Experimental study on heat transfer and pressure drop characteristics of four types of plate fin-and-tube heat exchanger surfaces

In this paper, air side heat transfer and pressure drop characteristics of twelve three-row plate fin-and-tube heat exchanger cores of four types of fin configurations have been experimentally investigated. The heat transfer and friction factor correlations for the twelve cores are provided in a wide range of Reynolds number. It is found that in the range of Reynolds number tested, the Nusselt number of the slotted fin surface is the largest and that of the plain plate fin is the lowest while the Nusselt numbers of two types of wavy fins are somewhere in between.