Heat Transfer and Friction Characteristics of an Adapted Inclined Louvered Fin Available to Purchase

A fin-and-tube evaporator of a commercially available air conditioning unit was studied experimentally. To this end a test rig was constructed to measure the heat transfer capacity on the air and waterside of the evaporator. A wide range of Reynolds numbers on the air airside was investigated, focusing on the low Reynolds numbers, as modern air conditioning systems mainly operate in this region (low sound levels). The resulting data was used to determine the convective heat transfer correlation (expressed using the Colburn factor) and the friction factor on the airside. This evaporator was chosen for the fin type: an adaptation of the standard inclined louvered type. The found correlation is compared to the one published for standard louvered fins. A thorough error analysis was performed to validate the results.