Colburn ‘j’ Factor and Fanning Friction Factor ‘f’ Correlations of Triangular Plain Fin Surface of a Compact Heat Exchanger Using CFD

Abstract

This paper presents the heat transfer and friction coefficient correlations for triangular plain fin surfaces of plate fin compact heat exchanger. It will be prohibitively expensive and time consuming to fabricate heat exchanger cores and conduct experiments over reasonable ranges of all the geometric variables. In contrast, it is relatively easy and cost effective to carry out a parametric study through numerical simulation and derive acceptable correlations for use in industry. A numerical model has been developed for the triangular plain fin of plate fin heat exchanger. The CFD analysis is carried out using FLUENT 12.1, Colburn factor j and fanning friction factor f are calculated for different Reynolds numbers. These values are compared with the available literature data of j and f factors. The correlations have been expressed in terms of two separate equations over the low and high Re regions along with dimensionless geometric parameters.