Evaluation of fin efficiency and heat transfer coefficient on the heat exchanger having plate fins

This study discussed the estimation of the pure-heat transfer coefficient and fin efficiency in the heat exchanger. A new definition of the fin efficiency is suggested, which is applicable to the heat exchanger. More than one hundred cases of plate fins having uniform and non-uniform heat transfer coefficients were tested numerically. The conventional model for the fin efficiency was only useful at low NTU and gave several ten percents errors at high NTU and low fin efficiency. The present model could estimate the pure-heat transfer coefficient within few percent at 0 less than or equal to NTU < 2.5, 0.5 < mL < 2.