Performance evaluation of air-cooled heat exchangers

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The main objective of this study to determine the air-side heat transfer and pressure dropperformance characteristics of commercially available round and elliptical fined tubes. A . computer code to compare the performance of industrial forced and induced draught aircooledheat exchangers (henceforth referred to as f\CHE's) commonly found in the petrochemicalindustry is also developed. The comparison is extended to include both round andelliptical finned tubes.From the tests conducted, it is found that there is generally an increase in the heat transferparameter with a decrease in the fin pitch. The decrease in the fin pitch however also resultsin an increase in the pressure drop across the tube bundle. The performance of the tubes iscompared with round reference tubes having circular or plate fins for which performancecorrelations are available in the literature. The fan power required by an induced draught aircooledheat exchanger is found to be higher than that required by a forced draught heatexchanger rejecting the same amount of heat.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University