relation predicts the heat transfer coefficient of ice slurry flow with high accuracy but only up to an ice mass fraction of 10% and Re_cf > 2300 regardless of imposed heat flux. For higher ice mass fractions and regardless of the flow regime, the correlation proposed by Christensen and Kauffeld gives good agreement with experimental results.     

Heat transfer enhancement by winglet-type vortex generator arrays in compact plain-fin-and-tube heat exchangers

The potential of winglet type vortex generator (VG) arrays for air-side heat transfer enhancement is experimentally evaluated by full-scale wind-tunnel testing of a compact plain-fin-and-tube heat exchanger. The effectiveness of a 3VG alternate-tube inline array of vortex generators is compared to a single-row vortex generator design and the baseline configuration. The winglets are placed in a common-flow-up orientation for improved tube wake management. The overall heat transfer and pressure drop performance are assessed under dry-surface conditions over a Reynolds number range based on hydraulic diameter of 220 ≤ Re ≤ 960. It is found that the air-side heat transfer coefficient increases from 16.5% to 44% for the single-row winglet arrangement with an increase in pressure drop of less than 12%. For the three-row vortex generator array, the enhancement in heat transfer coefficient increases with Reynolds number from 29.9% to 68.8% with a pressure drop penalty from 26% at Re = 960 to 87.5% at Re = 220. The results indicate that vortex generator arrays can significantly enhance the performance of fin-tube heat exchangers with flow depths and fin densities typical to those used in air-cooling and refrigeration applications.     

Heat transfer characteristics of the ice slurry at melting process in a tube flow

The heat transfer characteristics were experimentally investigated for ice slurry made from 6.5% ethylene glycol–water solution flow in a 13.84 mm internal diameter, 1500 mm long horizontal copper tube. The ice slurry was heated by hot water circulated at the annulus gap of the test section. Experiments of the melting process were conducted with changing the ice slurry mass flux and the ice fraction from 800 to 3500 kg/m² s and 0–25%, respectively. During the experiment, it was found that the measured heat transfer rates increase with the mass flow rate and ice fraction; however, the effect of ice fraction appears not to be significant at high mass flow rate. At the region of low mass flow rates, a sharp increase in the heat transfer coefficient was observed when the ice fraction was more than 10%.     

Evaporating heat transfer of R22 and R410A in horizontal smooth and microfin tubes

An experimental investigation of condensation heat transfer in 9.52 mm O.D. horizontal copper tubes was conducted using R22 and R410A. The test rig had a straight, horizontal test section with an active length of 0.92 m and was cooled by the heat transfer fluid (cold water) circulated in a surrounding annulus. Constant heat flux of 11.0 kW/m² was maintained throughout the experiment and refrigerant quality varied from 0.9 to 0.1. The condensation test results at 45 °C were reported for 40–80 kg/h mass flow rate. The local and average condensation coefficients for seven microfin tubes were presented compared to those for a smooth tube. The average condensation coefficients of R22 and R410A for the microfin tubes were 1.7–3.19 and 1.7–2.94 times larger than those in smooth tube, respectively.     

Experimental correlation of falling film condensation on enhanced tubes with HFC134a; low-fin and Turbo-C tubes

The objectives of this paper are to develop experimental correlations of heat transfer for enhanced tubes used in a falling film condenser, and to provide a guideline for optimum design of the falling film condenser with a high condensing temperature of 59.8 °C. Tests are performed for four different enhanced tubes; a low-fin and three Turbo-C tubes. The working fluid is HFC134a, and the system pressure is 16.0 bar. The results show that the heat transfer enhancement of low-fin tube, Turbo-C (1), Turbo-C (2) and Turbo-C (3) ranges 2.8–3.4 times, 3.5–3.8 times, 3.8–4.0 times and 3.6–3.9 times, respectively, compared with the theoretical Nusselt correlation. It was found that the condensation heat transfer coefficient decreased with increasing the falling film Reynolds number and the wall subcooling temperature. It was also found that the enhanced tubes became more effective in the high wall subcooling temperature region than in the low wall subcooling temperature region. This study developed an experimental correlation of the falling film condensation with an error band of ±5%.     

A minichannel aluminium tube heat exchanger – Part I: Evaluation of single-phase heat transfer coefficients by the Wilson plot method

A prototype liquid-to-refrigerant heat exchanger was developed with the aim of minimizing the refrigerant charge in small systems. To allow correct calculation of the refrigerant side heat transfer, the heat exchanger was first tested for liquid-to-liquid (water-to-water) operation in order to determine the single-phase heat transfer performance. These single-phase tests are reported in this paper. The heat exchanger was made from extruded multiport aluminium tubes and was designed similar to a shell-and-tube heat exchanger. The heat transfer areas of the shell-side and tube-side were approximately 0.82 m² and 0.78 m², respectively. There were six rectangular-shaped parallel channels in a tube. The hydraulic diameter of the tube-side was 1.42 mm and of the shell-side 3.62 mm. Tests were conducted with varying water flow rates, temperature levels and heat fluxes on both the tube and shell sides at Reynolds numbers of approximately 170–6000 on the tube-side and 1000–5000 on the shell-side, respectively. The Wilson plot method was employed to investigate the heat transfer on both the shell and tube sides. In the Reynolds number range of 2300–6000, it was found that the Nusselt numbers agreed with those predicted by the Gnielinski correlation within ±5% accuracy. In the Reynolds number range of 170–1200 the Nusselt numbers gradually increased from 2.1 to 3.7. None of the previously reported correlations for laminar flow predicted the Nusselt numbers well in this range. The shell-side Nusselt numbers were found to be considerably higher than those predicted by correlations from the literature.     

Experimental study of turbulent single-phase flow and heat transfer inside a micro-finned tube

Single-phase heat transfer and pressure drop characteristics of a commercially available internally micro-finned tube with a nominal outside diameter of 7.94 mm were studied. Experiments were conducted in a double pipe heat exchanger with water as the cooling as well as the heating fluid for six sets of runs. The pressure drop data were collected under isothermal conditions. Data were taken for turbulent flow with 3300 ≤ Re ≤ 22,500 and 2.9 ≤ Pr ≤ 4.7. The heat transfer data were correlated by a Dittus–Boelter type correlation, while the pressure drop data were correlated by a Blasius type correlation. The correlation predicted values for both the Nusselt number and the friction factors were compared with other studies. It was found that the Nusselt numbers obtained from the present correlation fall in the middle region between the Copetti et al. and the Gnielinski smooth tube correlation predicted Nusselt number values. For pressure drop results, the present correlation predicted friction factors values were nearly double that of the Blasius smooth tube correlation predicted friction factors. It was also found that the rough tube Gnielinski and Haaland correlations can be used as a good approximation to predict the finned tube Nusselt number and ffriction factor, respectively, in the tested Reynolds number range.     

Experimental performance analysis and modelling of liquid desiccant cooling systems for air conditioning in residential buildings

The paper presents a new desiccant cooling cycle to be integrated in residential mechanical ventilation systems. The process shifts the air treatment completely to the return air side, so that the supply air can be cooled by a heat exchanger. Purely sensible cooling is an essential requirement for residential buildings with no maintenance guarantee for supply air humidifiers. As the cooling power is generated on the exhaust air side, the dehumidification process needs to be highly efficient to provide low supply air temperatures. Solid rotating desiccant wheels have been experimentally compared with liquid sorption systems using contact matrix absorbers and cross flow heat exchangers. The best dehumidification performance at no temperature increase was obtained in an evaporatively cooled heat exchanger with sprayed lithium chloride solution. Up to 7 g kg⁻¹ dehumidification could be reached in an isothermal process, although the surface wetting of the first prototype was low. The process then provides inlet air conditions below 20 °C for the summer design conditions of 32 °C, 40% relative humidity. With air volume flow rates of 200 m³ h⁻¹ the system can provide 886 W of cooling power.A theoretical model for both the contact absorber and the cross flow system has been developed and validated against experimental data for a wide range of operating conditions. A simulation study identified the optimisation potential of the system, if for example the surface wetting of the liquid desiccant can be improved.     

Air-side thermal hydraulic performance of multi-louvered fin aluminum heat exchangers

An experimental study on the air-side heat transfer and pressure drop characteristics for multi-louvered fin and flat tube heat exchangers has been performed. For 45 heat exchangers with different louver angles (15–29°), fin pitches (1.0, 1.2, 1.4 mm) and flow depths (16, 20, 24 mm), a series of tests were conducted for the air-side Reynolds numbers of 100–600, at a constant tube-side water flow rate of 0.32 m³/h. The inlet temperatures of the air and water for heat exchangers were 21 and 45°C, respectively. The air-side thermal performance data were analyzed using effectiveness-NTU method for cross-flow heat exchanger with both fluid unmixed conditions. The heat transfer coefficient and pressure drop data for heat exchangers with different geometrical configurations were reported in terms of Colburn j-factor and Fanning friction factor f, as functions of Reynolds number based on louver pitch. The general correlations for j and f factors are developed and compared to other correlations. The f correlation indicates that the flow depth is one of the important parameters for the pressure drop.     

Air-side performance of brazed aluminum heat exchangers under dehumidifying conditions

An experimental study for air-side thermal-hydraulic performance of brazed aluminum heat exchangers under dehumidifying conditions has been performed. For 30 samples of louvered fin heat exchangers with different geometrical parameters, the heat transfer and pressure drop characteristics for wet surface were evaluated. The test was conducted for air-side Reynolds number in the range of 80–300 and tube-side water flow rate of 320 kg/h. The dry- and wet-bulb temperatures of the inlet air for heat exchangers were 27 and 19 °C, respectively and the inlet water temperature was 6 °C. The air-side thermal performance data for cooling and dehumidifying conditions were analyzed using effectiveness-NTU method for cross-flow heat exchanger with both fluids unmixed. The test results are reported, compared with those for the dry surface heat exchangers, in terms of sensible j factor and friction factor f, as functions of Reynolds number based on louver pitch. The correlations for j and f factors are developed within rms errors of ±16.9 and ±13.6%, respectively.     

Performance characteristics correlation for round tube and plate finned heat exchangers: Equations relatives aux performances d'échangeurs de chaleur constitués de tubes ronds et de plaques à ailettes

A number of correlation equations describing the performance characteristics of round tube and plate fin have been published in the open literature. However, many of these correlations are restricted to flat finned heat exchangers and a limited number of geometrical configurations. In this study, 28 heat exchanger samples were tested in an open circuit thermal wind tunnel over a velocity range of 1 to 20 m/s for a number of geometries. The geometrical variations include the number of tube rows, fin thickness and the spacing between fins, rows and tubes. Both flat and corrugated fins were tested and the results were correlated in terms of j and f factors as a function of Reynolds number and the geometrical parameters of the heat exchangers. An important feature of this correlation is the novel way in which the geometric parameters are expressed in the correlation. Ratios of these parameters are derived from consideration of the physics of the flow and heat transfer in the heat exchangers. This results in a more accurate and physically meaningful correlation which can be applied to a broader range of geometries. The correlation was validated against test data in the literature for round tube and plate fin with good agreement. It was found that the fin type affects the heat transfer and friction factor, and that the number of tube rows has a negligible effect on the friction factor. The number of tube rows effect was found to be influenced by the fin and tube geometries as well as the Reynolds number.Un certain nombre d'équations pour des caractéristiques du rendement des échangeurs de chaleur à tubes ronds plaques à ailettes ont été publiés dans le littérature. Cependant, dans bien des cas, ces corrélations se limitent aux échangeurs à ailette plate dans un nombre limité de configurations géométriques. Dans cette étude, 28 échangeurs de chaleur ont été testés utilisant une soufflerie à circuit ouvert avec une vitesse d'air de 1 à 20 m/s pour plusieurs formes géométriques. Les variations géométriques portaient sur le nombre de rangées de tubes, l'épaisseur des ailettes et la distance séparant des ailettes, des rangées et des tubes. Les ailettes plates et ondulées ont été testées et les corrélations en termes de facteurs j et f en fonction du nombre de Reynolds et les paramètres géométriques des échangeurs de chaleur. Un aspect important de cette corrélation est le façon originale d'exprimer des paramètres géométriques. Les rapports de ces paramètres sont obtenus à partir des flux et transferts de chaleur dans des échangeurs de chaleur. Ce procedé permet d'obtenir une corrélation plus précise et utilé qui s'applique à une gamme de formes géomátriques plus large. La corrélation a été validée en fonction des données concernant des échangeurs à tube et à plaque à ailettes dans la littérature: les données expérimentales et théoriques concordent bien. On a montré que le type d'ailette exerce une influence sur le transfert de chaleur et le facteur de frottement. Cependant, le nombre de rangées de tubes a un effet negligeable sur le coéfficient de frottement. On a démontré que l'effet nombre de rangées de tube est influencé par les géométries des ailettes et des tubes ainsi que par le nombre de Reynolds.     

The effect of micro-scale surface treatment on heat and mass transfer performance for a falling film H2O/LiBr absorber

The objectives of this paper are to develop a new method of wettability measurement, to study the effect of micro-scale surface treatment on the wettability across horizontal tubes and to apply it for numerical analysis of heat and mass transfer in a H₂O/LiBr falling film absorber. Three types of tubes with roughness are tested in a test rig. Inlet solution temperature (30–50 °C), concentration (55–62 wt.% of LiBr) and mass flow rate (0.74–2.71 kg/min) are considered as key parameters. Reynolds number ranged from 30 to 120 by controlling the inlet mass flow rate. The wettability on the roughened tubes was higher than that for the smooth tubes. The wettability decreased linearly along the vertical location but was proportional to the solution temperature and mass flow rate. The experimental correlations of the wettability for the smooth and the roughened tubes were developed with error bands of ±20 and ±10%, respectively. These are used for the heat and mass transfer analysis of absorbers with micro-scale hatched tubes.     

Solidification of phase change material on vertical cylindrical surface in holdup air bubbles

Solidification of phase change material around a vertical cylindrical surface was studied to investigate the performance of ice storage system and stored thermal energy. Air bubbles were generated in the phase change material at various air flow rate as a gas holdup to enhance the heat transfer rate and accelerate the ice layer growth at the solid–liquid interface. The test tube surface was cooled by ethylene glycol–water solution at a flow rate of 40% concentration by weight. The ice layer growth and solidification front velocity at solid–liquid interface were estimated from the temperature–time recorded data of a set of thermocouples fixed in a radial position perpendicular to cooled surface. The ice layer growth at the first instants of solidification process is much higher. Thereafter it decreased gradually according to the increasing of thermal resistance of ice layer. The increasing of ethylene glycol–water solution mass flow rate seems to accelerate the solidification process with small rate. The effect of air bubbles agitation was found to increase the ice layer growth rate and solidification front velocity by about of 20–45%. As a consequence the stored thermal energy was increased by about 55–115% with increasing air bubbles flow according to the attribute of generates turbulence at the solid–liquid interface. The measured data showed that with stirring the bulk water in energy storage tank, the storage time can be reduced by 10–35% of that without stirring.     

Modelling the freezing of butter

Butter is a water-in-oil emulsion so its behaviour during freezing is very different from that of most food products, for which water forms a continuous phase. The release of latent heat during freezing is controlled as much by the rate of crystallization of water in each of the water droplets as by the rate of heat transfer. Measurements of the freezing of butter show that the release of latent heat from the freezing water depends on the degree of supercooling, which, in turn, depends on the cooling medium temperature, the size of the butter item, the packaging and the type of butter. Four modelling approaches were tested against the experimental data collected for a 25 kg block of butter. A “sensible heat only model” accurately predicted the butter temperature until temperatures at which water freezing becomes significant were reached. An “equilibrium thermal properties model” predicted a temperature plateau near the initial freezing point of the butter in a manner that was inconsistent with the measured data. A third model used a stochastic approach to ice nucleation based on supercooling using classical homogeneous nucleation theory. The predicted temperatures showed that supercooling-driven nucleation alone is not sufficient to predict the freezing behaviour of butter. A fourth approach took account of time-dependent nucleation and ice crystal growth kinetics using classical Avrami crystallization theory. The relationship between the ice crystal growth rate and the supersaturation was assumed to be linear. The model predicted the experimental data accurately, particularly by predicting the slow rebound in the temperature following supercooling that is found when freezing butter under some conditions.     

Extension of soil thermal conductivity models to frozen meats with low and high fat content

Thermal conductivity models of frozen soils were analyzed and compared with similar models developed for frozen foods. In total, eight thermal conductivity models and 54 model versions were tested against experimental data of 13 meat products in the temperature range from 0 to −40 °C. The model by deVries, with water+ice (wi) as the continuous phase, showed overall the best predictions. The use of wi leads generally to improved predictions in comparison to ice; water as the continuous phase is beneficial only to deVries model, mostly from −1 to −20 °C; fat is advantageous only to meats with high fat content. The results of this work suggest that the more sophisticated way of estimating the thermal conductivity for a disperse phase in the deVries model might be more appropriate than the use of basic multi-phase models (geometric mean, parallel, and series). Overall, relatively small differences in predictions were observed between the best model versions by deVries, Levy, Mascheroni, Maxwell or Gori as applied to frozen meats with low content of fat. These differences could also be generated by uncertainty in meat composition, temperature dependence of thermal conductivity of ice, measurement errors, and limitation of predictive models.     

Experimentation and modeling of refrigerant flow through coiled capillary tubes

Air-conditioners use spirally coiled capillary tubes as an expansion device to enhance compactness of the unit. However, most empirical correlations for predicting refrigerant flow rate through capillary tubes were developed for straight capillary tubes without consideration of coiled effects. The objectives of this study are to investigate the flow characteristics of the coiled capillary tubes and to develop a generalized correlation for the mass flow rate through the coiled capillary tubes. The mass flow rate of R22 through the coiled capillary tubes and straight capillary tubes was measured for various operating conditions and tube geometries. The mass flow rates of the coiled capillary tubes decreased by 5–16% more than those of the straight capillary tubes at the same operating conditions. A generalized correlation for predicting refrigerant mass flow rate through coiled capillary tubes was developed by introducing the parameter of capillary equivalent length. The present correlation showed good predictions with the present database for R22, R407C and R410A in the straight and coiled capillary tubes, yielding average and standard deviations of 0.24% and 4.4%, respectively.