Influence of corrugated pattern on thermal and flow resistance in axially finned tube bundle

The heat exchanger transfers heat between two fluids, and they are one of the most important components in power plants, heating, ventilating, and air conditioning (HVAC), refrigeration, electronic components, airplanes, PV panels and other similar applications. Improving heat exchangers would contribute to energy efficiency while also lowering the price, volume, and weight of the devices. Tube bundles are extensively preferred in many applications due to better heat transfer and ease of cleaning. To increase thermal performance of these heat exchangers numerous changes have been carried out and one of them was to use axial fins. The performance of axially finned tube bundles is affected by many parameters including Reynolds number, transversal and longitudinal distance, fin length and so on. A numerical study was carried out in this study employing an axially corrugated finned tube bundle. For the numerical solution of the continuity, momentum, energy, and momentum equations ANSYS Fluent software was used. Initially, the findings of the current study for the bare tube bundle were compared with experimental data from the literature to validate numerical computations. Then corrugated fins were attached, and the computations performed for different Reynolds numbers, transversal and longitudinal distance. The results were presented in graphical forms. Moreover, velocity and temperature distributions were depicted for a given Reynolds number. The use of corrugated fins regenerated the boundary layer and resulted in thinner temperature gradients on the rear of the tubes and fins. As a result, the Nusselt number increased by 14.9% when compared to the plain fins for the studied geometry. Thus, enhancing the proposed design would contribute to the carbon reduction target of current policies in heat transfer devices.