Experimental and numerical investigation on heat transfer performance of a single-tube six-fin tube evaporator.

• The experimental research of 2-FTE and 6-FTE were developed. • The effect of the number of fins, the angle of the fins and the way the fins are connected to the tube on the performance of the fin evaporator has been studied. • The influence of different fin structures on the cooling capacity per unit mass is analyzed. • The influences of different fin structures on heat transfer coefficient and fin efficiency were analyzed. Tube evaporators are widely used in cold storage, the single-tube two-fin tube evaporator (2-FTE) has the problems of poor heat transfer performance and low tube utilization. In this paper, a numerical simulation method is used to optimize the structure of 2-FTE, and a single-tube six-fin tube evaporator (6-FTE) structure is designed to achieve an increase in the cooling capacity per unit mass of the tube and heat transfer efficiency. Based on this, the heat transfer performance test bench of the tube evaporator is constructed, and the heat transfer performance of 2-FTE and 6-FTE is compared and tested according to the evaluation indices of cooling capacity, fin efficiency and cooling rate in the test environment from −32 °C to −6 °C. The results show that 6-FTE saves between 10.6 and 17.1% of tube consumption compared to 2-FTE for the same cooling capacity. The cooling capacity per unit tube length of 6-FTE increased by 43.9–64.7%, the cooling rate increased by 28–41%, the overall fin efficiency increased by 3.5%, and the heat transfer performance was better than that of 2-FTE, which was consistent with the simulation conclusions and in line with optimization goals. Therefore, the 6 FTE structure proposed in this paper can be an effective solution to save the manufacturing costs of refrigeration equipment for cold storage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]