Evaluation of elliptical finned-tube heat exchanger performance using CFD and response surface methodology

Abstract The elliptical tube has long been considered as an alternative of the circular tube in finned-tube heat exchangers (FTHE). Most of the previous studies evaluated the two tube shapes only based on the air-side performance of FTHE, and did not consider any interaction effect of the axis ratio with other parameters. We proposed a numerical model to simultaneously predict the fluid flow and heat transfer on both air-side and water-side of elliptical FTHE. The numerical results agree well with the reported experimental data. Response surface methodology was applied to understand the interactions among seven design factors including number of rows, axis ratio, transversal tube pitch, longitudinal tube pitch, fin pitch, air velocity, water volumetric flow rate. Response surface analysis was used to evaluate the axis ratio effect on the overall thermal–hydraulic performance which was quantified by the heat transfer rate per unit power consumption. The results indicate that the axis ratio strongly interacts with air velocity and water volumetric flow rate. The increase of axis ratio improves the overall thermal–hydraulic performance at higher air velocity or lower water volumetric flow rate, but the opposite effect is observed at lower air velocity or higher water volumetric flow rate.

[1]  V. Gnielinski.  New equations for heat and mass transfer in turbulent pipe and channel flow , 1976 .

[2]  M. Bezerra,et al.  Response surface methodology (RSM) as a tool for optimization in analytical chemistry. , 2008, Talanta.

[3]  A. S. Dalkılıç,et al.  Numerical investigation of heat transfer and pressure drop in enhanced tubes , 2011 .

[4]  Michele Ciofalo,et al.  A study of turbulent heat transfer in curved pipes by numerical simulation , 2013 .

[5]  P. Roache.  Perspective: A Method for Uniform Reporting of Grid Refinement Studies , 1994 .

[6]  Chi-Chuan Wang,et al.  Heat transfer and friction characteristics of plain fin-and-tube heat exchangers, part II: Correlation , 2000 .

[7]  B. Bowerman.  Statistical Design and Analysis of Experiments, with Applications to Engineering and Science , 1989 .

[8]  F. Saboya,et al.  Experiments on elliptic sections in one- and two-row arrangements of plate fin and tube heat exchangers , 2001 .

[9]  Min Zeng,et al.  Experimental and numerical investigation on air-side performance of fin-and-tube heat exchangers with various fin patterns , 2009 .

[10]  Chi-Chuan Wang,et al.  Heat transfer and friction characteristics of plain fin-and-tube heat exchangers, part I: new experimental data , 2000 .

[11]  Daniel Bougeard,et al.  Infrared thermography investigation of local heat transfer in a plate fin and two-tube rows assembly , 2007 .

[12]  Hyung Hee Cho,et al.  Optimization of microscale vortex generators in a microchannel using advanced response surface method , 2011 .

[13]  张哉根,et al.  Leu-M , 1991 .

[14]  Rui Li,et al.  Three-dimensional numerical study on fin-and-oval-tube heat exchanger with longitudinal vortex generators , 2009 .

[15]  Ralph L. Webb,et al.  Numerical Analyses of Effects of Tube Shape on Performance of a Finned Tube Heat Exchanger , 2004 .

[16]  S. Russeil,et al.  Numerical investigation of local entropy production rate of a finned oval tube with vortex generators , 2009 .

[17]  Hsien-Chie Cheng,et al.  Thermal placement optimization of multichip modules using a sequential metamodeling-based optimization approach , 2010 .

[18]  Chi-Chuan Wang,et al.  Data reduction for air-side performance of fin-and-tube heat exchangers , 2000 .

[19]  Jerry Westerweel,et al.  Fully developed turbulent pipe flow: a comparison between direct numerical simulation and experiment , 1994, Journal of Fluid Mechanics.

[20]  CONJUGATE HEAT TRANSFER OF A FINNED OVAL TUBE PART B: HEAT TRANSFER BEHAVIORS , 1998 .

[21]  Nasir Hayat,et al.  CFD applications in various heat exchangers design: A review , 2012 .

[22]  P. Roache.  QUANTIFICATION OF UNCERTAINTY IN COMPUTATIONAL FLUID DYNAMICS , 1997 .

[23]  Jiin-Yuh Jang,et al.  Experimental and 3-D Numerical Analysis of the Thermal-Hydraulic Characteristics of Elliptic Finned-Tube Heat Exchangers , 1998 .

[24]  Frank P. Incropera,et al.  Fundamentals of Heat and Mass Transfer , 1981 .

[25]  D. Missirlis,et al.  Investigation of the thermal efficiency of a staggered elliptic-tube heat exchanger for aeroengine applications , 2010 .

[26]  Henk Huisseune,et al.  Performance enhancement of a louvered fin heat exchanger by using delta winglet vortex generators , 2013 .

[27]  Chi-Chuan Wang,et al.  A numerical investigation of louvered fin-and-tube heat exchangers having circular and oval tube configurations , 2001 .

[28]  Martin Fiebig,et al.  CONJUGATE HEAT TRANSFER OF A FINNED OVAL TUBE PART A: FLOW PATTERNS , 1998 .

[29]  Manu Mital,et al.  Numerical investigation of laminar nanofluid developing flow and heat transfer in a circular channel , 2012 .

[30]  Baris Ozerdem,et al.  Effect of geometrical parameters on heat transfer and pressure drop characteristics of plate fin and tube heat exchangers , 2005 .

[31]  Grady Hanrahan,et al.  Application of Factorial and Response Surface Methodology in Modern Experimental Design and Optimization , 2006 .

[32]  Guoqun Zhao,et al.  Multi-objective optimization design of the heating/cooling channels of the steam-heating rapid thermal response mold using particle swarm optimization , 2011 .

[33]  Wei Liu,et al.  A numerical study on thermo-hydraulic characteristics of turbulent flow in a circular tube fitted with conical strip inserts , 2011 .

[34]  A. London,et al.  Compact heat exchangers , 1960 .

[35]  J. Harion,et al.  Tube pattern effect on thermalhydraulic characteristics in a two-rows finned-tube heat exchanger , 2012 .

[36]  Palani Sivashanmugam,et al.  Optimization of thermoacoustic primemover using response surface methodology , 2012 .

[37]  Jose Manuel Cejudo-Lopez,et al.  A three-dimensional numerical study and comparison between the air side model and the air/water side model of a plain fin-and-tube heat exchanger , 2010 .

[38]  Ya-Ling He,et al.  A comparative study on the air-side performance of wavy fin-and-tube heat exchanger with punched delta winglets in staggered and in-line arrangements , 2009 .