Analysis of heat transfer in a partially wet radial fin assembly during dehumidification

This paper presents the analysis of heat transfer in a partially wet annula r fin assembly during the process of dehumidification. In past studies, bot h fully dry and fully wet fins have been analyzed. New analytical formulati on leading to a closed-form solution has been developed for a partially wet fin, which is most common in dehumidifier coil operation during air condit ioning. The parameters that influenced the heat transfer rate in the finned tube structure are ratio of fin and wall thermal conductivities, ratio of fin thickness to fin pitch, ratio of wall thickness to fin pitch, ratio of fin length to fin pitch, cold fluid Blot number, ambient Blot number, the r elative humidity and dry bulb temperature of the incoming air, and the cold fluid temperature inside the coil. Calculations were carried out to study the performance of the heat exchanger. The computed results included the te mperature distribution in the wall and the fin and the fin efficiency, (C) 1999 Published by Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved.