Author:Azize AKKOCA, Beşir ŞAHİN, Mustafa TUTAR “

Publishing Date: 2005

E-ISSN: 2147-9364

Volume 20 Issue 4

ABSTRACT:

In the present study, effects of wall functions available in the Fluent software on the fluid flow and heat transfer characteristics of a plate fin and tube heat exchanger are investigated in the range of 500≤ Re ≤ 6000 for a non-dimensional fin spacing of F_s=233.0 and the results are compared with experimental data. As it is well-known, wall functions are used to bridge the viscosity-affected region between the wall and the fully turbulent region in the flow domain. Both Standard k-ε and RNG k-ε turbulence models are employed in order to predict the flow and heat transfer characteristics inside the flow passage of the plate fin and tube heat exchanger comprised of four-row of staggered tube layout with wavy fin configuration. The test heat exchanger model is selected from the experimental work exists in the literature and the best wall function that has close agreement with the experimental data is chosen as Enhanced Wall Treatment.

Key Words: Turbulence models; wall functions; plate fin and tube heat exchangers

Full Text