Influence of Air Inlet Angle on Flow Characteristics of a Finned Oval-tube Heat Exchanger

Numerical simulation was conducted on the flow characteristics of a finned heat exchanger with two rows of oval tube using porous media model at following air inlet angles, such as 30°, 45°, 60° and 90°, respectively, and subsequently the simulation results were compared with experimental data, so as to analyze the effects of air inlet angle on the distribution of exchanger face velocity. Results show that within the test range of air inlet angle, the flow resistance loss of heat exchanger increases with reducing air inlet angle; the error Δp between calculation results and experimental data is less than 7% at different inlet angles of air; the most uniform flow distribution can be achieved when the inlet angle between two neighboring oval tubes is set to be 90°.