Numerical study to predict optimal configuration of wavy fin and tube heat exchanger with various tube shapes

Abstract

This paper aims to investigate the influence of tube shapes on thermal-flow characteristics of sinusoidal wavy finned-tube heat exchangers. Two row staggered bundle with six geometries of tubes (four flat tube geometries, one oval tube and a circular tube) are analyzed for a range of (1600 Re 4800). The inspection revealed that the heat flux and the pressure drop decrease with the tube flatness for all Reynolds values. However, the oval tube O1 reaches, for all Reynolds values, the lowest values of heat flux and pressure drop. Regarding the global performance criterion, the sinusoidal wavy fins with O1 shaped tubes reached the highest global performance values, being 14.8–24.4% and 31.6–36.3% higher than the fin with F1 and O2 tube geometry, respectively.

Keywords

• flat tube
• oval tube
• fluent
• heat exchanger
• optimization
• wavy fin