Comparison Between Numerical and Experimental Gas Side Heat Transfer and Pressure Drop of a Tube Bank With Solid and Segmented Circular I-Fins

In the present work, a comparison between numerical and experimental gas side heat transfer and pressure drop for a tube bundle with solid and segmented circular finned tubes in a staggered arrangement is investigated. For the numerical simulations a three dimensional model of the finned tube are applied. Renormalization group theory (RNG) based k–ε turbulence model was used to calculate the turbulent flow. Experiments have been carried out to validate the numerical predictions. The numerical results for the Nu-number and pressure drop coefficient show a good agreement with the data from measurement. A comparison between solid and segmented finned tubes from the global calculation of the Nu-numbers within the analyzed Re-range shows an enhancement by applying segmented finned tubes rather than finned tubes with solid fins.