Optimization of a louvered fin heat exchanger with individually variable louver angles

Abstract

Paper presented at the 9th International Conference on Heat Transfer, Fluid Mechanics and Thermodynamics, Malta, 16-18 July, 2012.

In this study, a round tube and fin geometry with individually varying louver angles is analyzed. The thickness of the fin was neglected. Any interactions between the optimal louver angles and the fin thickness are hence not captured. A laminar and steady calculation was performed, with symmetric boundary conditions. For the Reynolds number on the hydraulic diameter (ReDh) of 535 that was studied, a Von Karman vortex street is present behind the last tube row of heat exchanger. The steady calculation is hence only an approximation of the reality, but is shown to give reasonable results. An ordinary kriging response surface model was used to explore the entire parameter space. Updates to the model were made on the basis of improving the Pareto front, visualizing the tradeoff between heat transfer and pressure drop. It is shown that the use of individually varying louver angles allows increasing the Colburn j factor by 1.3% for the same friction factor, with respect to the optimal uniform louvered fin configuration.