The Optimum Height of Winglet Vortex Generators Mounted on Three-Row Flat Tube Bank Fin

Abstract

Winglet vortex generators can be used to enhance the heat transfer performance of finned flat tube bank fin. The effects of the height of vortex generators (VG) on local heat transfer were studied using the naphthalene sublimation method and the optimum height of winglet VG are screened by using JF, a dimensionless factor of the larger the better characteristics. In order to get JF, the local heat transfer coefficient obtained in experiments and a numerical method were used to get the heat transferred from the fin. For the configurations studied in this paper: for local characteristic, as increasing height of VG, heat transfer is enhanced, but the mostly enhanced region moves away from the tube wall; with increasing height of VG to certain degree, the width of enhanced region does not increase significantly; the effects of VG’s height on span-average Nusselt number (Nu) are more mixed on fin surface mounted with VGs and its back surface, with increasing height of VG, in some region heat transfer is worsened, and in other region heat transfer is enhanced; in real working condition, the heat transferred from fin surface mounted with VGs is larger than the heat transferred from the other surface of the fin; increasing the height of VG (H) increases average Nu and friction factor (f ), but with considering the fin efficiency, there is an optimum H to get best heat transfer performance; the optimum height of VG is dependent on the thickness of fin and its heat conductivity, for mostly used fin thickness and material, the optimum height of VG is 0.8 times of net fin spacing.