Heat-exchanger performance: Effect of orientation

C.W. Leung and S.D. Probert

Applied Energy, 1989, vol. 33, issue 4, 235-252

Abstract: For an extended-surface natural-convective type heat-exchanger in air, with its base at up to 40°C above the temperature of the ambient environment, the steady-state heat-transfer performances of the three most commonly employed orientations of the rectangular fins and base (namely vertical fins perpendicular to a vertical base, or protruding vertically upwards from a horizontal base, or horizontal fins attached to a vertical base) have been considered. The latter configuration is of no practical interest for the intended purpose because of its relatively inferior heat-transfer capabilities. If an optimal inter-fin separation of approximately 10 mm is adopted, all other conditions remaining invariant, a higher heat-transfer rate per unit base area is usually achieved from the array of fins when they are attached orthogonally to the vertical, rather than the horizontal, base; but this is not unequivocally so! More than 300 sets of experimental data, obtained from several different arrays of vertical rectangular highly polished duralumin fins protruding orthogonally either from a vertical, or upwards from a horizontal, rectangular highly polished duralumin base were assessed. The non-dimensional data correlations that emerged enable the average coefficient for heat-transfer from a finned surface to the ambient environment, for all the finned surfaces in these two types of configuration, to be easily predicted.

Date: 1989
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0306-2619(89)90057-3
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:appene:v:33:y:1989:i:4:p:235-252

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/405891/bibliographic
http://www.elsevier. ... 405891/bibliographic

Access Statistics for this article

Applied Energy is currently edited by J. Yan

More articles in Applied Energy from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().