An investigation of the airside performance of the slit fin-and-tube heat exchangers

The airside performance of fin-and-tube heat exchangers having slit geometry is experimentally investigated in this study. A total of 12 samples were tested and compared. Effects of fin pitch and the number of tube row were examined. The test results indicated that the heat transfer performance increase with decrease of fin pitch for N = 1. However, for N greater than or equal to 4, the effect of fin pitch on the heat transfer performance is reversed. In addition to the effect of fin pitch, the heat transfer performance decrease with increase of the number of tube row and the friction factors are relatively independent of the number of tube row. Based on the present test results and those from previous investigations, a general correlation is proposed to describe the airside performance of the slit fin configuration, the mean deviations of the proposed heat transfer and friction correlation are 5.5 and 3.8%, respectively. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd and IIR. All rights reserved.