Air-side Heat Transfer and Friction Characteristics of Finned Tube Beat Exchangers with Slit Fin or Plain Fin

An experimental study is performed to investigate the effect of air-side heat transfer and friction on characteristics of finned tube heat exchanger under dry surface and wet surface conditions (RH 50%, 70%). Air enthalpy calorimeter is used to obtain the performance evaluation and analysis of a fined tube heat exchanger. Four finned tube heat exchangers with slit fin or plain fin are tested. The number of tube rows are 2 and 3, and the tube diameter is 7 mm. Air-side heat transfer and friction are presented in terms of j factor and friction factor. At dry surface condition, j factor decreases with increasing Re and j factor of 3 row is lower than that of 2 row. Also, the friction factor of a slit fin is larger than that of a plain fin. At wet surface condition, the heat transfer effect is more significant in the case of the slit fin than the plain fin and 2 row than 3 row. The j factor and friction factor are affected by humidity, tube row and fin configuration.