Experimental Investigation of Heat Transfer Enhancement in Fin and Tube Heat Exchanger with Wire Turbulators

This work presents an experimental analysis of cylindrical copper wire vortex generator on the fin-and-tube heat exchanger. In this study, three different arrangement of heat exchanger are tested. In first case the heat exchanger without wire turbulators. In second case the heat exchanger with wire turbulators of diameter 0.2mm and third case, wire turbulators of diameter 0.5mm diameter. The heat transfer coefficient (h), the pressure drop of the air side, friction factor (f) against air velocity (0.5–1 m/s) and Reynolds number (7000–15000) have been discussed. The results shows that the heat transfer coefficient shows 18.4% increment in case of wire turbulators of 0.2mm diameter as compared to heat transfer coefficient without wire turbulators. Whereas it shows 26.52% of increment of heat transfer coefficient in case of wire turbulators of 0.5mm diameter as compared to heat transfer coefficient without wire turbulators. Whereas friction factor f and colburn factor j for heat exchanger with 0.2mm diameter turbulators to heat exchanger without turbulators increases about 12.08% and 15.68% respectively. In addition, friction factor f and colburn factor j for heat exchanger with 0.5mm diameter turbulators to without turbulators increases about 15.57% and 22.54% respectively. In summary, this study strongly suggests heat transfer coefficient with wire turbulators applied to the fin and tube heat exchanger is found to be more as compared to the heat exchanger without wire turbulators. Pressure drop for heat exchanger with 0.2mm and 0.5mm diameter turbulators as compared to heat exchanger without turbulators increases by 21.3% and 35.62% respectively.