TY - JOUR
TI - Fanning friction (f) and colburn (j) factors of a louvered fin and flat tube compact heat exchanger
AU - Karthik Pooranachandran
AU - Kumaresan Vellaisamy
AU - Velraj Ramalingam
JN - Thermal Science
PY - 2017
VL - 21
IS - 1
SP - 141
EP - 150
PT - Article
AB - In the present study, the heat transfer and pressure drop characteristics of  air over the louvered fins in a compact heat exchanger, used as a radiator  in the automobiles have been experimentally investigated. The experiments  were conducted at various flow rates of air and the results showed a  decrease in goodness factor of 22.7% with respect to increase in Reynolds  number from 231 to 495. The experimental results were compared with the CFD  results and the ‘f’ and ‘j’ factors from the CFD analysis are in good  agreement with the experimental data. Also, the experimental ‘f’ and ‘j’  factors were compared with the predicted values from the available  correlations in the literature for the louvered fin and tube compact heat  exchangers. The large deviation of the predicted results revealed that the  correlations are not reliable for the design of the compact heat exchanger.  Hence, the CFD analysis is more advantageous for the optimal design of  compact heat exchanger, which also reduces the experimentation time and  cost.