Thermal and Fluid Dynamic Simulation of Automotive Fin-and-Tube Heat Exchangers, Part 2: Experimental Comparison

摘要

A detailed model for the simulation of automotive fin-and-tube heat exchangers previously developed by the authors (Part 1) has been experimentally validated for a wide range of geometries and boundary conditions. Some of this experimental information was collected in an academic testing unit, while a second group of experiments was conducted in the experimental set-up of an industrial partner. The data cover a wide range of operational conditions and analyze the effect of most influential geometric parameters. The paper presents the experimental units and shows the comparison between numerical predictions and experimental values. The numerical calculations have been carried out using the most suitable available air-side heat transfer and friction correlations. Although the comparison is reasonably accurate, the deviations appearing among the predictions using different correlations indicate that further research work is still necessary to describe in a more accurate way the fundamental behavior of the louver fin geometry.