SL-90-01-2 -- Air-Side Heat Transfer Correlations for Flat and Wavy Plate Fin-and-Tube Geometries ✓ Most Recent

Deals with heat exchangers having flat and wavy plate fins on a staggered array of circular tubes. Correlations are developed to predict the air-side heat transfer coefficient as a function of the flow conditions and geometric variables of the heat exchanger. A multiple regression technique was used with data for 20 wavy plate fin geometries and 7 flat plate fin geometries to develop the heat transfer correlations. The data correlated were recently published by Beecher and Fagan (1987). Shows that 98% of the data for flat plate fins are correlated plus or minus 5%, and 88% of the data for the wavy plate fins are correlated plus or minus 5%, with 96% of the data correlated plus or minus 10%.

KEYWORDS: heat exchangers, heat transfer coefficient, heat flow, flat plate heat exchangers, extended surfaces heat exchangers.