Zhileng xuebao (Jan 2014)
Numerical Simulation and Experimental Research on Substitute of Aluminum Clad Copper Tube in Finned Tube Heat Exchanger
Abstract
A new type of aluminum clad copper tube is proposed to substitute traditional copper tube used in heat exchanger of air-conditioner, and the cost of exchanger with the aluminum clad copper tube can be reduced by 29.5%. Firstly the airside heat transfer and flow characteristics of heat exchanger with copper tube and aluminum clad copper tube (ACC) are studied by numerical simulation. Computation results show that the performance of fin with ACC tube drops 3.12% compared with that of fin with copper tube while the pressure distribution is almost the same at inlet velocity of 2.5m/s. At the other hand, the performance of heat exchanger with copper and aluminum clad copper tube is experimentally investigated. According to the experimental results, heat transfer amount of the heat exchanger with ACC tube decreases by 3.58% compared with that of heat exchanger with copper tube, being in line with the heat exchanger standards. The numerical and experimental results are basically consistent, both of them indicate that this new type of aluminum clad copper pipe has little negative effect on the performance of heat exchanger. As a result, the aluminum clad copper pipe can be applied in air conditioner .
