A comparison of the airside performance of the fin-and-tube heat exchangers in wet conditions; with and without hydrophilic coating

An experimental study was performed on compact fin-and-tube heat exchangers in wet conditions. Airside performance for both hydrophilic coated and un-coated surface is examined. It is found that the effect of inlet relative humidity on the heat transfer performance is small. For un-coated surfaces, the effect of inlet relative humidity has a pronounced effect on pressure drops. It is likely that this phenomenon is related to the condensate flow pattern along the fin surface. The heat transfer performance for the hydrophilic coating surface is lower than the corresponding un-coated surface tested at the same wet condition. Further, the degradation of heat transfer performance may be up to 20% for fin pitches of 1.2 mm. The pressure drops for the hydrophilic coated surface are also lower than the corresponding un-coated surfaces. A maximum 40% reduction is observed for plain fin geometry. The effect of inlet condition on frictional performance is more pronounced in the enhanced slit geometry. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.