An Analytical and Empirical Study of Frost Accumulation Effects on Louvered -Fin, Microchannel Heat Exchangers

124 p.Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2006.A numerical model is developed to predict the time-varying performance of folded-louvered-fin, microchannel heat exchangers. The model utilizes the correlations developed from the experimental data and incorporates a sub-model for frost properties. The model successfully predicts the heat transfer performance of the heat exchangers studied, but its ability to predict the pressure-drop behavior needs further improvement. The model can be used to evaluate geometry effects on the frosting behavior of the louvered-fin, microchannel heat exchangers, and can be easily generalized to other applications with simultaneous heat and mass transfer.U of I OnlyRestricted to the U of I community idenfinitely during batch ingest of legacy ETD