Investigation of material efficient fin patterns for cost-effective operation of fin and tube heat exchanger

Design management of a thermal energy system is a critical part of identifying basic designs that meet large scale user demand under certain operating characteristics. Fin and tube heat exchangers are among the most commonly used thermal energy systems which are generating considerable interest in terms of advanced design development trends. Sufficient performance data with different fin designs can help to achieve a cost-effective operation. The aim of present work is to examine three material efficient fin patterns, namely- rectangular, polynomial and sinusoidal in an application specific fin and tube heat exchanger. Computational fluid dynamic models of fin and tube heat exchanger with different fin patterns are developed to investigate the fin pattern behavior on heat transfer and pressure loss performance data. In addition, the numerical results are utilized to analyze the engineering design scale-up heat exchanger configurations with each fin pattern focusing on the application of chosen fin and tube heat exchanger in marine exhaust gas boiler. The analysis highlights the impact of material efficient fin patterns investigated and predicts that the polynomial and sinusoidal fin patterns in fin and tube heat exchanger furnish auxiliary beneficial outcomes by up to 2% and 4% improvement in performance and weight reduction, respectively, in comparison to conventional rectangular fin. The study demonstrates, contextualizes and communicates the advantages of structural and material efficient fin designs in conjunction with energy efficiency and environmental benefits from large-scale applications.