Heat Transfer and Friction Performance of Plate Fin and Tube Heat Exchangers at Low Reynolds Numbers : 1st Report, Characteristics of Single-Row

Abstract

The heat transfer and friction performance of single row plate fin and tube heat exchangers which are mainly used in air conditioners was obtained at low Reynolds numbers ranging from 70 to 700. The fin spacing, tube spacing and other geometric parameters were varied systematically in the experiments. The experimental results suggested that the flow was in the regime of boundary layer development. By using the newly determined characteristic length and velocity, the experimental data were correleted and dimensionless equations of the heat transfer coefficient and friction factor were obtained.