Volume 51

Experimental Study on Frost Characteristics of Variable Pitch Finned-Tube Heat Exchangers Sihan Hao, Zhao Yang, Jie Li

Abstract

The efficient use of energy and sustainable development is the eternal development theme of today’s era. Finned-tube heat exchangers are widely used in various systems, and the heat transfer efficiency and operating performance have an important impact on the energy consumption of the system. When finned-tube heat exchangers are running at low temperature, the phenomenon of surface frosting often occurs. The generation of frost layer will worsen the heat transfer performance, and defrosting also needs additional energy consumption, resulting in a waste of energy. This paper conducted an experimental study on the frosting characteristics of a finned-tube heat exchanger with variable fin spacing, built a test platform for the frosting performance of the finned tube heat exchanger, and analyzed the effects of air temperature, relative humidity and wind speed on the frosting characteristics of the finned-tube heat exchanger with variable fin spacing. The experimental results show that the increase of air temperature, relative humidity and wind speed will promote frost formation.

Keywords finned-tube heat exchanger, frost, heat and mass transfer