NUMERICAL STUDY OF HEAT TRANSFER ENHANCEMENT AND FLOW CHARACTERISTICS OF THREE-DIMENSIONAL PLATE FIN HEAT EXCHANGERS

2015 ◽  
Vol 46 (9) ◽  
pp. 819-837 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ertan Buyruk ◽  
Koray Karabulut
2009 ◽  
Vol 131 (9) ◽  
Author(s):  
P. Chu ◽  
Y. L. He ◽  
W. Q. Tao

In this paper, a three-dimensional numerical investigation was performed for heat transfer characteristics and flow structure of full scale fin-and-tube heat exchangers with rectangular winglet pair (RWP). For the Reynolds number ranging from 500 to 880, the baseline configuration (without RWP) is compared with three enhanced configurations (with RWP): inline-1RWP case, inline-3RWP case, and inline-7RWP case. It was found that the air-side heat transfer coefficient improved by 28.1–43.9%, 71.3–87.6%, and 98.9–131% for the three enhanced configurations, with an associated pressure drop penalty increase of 11.3–25.1%, 54.4–72%, and 88.8–121.4%, respectively. An overall performance comparison was conducted by using the London area goodness factor. It is revealed that among the three enhanced configurations, the inline-1RWP case obtains the best overall performance, and the inline-3RWP case is better than the inline-7RWP case. The numerical results were also analyzed on the basis of the field synergy principle to provide fundamental understanding of the relation between local flow structure and heat transfer augmentation. It was confirmed that the reduction in the average intersection angle between the velocity vector and the temperature gradient was one of the essential factors influencing heat transfer enhancement. The analysis also provides guidelines for where the enhancement technique is highly needed.


Author(s):  
Ya-Ling He ◽  
Pan Chu ◽  
Wen-Quan Tao

In this paper, heat transfer enhancement and pressure loss penalty for fin-and-tube heat exchangers with rectangular winglet pairs (RWPs) were numerically investigated in a relatively low Reynolds number flow. The purpose of this study was to explore the fundamental mechanism between the local flow structure and the heat transfer augmentation. The RWPs were placed with a special orientation for the purpose of enhancement of heat transfer. The numerical study involved three-dimensional flow and conjugate heat transfer in the computational domain, which was set up to model the entire flow channel in the air flow direction. The effects of attack-angle of RWPs, row-number of RWPs and placement of RWPs on the heat transfer characteristics and flow structure were examined in detail. It was observed that the longitudinal vortices caused by RWPs and the impingement of RWPs-directed flow on the downstream tube were important reasons of heat transfer enhancement for fin-and-tube heat exchangers with RWPs. It was interesting to find that the pressure loss penalty of the fin-and-tube heat exchangers with RWPs could be reduced by altering the placement of the same number of RWPs from inline array to staggered array and simultaneously maintain the heat transfer enhancement level. The results showed that the rectangular winglet pairs (RWPs) can significantly improve the heat transfer performance of the fin-and-tube heat exchangers with a moderate pressure loss penalty.


Author(s):  
Shubham Agarwal ◽  
R. P. Sharma

This is a novel study for assessing the heat transfer enhancement in a multi-row inline-tube heat exchanger using hybrid vortex generator (VG) arrays, i.e., rectangular winglet pairs (RWPs) with different geometrical configurations installed in coherence for enhanced heat transfer. The three-dimensional numerical study uses a full scale seven-tube inline heat exchanger model. The effect of roll of rectangular winglet VG on heat transfer enhancement is analyzed and optimized roll angle is determined for maximum heat transfer enhancement. Four different configurations are analyzed and compared in this regard: (a) single RWP (no roll); (b) 3RWP-inline array(alternating tube row with no roll of VGs); (c) single RWP (with optimized roll angle VGs); and (d) 3RWP-inline array(alternating tube row with all VGs having optimized roll angle). It was found that the inward roll of VGs increased the heat transfer from the immediately downstream tube but reduced heat transfer enhancement capability of other VG pairs downstream. Further, four different hybrid configurations of VGs were analyzed and the optimum configuration was obtained. For the optimized hybrid configuration at Re = 670, RWP with optimized roll angle increased heat transfer by 17.5% from the tube it was installed on and by 42% from the immediately downstream tube. Increase in j/ƒ of 36.7% is obtained by use of hybrid VGs in the optimized hybrid configuration. The deductions from the current study are supposed to well enhance the performance of heat exchangers with different design configurations.


2016 ◽  
Vol 108 ◽  
pp. 1237-1242 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yanfeng Zhang ◽  
Chen Jiang ◽  
Zonglin Yang ◽  
Yiyuan Zhang ◽  
Bofeng Bai

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