• Korean Journal of Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Engineering
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• v.15 no.10
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• pp.802-808
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• 2003

The air-side particulate fouling of the HVAC heat exchangers degrades the performance of cooling capacity, pressure drop across a heat exchanger, and indoor air quality. The purpose of this study is to investigate the fouling characteristics using accelerated particle loading system. The fouling characteristics are analyzed as functions of a dust concentration, a face velocity and a wet or dry surface condition. The pressure drop increases with increasing test operation and reaches constant asymptotic level. For the saturated condition due to particle loading, the pressure drop across the slitted finned-tube heat exchangers at the face velocity of 1 m/sec increases up to 57% and the cooling capacity decreases about 2%. The cooling capacities are not affected greatly by the presence of the fouling deposits if the thickness of the fouling deposits can not change substantially the flow pattern through the fins.

• Journal of computational fluids engineering
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.82-88
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• 1998

As a par of a project related to the development of the design algorithm of a compact heat exchanger for the application of the electronic home appliances, the effect of the discreteness of the airflow boundary generated on the cooling fin surface on the heat transfer and pressure drop characteristics of the heat exchanger was studied numerically. In general, there are two critical design parameters seriously considered in the design of the heat exchanger; heat transfer rate(Q) and pressure drop coefficient(C/sub p/). Even though the higher heat transfer rate with lower pressure drop characteristics is required in a design of the heat exchanger, it is not an easy job to satisfy both conditions at the same time because these two parameters are phenomenally inversely proportional. To control the boundary layer thickness and its length along the streamline, the surface of the flat fin was modified to accelerate the heat transfer rate on the fin surface. To understand the effect of the discreted fin size(S/sub w/) and its location(S/sub h/) on the performance of the heat exchanger in the airflow field, the flat fin was modified as shown in Fig. 1. From this study, it was found that the smaller and more number of slits on the fin surface showed the higher energy diffusion rate. It means that the discreteness of the boundary layer is quite important on the heat transfer rate of the heat exchanger. On the other hand, if the fin surface configuration is very complex than needed, higher static pressure drop occurs than required in a system and it may be a reason of the induced aerodynamic noise in the heat exchanger.