Application of lévêque analogy to offset strip-fin surfaces for prediction of heat transfer characteristics

Offset strip fins are used in Compact Heat Exchangers. A new technique for the prediction of heat transfer characteristics of these surfaces has been established. The method utilizes an analogy between heat and momentum transfer proposed for short thermally developing laminar flow. The present work exploits the intuition that the analogy can be utilized for any repeated flow structure with heat transfer from surfaces that are also repetitive in array. In the offset strip fin geometry, the original form of this analogy shows a constant bias, which depends on the fin geometry. This leads to the incorporation of the fin geometrical parameters to a new analogy equation resulting in a generalized form of equation for the entire range of offset strip fins. The results clearly indicate that the heat transfer characteristics of offset strip fin surfaces could be predicted by measuring pressure drop across them alone. © 2006 R.T. Edwards, Inc.