Experimental and Numerical Investigation of the Gas Side Heat Transfer and Pressure Drop of Finned Tubes—Part II: Numerical Analysis

Abstract

The heat transfer and pressure drop behavior of segmented circular and helical as well as solid finned tubes are investigated in a three-dimensional numerical study. The simulation is carried out using a finite volume method for calculating the steady-state temperature and flow field of the fluid as well as the temperature distribution of the tube material. For modeling the turbulence, the k-ε turbulence model based on the renormalization group theory (RNG) is used to resolve the near-wall treatment between adjacent fins. All simulations are performed in the Re range between 3500 ≤ Re ≤ 50,000. The influence of Reynolds number and fin geometry (segmented or solid and circular or helical) on the local and global averaged heat transfer and pressure drop was studied. A comparison between solid and segmented finned tube has shown that the heat transfer and pressure drop for the segmented finned tubes is higher. The numerical results are compared with experimental data.