A numerical investigation of louvered fin-and-tube heat exchangers having circular and oval tube configurations

A numerical investigation of the airside performance for fin-and-tube heat exchanger having circular and oval configuration is presented in this study . The geometrical parameters of louver angle, louver pitch, and louver leng th are examined. For a fixed louver length (6.25 mm) and louver angle (14 d egrees), a 10% decrease of heat transfer performance is observed and a 41% decrease of pressure drop is seen for oval tube configuration. The calculat ed results indicate that the pressure drops always with increase in louver angle. However, an optimal value of heat transfer performance is observed d ue to the difference in the development of thermal boundary layer on the up per and lower louver surface. Both the heat transfer and friction performan ce increase with louver length. However, the rate of the increase of heat t ransfer performance is about the same as the increase of pressure drops. (C ) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.