Abstract
This paper concerns the development of a new plate-fin type evaporator and its heat transfer performance. This evaporator is characterized by the tank section at one side alone and 180-degree turn refrigerant path in each tube.
Experiments were conducted to determine the most suitable shape at the turn section for evaporative heat transfer performance. Some kinds of plate with V-shaped rib and X-shaped rib were manufactured by trial, then cooling performance and tube wall temperature distributions were measured. In addition, the refrigerant behavior in the tube was observed by the flow visualizing equipment.
As a result, it was found that evaporative heat transfer performance of the tube with X-shaped rib is superior to the tube with V-shaped rib, and the optimum turn clearance for heat transfer exists in the tube with X-shaped rib. The target of 15 % improved performance compared with the serpentine type and 8 % improved performance compared with the conventional plate-fin type was attained.
