A Study of the Application of Vortex Generators to Enhance the Air-Side Performance of Heat Exchangers

The effect of longitudinal vortex generation on heat transfer is evaluated for a full scale plain fin-and-tube compact heat exchanger operating in both dry and wet conditions. The heat exchanger tested is comparable to an evaporator in a residential air-conditioning system. For this study the baseline performance of the heat exchanger is determined then the heat exchanger is modified with the addition of 2100 delta-wing vortex generators. The performance is determined by a volume goodness factor for the dry operating conditions and the overall enthalpy transfer coefficient for wet operating conditions. A 10% improvement in the volume goodness factor was recorded for the dry tests and the wet tests showed an overall reduction in the overall enthalpy transfer coefficient. A comparison was then made using j and f correlations for other enhanced surfaces. From these tests the j/f value for the vortex generator enhanced surface is shown to be comparable to the other enhanced surfaces.Air Conditioning and Refrigeration Project 12