Effect of vapor velocity during condensation on horizontal finned tubes

Abstract

Heat-transfer measurements were made for condensation of R-113 and steam on a smooth tube and on three finned tubes with rectangular shape fins. These tubes had a fin height and width of 1.0 mm and spacings of 0.25, 1.5, and 4.0 mm (tubes A, B, and C respectively) . Data were taken by increasing the vapor velocity from 0.4 to 1.9 m/s for R-113 and 4.8 to 31.3 m/s for steam. For both fluids, the improvement of the condensing heat-transfer coefficient with vapor velocity was smaller for the finned tubes than for the smooth tube. For R-113, the smooth tube experienced a 32 percent improvement with vapor velocity, where the finned tubes (tubes A, B and C respectively) experienced improvements of only 0, 5 and 10 percent. For steam, the smooth tube experienced a 62 percent improvement, whereas the finned tubes (tubes A, B, and C respectively) experienced improvements of only 31, 11, and 9 percent. These test results show that, although finned tubes can provide significant heat transfer enhancement over smooth tubes at low vapor velocities, the degree of enhancement becomes smaller as vapor velocity increases.