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Thermal hydraulic performance of 10 PPI aluminium foam as alternative for louvered fins in an HVAC heat exchanger.

Author(s) : JAEGER P. de, HUISSEUNE H., DE SCHAMPHELEIRE S., et al.

Type of article: Article

Summary

In this paper, two heat exchangers for an HVAC application are compared. The first one is a commercially available high quality louvered fin heat exchanger, while the second heat exchanger is a prototype inhouse made using 10 PPI open-cell aluminium foam. Heat transfer and pressure drop measurements were performed in a wind tunnel with free stream air velocities between 1.1 and 3.1 m/s. The comparison between both heat exchangers is done based on a well-defined performance evaluation criterion for foam. It is revealed that the heat exchangers have a similar performance at low air velocity (1.1 m/s), while the louvered fin heat exchanger performs slightly better at higher velocities. Furthermore, the influence of the contact resistance is studied based on literature. The pressed-fit foam heat exchanger experiences very high contributions of the contact resistance (up to 70% of the overall thermal resistance), while for the louvered fin heat exchanger this contribution is much smaller (up to 11.1%), due to the presence of a fin collar. When comparing the airside convective resistance only, the foam heat exchanger performs better at high velocity range (2.5-3.1 m/s). The influence of changing the bonding technology is also assessed. It is demonstrated that a hypothetical brazed metal foam coil should have a same performance than the louvered fin unit at a low velocity range (1.1-2.5 m/s).

Details

  • Original title: Thermal hydraulic performance of 10 PPI aluminium foam as alternative for louvered fins in an HVAC heat exchanger.
  • Record ID : 30006876
  • Languages: English
  • Source: Applied Thermal Engineering - vol. 51 - n. 1-2
  • Publication date: 2013/03
  • DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.applthermaleng.2012.09.027

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