MN-00-14-1 -- 3-D Simulation of Thermal-Hydraulic Characteristics of Louvered Fin-and-Tube Heat Exchangers With Oval Tubes

A three-dimensional numerical investigation of the airside performance of fin-and-tube heat exchangers having round and oval configurations is presented in this paper. For louver fin geometry at a fixed louver length, a 10% decrease in heat transfer performance is observed and a 41% decrease of pressure drop is seen for the oval tube configuration. For the plain fin configuration and V _fr < 2 m/s (6.56 ft/s), the heat transfer performance for an oval tube is slightly higher than that of a round tube. However, the heat transfer performance is reversed when V _fr < 2 m/s (6.56 ft/s) . The pressure drop for plain fin and oval tubes shows 100% lower pressure drop when compared to the round tube configuration.

Units: Dual