Heat Transfer and Friction Correlations for Wavy Plate Fin-and-Tube Heat Exchangers

Abstract

This paper deals with heat exchangers having plate fins of herringbone wave configuration. Correlations are developed to predict the air-side heat transfer coefficient and friction factor as a function of flow conditions and geometric variables of the heat exchanger. Correlations are provided for both staggered and in-line arrays of circular tubes. A multiple regression technique was used to correlate 41 wavy fin geometries by Beecher and Fagan (1987), Wang et al. (1995), and Beecher (1968). For the staggered layout, 92 percent of the heat transfer data are correlated within ±10 percent and 91 percent of the friction data are correlated within ±15 percent.