Year: 2011
Type: dissertation
Abstract: An experimental investigation is performed to determine air side forced convective heat transfer and flow characteristics of wavy fin, serpentine, multi-port slab, crossflow microchannel heat exchanger. Experiments are conducted for 30 different operating conditions in single-phase air-to-ethylene glycol crossflow configuration. These operating conditions (752 < Re_a < 3165, and 23C < T_a,i < 46.5C) yield air side Nusselt number (Nu_a), and Colburn factor (j_a) of up to 8.4 and 0.009 respectively. The Nu_a and j_a obtained in these experiments are generally higher, and friction factor, f_a is generally lower than those found in the literature. Possible explanations for the apparent discrepancies are explored. A thorough uncertainty analysis is performed. Uncertainties in Nu_a, j_a, and friction factor f_a are approximately 4.8%, 5.2%, and 5.8% respectively. A large number of key heat exchanger performance parameters are also investigated in order to develop general correlations suitable for industrial applications and engineers.
Author: Faisal A. Siddiqui
Institution: University of Windsor
Language: English
Subfield: Mechanical Engineering
Field: Engineering
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2167023143