Computational and Experimental Comparison of Tube Wall Heat Transfer Augmented by Winglets in Louvered Fin Heat Exchangers

Author(s):  
Michael J. Lawson ◽  
Paul Sanders ◽  
Karen A. Thole

Louvered fins are used in compact heat exchangers to increase heat transfer by interrupting thermal boundary layer growth thereby increasing the convective heat transfer coefficients and reducing the air side resistance. Recently, it has been experimentally shown that heat transfer along the tube wall can be augmented by the placement of delta winglets on the louvers at an angle to the flow. The focus of this combined experimental and computational study is to determine the effect of realistic winglets on tube wall heat transfer. Comparisons of the computational simulations were made to the experimental results, which were obtained using a twenty times scaled model. Winglet performance characteristics were studied on solid louvers and pierced louvers whereby the latter simulates what would occur for a manufactured louver having a winglet. For a solid louver having a winglet, the tube wall heat transfer augmentation was found to be as high as 5.4%. Pierced louver cases were observed to produce slightly higher heat transfer augmentations than solid louver cases. Computational results suggest that the mechanism behind tube wall heat transfer augmentation is flow redirection and not winglet induced vortices.

2005 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. K. Tafti

The paper describes two- and three-dimensional computer simulations which are used to study fundamental flow and thermal phenomena in multilouvered fins used for air-side heat transfer enhancement in compact heat exchangers. Results pertaining to flow transition, thermal wake interference, and fintube junction effects are presented. It is shown that a Reynolds number based on flow path rather than louver pitch is more appropriate in defining the onset of transition, and characteristic frequencies in the louver bank scale better with a global length scale such as fin pitch than with louver pitch or thickness. With the aid of computer experiments, the effect of thermal wakes is quantified on the heat capacity of the fin as well as the heat transfer coefficient, and it is established that experiments which neglect accounting for thermal wakes can introduce large errors in the measurement of heat transfer coefficients. Further, it is shown that the geometry of the louver in the vicinity of the tube surface has a large effect on tube heat transfer and can have a substantial impact on the overall heat capacity.


Author(s):  
David M. Sykes ◽  
Andrew L. Carpenter ◽  
Gregory S. Cole

Microchannels and minichannels have been shown to have many potential applications for cooling high-heat-flux electronics over the past 3 decades. Synthetic jets can enhance minichannel performance by adding net momentum flux into a stream without adding mass flux. These jets are produced because of different flow patterns that emerge during the induction and expulsion stroke of a diaphragm, and when incorporated into minichannels can disrupt boundary layers and impinge on the far wall, leading to high heat transfer coefficients. Many researchers have examined the effects of synthetic jets in microchannels and minichannels with single-phase flows. The use of synthetic jets has been shown to augment local heat transfer coefficients by 2–3 times the value of steady flow conditions. In this investigation, local heat transfer coefficients and pressure loss in various operating regimes were experimentally measured. Experiments were conducted with a minichannel array containing embedded thermocouples to directly measure local wall temperatures. The experimental range extends from transitional to turbulent flows. Local wall temperature measurements indicate that increases of heat transfer coefficient of over 20% can occur directly below the synthetic jet with low exit qualities. In this study, the heat transfer augmentation by using synthetic jets was dictated by the momentum ratio of the synthetic jet to the bulk fluid flow. As local quality was increased, the heat transfer augmentation dropped from 23% to 10%. Surface tension variations had a large effect on the Nusselt number, while variations in inertial forces had a small effect on Nusselt number in this operating region.


Author(s):  
H. A. El-Husayni ◽  
M. E. Taslim ◽  
D. M. Kercher

An experimental investigation was conducted to determine the effects of variations in wall thermal boundary conditions on local heat transfer coefficients in stationary and orthogonally rotating smooth wall and two opposite-wall turbulated square channels. Results were obtained for three distributions of uniform wall heat flux: asymmetric, applied to the primary wall only; symmetric, applied to two opposite walls only; and fully-symmetric, applied to all four channel walls. Measured stationary and rotating smooth channel average heat transfer coefficients at channel location L/Dh = 9.53 were not significantly sensitive to wall heat flux distributions. Trailing side heat transfer generally increased with Rotation number whereas the leading wall results showed a decreasing trend at low Rotation numbers to a minimum and then an increasing trend with further increase in Rotation number. The stationary turbulated wall heat transfer coefficients did not vary markedly with the variations in wall heat flux distributions. Rotating leading wall heat transfer decreased with Rotation number and showed little sensitivity to heat flux distributions except for the fully-symmetric heated wall case at the highest Reynolds number tested. Trailing wall heat transfer coefficients were sensitive to the thermal wall distributions generally at all Reynolds numbers tested and particularly with increasing Rotation number. While the asymmetric case showed a slight deficit in trailing wall heat transfer coefficients due to rotation, the symmetric case indicated little change whereas the fully-symmetric case exhibited an enhancement.


Author(s):  
Wenhai Li ◽  
Ken Alabi ◽  
Foluso Ladeinde

Over the years, empirical correlations have been developed for predicting saturated flow boiling [1–15] and condensation [16–30] heat transfer coefficients inside horizontal/vertical tubes or micro-channels. In the present work, we have examined 30 of these models, and modified many of them for use in compact plate-fin heat exchangers. However, the various correlations, which have been developed for pipes and ducts, have been modified in our work to make them applicable to extended fin surfaces. The various correlations have been used in a low-order, one-dimensional, finite-volume type numerical integration of the flow and heat transfer equations in heat exchangers. The NIST’s REFPROP database [31] is used to account for the large variations in the fluid thermo-physical properties during phase change. The numerical results are compared with Yara’s experimental data [32]. The validity of the various boiling and condensation models for a real plate-fin heat exchanger design is discussed. The results show that some of the modified boiling and condensation correlations can provide acceptable prediction of heat transfer coefficient for two-phase flows in compact plate-fin heat exchangers.


2000 ◽  
Author(s):  
Qiao Lin ◽  
Shuyun Wu ◽  
Yin Yuen ◽  
Yu-Chong Tai ◽  
Chin-Ming Ho

Abstract This paper presents an experimental investigation on MEMS impinging jets as applied to micro heat exchangers. We have fabricated MEMS single and array jet nozzles using DRIE technology, as well as a MEMS quartz chip providing a simulated hot surface for jet impingement. The quartz chip, with an integrated polysilicon thin-film heater and distributed temperature sensors, offers high spatial resolution in temperature measurement due to the low thermal conductivity of quartz. From measured temperature distributions, heat transfer coefficients are computed for single and array micro impinging jets using finite element analysis. The results from this study for the first time provide extensive data on spatial distributions of micro impinging-jet heat transfer coefficients, and demonstrate the viability of MEMS heat exchangers that use micro impinging jets.


2019 ◽  
Vol 128 ◽  
pp. 01003 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jaroslaw Krzywanski ◽  
Karolina Grabowska ◽  
Marcin Sosnowski ◽  
Anna Zylka ◽  
Anna Kulakowska ◽  
...  

An innovative idea, shown in the paper constitutes in the use of the fluidized bed of sorbent, instead of the conventional, fixed-bed, commonly used in the adsorption chillers. Bed–to–wall heat transfer coefficients for fixed and fluidized beds of adsorbent are determined. Sorbent particles diameters and velocities of fluidizing gas are discussed in the study. The calculations confirmed, that the bed–to–wall heat transfer coefficient in the fluidized bed of adsorbent is muchhigher than that in a conventional bed.


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