Estudo experimental do desempenho de uma nova geometria de tubos para evaporadores de túneis de congelamento

Abstract

This study presents an analysis of hydraulic performance of the air side for a new tube geometry of evaporators used in freezing tunnel. These evaporators are heat exchangers with finned tubes and air in cross flow. The new geometry consists in a wing profile tube that is tested and compared to circular tubes, which are already studied and with available results in literature. The objective of this work is determining experimentally the pressure drop for both geometries, comparing the results and pointing out the geometry that shows the best features for pressure drop. A comprehensive literature review is also presented and it focuses on studies concerning the effects of several parameters in these heat exchangers performance, including tube geometry. Several results have shown that elliptical tubes have better thermal performance and lower pressure drop when compared to the conventional circular tube. A review of the procedures calculation for fin-tube heat exchangers pressure drop is shown. For the evaporators tested, the spacing between tubes and fins, was kept constant by varying only the tube geometry and the fins were flat. The tests were carried out in a wind tunnel, built in accordance with ANSI/ASHRAE 51-1999. A fan generates an air flow that passes through the finned coil and a nozzle plate. For different air velocities and the pressure drop in the heat exchanger, input and output average air temperature, the velocity and flow of the air were registered. The results showed the dependence on the air velocity and that wing profile tubes have better hydraulic performance than circular tubes. An average reduction of 26% for pressure drop and 16% for friction factor for wing tubes were obtained in comparison to circular tubes, in tests in the regimes from laminar to transition flow. An analysis of ventilation power showed the advantage of wing tubes, and the evaluation of a real situation, on a freezing tunnel, the wing tubes show an average reduction of 12,87 % for total ventilation power when compared with circular tubes. The theoretical models are important tools for designing the evaporator, and in this study some correlations were evaluated to prediction of the air flow friction factor and were compared to experimental results. The Gray and Webb correlation (1986) presented the best fit, with 15% of average error and the dispersion between the measured and calculate values was 31% for circular tubes and 50% for wing tubes.