A three-dimensional steady numerical analysis has been made for one unit of both of staggered and in-lined arrays of a two-row plate-finned tube heat exchanger. The structures of the flow and thermal fields have been examined for conduction-convection conjugate heat transfer problem of the studied fin-and-tube model. The results of the numericla analysis revealed some important effects of geometric parameters on heat transfer from the fin and tube surfaces for each array. The effects of fin thickness, fin pitch, fin length, tube pitch and Reynolds number on heat exchange efficiency, Nusselt number, total heat transfer rate and pressure coefficient are examined parametrically. Heat conduction inside the fin plays an important role in the studied oveall heat transfer from the refrigerant flowing in the two tubes to air flowing through the finned-tube. In the studied Reynolds number range, space mean Nusselt number and total heat transfer rate do not show big difference between the two arrays, but better heat transfer performance of the staggered array becomes noticeable either when Reynolds number or fin pitch is incrased. On e the contrary, pressure loss penalty obtained with the staggered array is larger than that obtained with the in-lined array.
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