Thermal characteristics of fin-and-tube heat exchanger cooled by natural convection

✍ Scribed by N. Kayansayan

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 1993
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 885 KB
• Volume: 7
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0894-1777
• DOI: 10.1016/0894-1777(93)90001-y

✦ Synopsis

There are numerous instances where the heat transfer from a fin-and-tube heat exchanger to air takes place primarily via natural convection. The lack of data showing the effect of fin spacing, fin length, and Rayleigh number on the thermal performance of the exchanger prompted this experimentation. It was found that the interaction of the fin boundary layer with the tube base brought about a reduction in the Nusselt number and in the convection-conductance value of the finned surface relative to that found in the classical case of the long isolated cylinder. At Rayleigh numbers beyond the critical, the Nusselt number was quite insensitive to fin spacing and length, with the typical data spread being 5-10%. For a given temperature difference, the occurrence of an optimum fin spacing ratio is indicated.