Effect of Airflow Non-Uniformities on the Thermal Performance of Water–Air Heat Exchangers—Experimental Study and Analysis

Mahmoud Khaled, Mostafa Mortada, Jalal Faraj, Khaled Chahine, Thierry Lemenand and Haitham S. Ramadan ()
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Mahmoud Khaled: Energy and Thermofluid Group, The International University of Beirut BIU, Beirut Campus, Beirut P.O. Box 146404, Lebanon
Mostafa Mortada: Energy and Thermo-Fluid Group, Lebanese International University LIU, Bekaa Campus, Bekaa 1801, Lebanon
Jalal Faraj: Energy and Thermofluid Group, The International University of Beirut BIU, Beirut Campus, Beirut P.O. Box 146404, Lebanon
Khaled Chahine: College of Engineering and Technology, American University of the Middle East, Kuwait
Thierry Lemenand: LARIS EA 7315, Polytech Angers, University of Angers, 49000 Angers, France
Haitham S. Ramadan: ISTHY, l’Institut International sur le Stockage de l’Hydrogène, 90400 Meroux-Moval, France

Energies, 2022, vol. 15, issue 21, 1-14

Abstract: The thermal performance of fin-and-tube heat exchangers (HX) is a crucial aspect in a multitude of applications and fields; several design and operational parameters influence this performance. This study focuses on the issue of flow maldistribution and its effect on the HX thermal performance. For this purpose, an experimental setup is designed and implemented to emulate the conditions under which an automotive heat exchanger operates in regard to the non-uniform upstream airflow velocity distribution over the HX surface. The setup allows obtaining various configurations of airflow velocity non-uniformity of some desired mean velocity and standard deviation. The experimental results reveal that a higher degree of non-uniformity (higher standard deviation of the velocity distribution) causes an increased deterioration of the HX thermal performance. For example, at a water flowrate of 200 L/h and a mean airflow velocity of 2 m/s, increasing the standard deviation from 0 to 2 m/s (i.e., moving from the lowest to highest degrees of non-uniformity) causes a total deterioration of 27% in the performance (3.78 to 2.75 kW, respectively), which can also be observed in the increased level of outlet water temperature (53.8 to 58.2 °C, respectively). The obtained results confirm the numerical results reported in the literature.

Keywords: heat exchanger; experimental setup; uniformity; velocity distribution; thermal performance (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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