Energies 2019, 12(3), 556; https://doi.org/10.3390/en12030556
Influence of Perforated Fin on Flow Characteristics and Thermal Performance in Spiral Finned-Tube Heat Exchanger
School of Mechanical Engineering, Chung-Ang University, 84, Heukseok-ro, Dongjak-gu, Seoul 06974, Korea
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Received: 12 December 2018 / Revised: 2 February 2019 / Accepted: 5 February 2019 / Published: 12 February 2019
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Heat Transfer Enhancement)
Abstract
The present study conducts the numerical investigation of flow characteristics and thermal performance of spiral finned-tube heat exchangers. The effects of location of perforations (90°, 120°, and 150°) on heat transfer and pressure drop are analyzed for the air-side. The commercial computational fluid dynamics code ANSYS Fluent (V.17.0) is used for simulations with the RNG k-ε model based on the Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes equations. The velocity field, Colburn j-factor, and friction factor are analyzed to evaluate the heat transfer and pressure drop characteristics. Because of the flow through the perforations, the boundary layers on the fin surfaces are interrupted. This results in increased flow disturbances close to the fin, and the heat transfer performance increases compared to the reference case. The pressure drop, which is one of the disadvantages of spiral finned tubes comparing to plate or circular fins, decreases with perforations on the fin. Overall, the cases with perforated fin exhibit greater performance of area goodness factor considering the relationship between the heat transfer and the pressure drop. View Full-TextKeywords:
computational fluid dynamics (CFD); finned-tube heat exchanger; perforation; Colburn j-factor; friction factor
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Lee, H.J.; Ryu, J.; Lee, S.H. Influence of Perforated Fin on Flow Characteristics and Thermal Performance in Spiral Finned-Tube Heat Exchanger. Energies 2019, 12, 556.
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