The Heat Transfer and Pressure Drop Characteristics of the Finned Tube Banks in Forced Convection (Effects of Fin Height on Heat Transfer Characteristics)

In recent years the requirement for the reduction of energy consumption has been increasing to solve the problems of global warming and the shortage of petroleum resources. For example, in the power generation field, as thermal power generation occupies 60% of the power generation demand, considerable improvement of thermal efficiency is required. This paper describes the heat transfer characteristics of finned tube banks used for the heat exchanger in thermal power generation that were clarified by testing serrated finned tube banks with different fin heights for improved higher heat transfer and conventional spiral finned tube banks with different fin height. Then an equation to predict the heat transfer coefficient which is necessary for the design of the heat exchanger was proposed. (C) 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.