Heat transfer enhancement for fin-tube heat exchanger using vortex generators

Vortex generators are fabricated on the fin surface of a fin-tube heat exchanger to augment the convective heat transfer. In addition to horseshoe vortices formed naturally around the tube of the fin-tube heat exchanger, longitudinal vortices are artificially created on the fin surface by vortex generators. The purpose of this study is to investigate the local heat transfer phenomena in the fin-tube heat exchangers with and without vortex generators, and to evaluate the effect of vortices on the heat transfer enhancement. Naphthalene sublimation technique is employed to measure local mass transfer coefficients, then analogy equation between heat and mass transfer is used to calculate heat transfer coefficients. Experiments are performed for the model of fin-circular tube heat exchangers with and without vortex generators, and of fin-flat tube heat exchangers with and without vortex generators. Average heat transfer coefficients of fin-flat tube heat exchanger without vortex generator are much lower than those of fin-circular tube heat exchanger. On the other hand, fin-flat tube heat exchanger with vortex generators has much higher heat transfer value than conventional fin-circular tube heat exchanger. At the same time, pressure losses for four types of heat exchanger is measured and compared.