Performance evaluation of flat finned tube fin heat exchanger with different fin surfaces

When an extended surface is needed on only one fluid side (such as in a gas-to-liquid exchanger) or when the operating pressure needs to be contained on one fluid side, a tube-fin exchanger may be selected, with the tubes being round, flat, or elliptical in shape. The paper is concerned with the performance evaluation of flat tube fin heat exchangers (TFHE), having different fin configurations and flat tubes. The thermal performance of each configuration is based on the ε-NTU method. The extensive experimental research data of Kays and London available in the form of graphs are translated into algebraic relations for developing computational models. From the present work, a generalized heat transfer correlations is proposed based on geometrical parameters for the effectiveness of the heat exchanger. The generalization is with respect to the different fin surface geometry and not with the different combination of hot and cold fluids. The correlation is limited in its applicability to gas to water heat exchangers only. Further, guidelines are proposed for an easy way of designing a TFHE using correlations based on geometrical parameters and the same is compared with traditional ε-NTU method.