Thermal and friction drop characteristic of heat exchangers with elliptical tubes and smooth fins

Abstract

Pressure drop and heat transfer are the most important parameters in compact heat exchanger. There is a lack of information in the literature about heat exchanger with elliptical tube. The objective of this work was the experimental characterization of compact heat exchangers models using elliptical tube with eccentricity of 0,5 and smooth fins. The Reynolds numbers and the spacing were varied and always inside laminar regime. The experiments were conducted in an open wind tunnel using sublimation of naphthalene and the heat and mass transfer analogy. As results, the average and local Nusselt number and friction factor for 36 models were obtained. Correlations for Colburn and friction factors were presented. This correlations were obtained for 200<Re<1500 and isothermal fins. These are the first correlations presented in the open literature covering a wider range of pitches. A baseline for future implementations of enhancement heat transfer techniques is presented.