The optimal arrangement of vortex generators for best heat transfer enhancement in flat-tube-fin heat exchanger

The interaction of longitudinal vortices decreases the intensity of longitudinal vortices and inevitably affects the heat transfer performance of heat exchangers. In this paper, the effects of transverse distance of vortex generators (VGs) on the interaction of longitudinal vortices and the heat transfer performance are quantitatively studied. The increments of longitudinal vortex intensity, Nusselt number and friction factor resulted from the application of VGs are discussed in detail. The results show that the transverse distance of VGs obviously affects the interaction of longitudinal vortices, the heat transfer enhancement and the pressure loss characteristics of the heat exchanger. The interaction of co-rotating longitudinal vortices generated by VGs around the same tube is less affected by the transverse distance of VGs. While the interaction of counter-rotating longitudinal vortices generated by VGs around different tubes is closely related to the transverse distance of VGs. The interaction between counter-rotating longitudinal vortices plays a dominant role in the interaction process of longitudinal vortices. Optimal transverse distance of VGs exists for best heat transfer performance of the heat exchanger. Meanwhile, the transverse distance which leads to the worst heat transfer performance is also reported. For the largest Reynolds number studied in this paper, the maximum differences in the increments of intensity of longitudinal vortices, Nusselt number and friction factor for different transverse distance of VGs are 34.0%, 33.9% and 18.5%, respectively.