• International Journal of Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.100-107
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• 2008

The heat transfer and friction characteristics of heat exchangers having convex louver fins are experimentally investigated, and the results are compared with those of wave fin counterparts. Eighteen samples (nine convex louver fin samples and nine wave fin samples) which had different fm pitches (1.81 mm to 2.54 mm) and tube rows (one to four) were tested. The convex angle was $11.7^{\circ}$. The j factors are insensitive to fin pitch, while f factors increase as fin pitch increases. The effect of fin pitch on f factor is more significant for the wave fin compared with the convex louver fin. It appears that the complex fin pattern of the convex louver fin induces intense mixing of the flow, and thus reduces the effect of fin pitch. Both the j and f factors decrease as the number of tube row increases. However, as the Reynolds number increases, the effect of tube row diminishes. Comparison of the convex louver fin j factors with those of wave fin reveals that convex louver fin j factors are 18% to 29% higher than those of wave fin. The f factors are 16% to 34% higher for the convex louver fin. The difference increases as fin pitch decreases. Existing correlation fails to adequately predict the present data. More data is needed for a general correlation of the convex louver fin geometry.

• Korean Journal of Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Engineering
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.298-309
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• 1995

Low-fin tubes are widely used to enhance condensation heat transfer. In this study, condensation heat transfer experiment was conducted on the low-fin tube using R-11. Three different fin densities-787 fpm (fins per meter), 1102 fpm. 1378 fpm-were tested. The results show that low-fin tube enhances the condensation heat transfer considerablely. The enhancement increases as the fin density increases. It was also found that the fin shape and height have a significant effect on the condensation heat transfer coefficient. Slender or high fins showed a higher condensing heat transfer coefficient compared with fat, low fins. For the tube with 1378 fpm, however, excessive fin height decreased the condensing heat transfer coefficient. The reason may be attributed to the increasing condensate retention angle as the fin density increases. The experimental data are compared with existing prediction models. Results show that Webb's surface tension model predicted the data best (within ${\pm}20%$), which confirms that surface tension plays the major role in low-fin tube condensation.

• Korean Journal of Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Engineering
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.62-70
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• 2005

In this study, the air-side heat transfer coefficients of several types of evaporators in the household freezer/refrigerators are investigated. The types considered in this work are: discrete flat plate fin-and-tube type(in-lined tube array), continuous flat plate fin-and-tube type(staggered tube array), and spine fin-and-tube type(in-lined tube array). The heat transfer correlations obtained from this study for each heat exchangers could expect heat transfer coefficients less than $5\%$ of errors. The result indicates that the air-side heat transfer performance of spine fin-and-tube type evaporator shows the highest value under dry conditions, but discrete flat plate fin-and-tube type evaporator shows the highest value among these three evaporators under frosting conditions.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2000.11b
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• pp.291-296
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• 2000

Usually the contact between fin collar and tube surface for fin-tube heat exchanger is secured by mechanical expansion of the tubes. The objective of the present study is to develop a method of measuring the thermal contact resistance between fin collar and tube surface for fin-tube heat exchanger. Also an experimental work has been performed to evaluate the thermal contact resistance, and a rigorous numerical analysis has been employed to calculate the contact resistance from the measured data. The experiments have been conducted fur the fin-tube heat exchangers with the tube of outer diameters 7 and 9.52 mm.

• Korean Journal of Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Engineering
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.27-36
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• 1990

An experimental investigation was made to study the performance characteristics of evaporator having different fin configurations and tube inner grooves. Three different types of fin such as super slitted fin, slitted fin, plain fin, and two types of tube such as inner grooved tube, and bare tube, are tested varying the air velocity, evaporation temperature and superheat of refrigerant. Results show that in the range of air side Reynolds number $3{\times}10^3\;-\;1.5{\times}10^4$ evaporator with super slitted fin and inner grooved tube shows best performance. It is 80% higher in overall heat transfer coefficient and 2.6 times higher in pressure loss compared to that with plain fin inner grooved tube. Friction factor is found to be almost independent of evaporating temperature and degree of superheat, while Colburn j factor varies with evaporating temperature.

• Korean Journal of Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Engineering
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• v.17 no.6
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• pp.529-535
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• 2005

This study experimentally examines the air-side performance of spiral finned tube heat exchangers. The effects of fin spacing, fin height, and tube alignment were investigated. Reduction of fin spacing decreased the Colburn j factor. However, the effect of fin height on the Colburn j factor was negligible. An increase of tube row decreased the Nusselt number for both staggered and in-line tube alignments. However, the decrease of the Nusselt number for the in-line tube alignment was much more significant than that of the staggered tube alignment. The average Nusselt number of the staggered tube alignment was larger than that of the in-line tube alignment by $10\%$ when the Reynolds number ranged from 300 to 1700. An empirical correlation of the Nusselt number was developed by using geometric parameters of heat exchanger and correction factors. The correction factor considered the effects of tube alignment and number of tube rows on the heat transfer. The proposed correlation yielded a mean deviation of $4\%$ from the present data.

• Solar Energy
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.60-69
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• 1986

Two-dimensional finite difference numerical analysis is used to study conjugate natural convection heat transfer from a horizontal conducting tube with one vertical axial fin. By increasing dimensionless fin length ($L_F$), the mean total Nusselt number of the upward fin is slightly less than that of the downward fin at $L_F\;{\le}\;0.18$ and is higher than that of the downward fin at $L_F\;>\;0.18$. However comparing the upward fin and the downward fin with the no fin, the mean total Nusselt numbers of downward fin and upward fin at $L_F=0.30$ are increased approximately 4.01% and 5.51%, respectively. As Rayleigh number, Prandtl number and Biot number increase, the mean total and the mean tube Nusselt numbers are increased, but as wall thickness increases, the mean total and the mean tube Nusselt numbers are decreased. As the fin conduction parameter increases, the mean total Nusselt number is slightly increased because of increasing the mean fin Nusselt number.

• Korean Journal of Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Engineering
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• v.12 no.5
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• pp.494-501
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• 2000

Effectiveness of a 3-pass plate finned-tube heat exchanger is calculated using heat exchangelet method by changing the shape of fin and the arrangement of tubes. The alternative refrigerant R134a is taken in this study. Conduction between neighboring tubes along the fin is taken into account in addition to convection between the fin and the surrounding air. Governing equations are obtained by using energy balance in a small control volume containing a tube and fins. They are numerically solved following the tube. Effect of tube-to-tube conduction is investigated in single-phase and two-phase flows with various fin shapes and arrangements of tubes. Improvement of effectiveness by fin perforation is studied too. The results shows that perforating fins, increasing the number of tubes, and increasing the distance between neighboring tubes at the same fin area enhance the effectiveness.

• Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology
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• v.14 no.5
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• pp.537-546
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• 2000

The heat transfer characteristics of refrigerant-oil mixture for horizontal in-tube evaporator have been investigated experimentally. A smooth copper tube and a micro-fin tube with nominal 9.5 mm outer diameter and 1500 mm length were tested. For the pure refrigerant flow, the dependence of the axial heat transfer coefficient on quality was weak in the smooth tube, but in the micro-fin tube, the coefficients were 3 to 10 times greater as quality increases. Oil addition to pure refrigerant in the smooth tube altered the flow pattern dramatically at low mass fluxes, with a resultant enhancement of the wetting area by vigorous foaming. The heat transfer coefficients of the mixture for low and medium qualities were increased at low mass fluxes. In the micro-fin tube, however, the addition of oil deteriorates the local heat transfer performance for most of the quality range, except for low quality. The micro-fin tube consequently loses its advantage of high heat transfer performance for an oil fraction of 5%. Results are presented as plots of local heat transfer coefficient versus quality.

• Korean Journal of Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Engineering
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• v.17 no.10
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• pp.930-937
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• 2005

The objective of this study is to investigate the heat transfer performance of flat plate finned-tube heat exchangers with large fin pitch. In this study, twenty-two heat exchangers were tested with a variation of fin pitch, number of tube row, and tube alignment. The heat transfer coefficient decreased with a reduction of the fin pitch and an increase of the number of tube row. The staggered tube alignment improved heat transfer performance more than $10\%$ compared to the inline tube alignment. A heat transfer correlation was developed from the measured data for flat plate finned-tubes with large fin pitch. The correlation yielded good predictions of the measured data with mean deviations of $3.6\%\;and\;6.4\%$ for the inline and staggered tube alignment, respectively.