Aspects of Flow and Heat Transfer in Louver-Fin Round-Tube Heat Exchangers
Experimental and numerical investigations on flow and heat transfer were conducted for louver-fin round-tube two-row heat exchangers. The airflow velocity ranged from 1 m/s to 3 m/s. A three-dimensional numerical method was developed by modeling representative cell units with fluid-solid conjugated heat transfer. Results of three-dimensional numerical simulations were in good agreement with the experimental data. A stagnant flow region exists behind the round tubes, and results in diminished local convective heat transfer. For two-row heat exchangers operating at Reynolds number, Re<300, the first row dominates the heat transfer rate. With Re increasing, the heat transfer contribution of both rows tends to be more uniform. The flow pattern shows a recirculation region downstream of the heat exchanger at higher Re flows, which may be induced by a vortex-shedding instability from the tube and louver bank.