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The density of heat transfer rate from a vertical array of flat tubes in cross flow is maximized under fixed pressure drop using constructal design. With the constructal design, the tube arrangement is found such that the heat currents from the tubes to the coolant flow easily. The constraint in the present constructal design is the volume where the tubes are arranged inside it. The two degrees of freedom available inside the volume are the tube‐to‐tube spacing and the length of the flat part of the tubes (tube flatness). The tubes are heated with constant surface temperature. The equations of continuity, momentums, and energy for steady, two‐dimensional, and laminar forced convection are solved by means of a finite‐volume method. The ranges of the present study are Bejan number (dimensionless pressure drop) (103 ≤ Be ≤ 105) and tube flatness (dimensionless length of the tube flat part) (0 ≤ F ≤ 0.8). The coolant used is air with Prandtl number (Pr = 0.72). The results reveal that the maximum heat transfer density decreases when the tube flatness decreases at constant Bejan number. At constant tube flatness, the heat transfer density increases as the dimensionless pressure drop (Bejan number) increases. Also, the optimal tube‐to‐tube spacing is constant, irrespective of the tube flatness at constant Bejan number. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The heat transfer density rate from a row of rhombic tubes cooled by forced convection is maximized based on constructal design. A row of parallel rhombic tubes are placed in a fixed volume, the horizontal axis of the tubes is kept constant while the vertical axis of the tubes and the spacing between the tubes are changed to facilitate the heat flow from the tubes to the coolant. The tubes are kept at constant temperature and the incoming free‐stream flow is induced by constant pressure drop. For steady, two‐dimensional, incompressible, and laminar forced convection, the governing equations are solved numerically by finite volume method with SIMPLE algorithm. The dimensionless pressure drop (Bejan number, Be) ranging from 10 3 to 10 5, the range of the vertical axis of the tube is 0.2 ≤ B ≤ 2, and the working fluid is air (Pr = 0.71). The results show that the optimal spacing decreases and the maximum heat transfer density increases as the Bejan number increases for all vertical axes of the tube. Bejan number and the bluntness of the tube have a significant effect of the flow structure (separation and vortex formation) around the tubes at the optimal spacings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Heat transfer coefficients and pressure drop are studied experimentally for airflow over aligned round and flattened tube configurations. The Reynolds number is based on the outer diameter of the round tube or the outside transverse diameter of the flattened tube, which is used for various flows, ranging from 133 to 800 with a constant input heat flux. In the present work, a total of 30 samples of round and flattened tubes heat exchangers with three transverse pitches, 2.0, 3.0, and 4.5, were studied to investigate their thermal performance. The results indicate that the relative gain in the overall Nusselt number is about 32.5 to 60.6% in flattened tubes, while the reduction range in the friction factor is about 11 to 30.6%. Correlations are proposed for the overall Nusselt number, friction factor, and Colburn j–factor for both round and flattened tube banks. A higher value means that a deviation error of 9.9% in the round tube banks and 10.1% in the flattened tube banks are expected. In addition, the best value for thermal performance for the flattened tube bundle was found to be coincident with a smaller Reynolds number. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]