Experimental study of the air side performance of louver and wave fin-and-tube coils

The present paper reports results from an investigation of the air side thermal performance of fin-and-tube coils with herringbone-wavy and convex-louver fins. The tube diameter of the tested coils was 12.7 mm. Coils with different fin pitch and tube rows have been tested in order to determine their effect over the thermal performance. In addition, the performance of the convex-louver fins has been evaluated with respect to that of the wavy fins according to the Webb VG1 procedure. The collar diameter Reynolds number covered in the tests varied from 1000 to 6000, corresponding to face velocities of 1–6 m/s. It has been found that the fin pitch affects lightly the heat transfer coefficient, its value being incremented of the order of 10% by reducing the fin pitch from 3.17 mm to 1.81 mm. Opposite trends have been found for the friction factor of wavy and louver fins regarding the effect of the fin pitch. The thermal performance is not affected by the number of tube rows in either of the fin configurations in coils for more than two rows. One and two row coils present non-negligible differences either with respect to the Colburn or friction factors. It has been found that area reductions in louver with respect to wavy fins can attain values of the order of 30% for Reynolds number of the order of 1000 and fin pitch of 3.17 mm.