A comparative study of fin-and-tube heat exchangers with various fin patterns

Air-side heat transfer and friction characteristics of five kinds of fin-and-tube heat exchangers, with the number of tube rows (N=12) and the diameter of tubes (D_o= 18 mm), have been experimentally investigated. The test samples consist of five types of fin configurations: Crimped spiral fin, plain fin, slit fin, fin with delta-wing longitudinal vortex generators and mixed fin with front 6-row vortex-generator fin and rear 6-row slit fin. The heat transfer and friction factor correlations for different types of heat exchangers are obtained with the Reynolds numbers ranging from 4000 to 10000. It is found that crimped spiral fin provides higher heat transfer and pressure drop than the other four fins. The air-side performance of heat exchangers with crimped spiral fin, plain fin, slit fin, fin with delta-wing longitudinal vortex generators and mixed fin with front 6-row vortex-generator fin / rear 6-row slit fin has been evaluated under four sets of criteria and it is shown that the heat exchanger with mixed fin (front vortex-generator fin and rear slit fin) has better performance than that with fin with delta-wing vortex generators, and the slit fin offers best heat transfer performance at high Reynolds numbers. Based on Genetic Algorithm optimization results it is indicated that the increase of length and decrease of height may enhance the performance of vortex generator fin.