Thermal and Hydraulic Performance Analysis of Rectangular Fin Arrays with Perforation Size and Number

Enhancement of heat removal and reduction of fin size become a major concern in designing heat exchanger equipment. The present paper reports an experimental analysis to investigate the turbulent heat transfer performance of rectangular fin arrays, both solid and circular perforations along the length of the fins. The size and number of circular perforation have been varied. Tests have been conducted in a horizontal wind tunnel equipped with forced draft fan. The data are obtained by varying flow velocities while maintaining constant heat input and taken over a period of time. The Reynolds number is varied between 6 × 104 through 25 × 104. The heat loss due to radiation and convection is taken into account during calculation. Thermal performances and effectiveness of perforation and equivalent surface solid fin arrays have been evaluated and compared. Results show remarkable heat transfer enhancement, lower thermal resistances, pressure drop and higher efficiencies, effectiveness for perforated fins with increasing number of perforations in addition to the considerable reduction in weight in comparison with solid fin arrays.