Taylor 2004
Four plain plate-fin water coils in a wind tunnel, against Wang et al. (2000)
Tier 2: measurement on a controlled rig.
- What was compared
- The air-side Colburn and friction factors of the relations of Wang et al. (2000) on four plain plate-fin-and-tube water coils of two and four rows at 12 and 21 fins per inch, and the heat transfer rate and conductance of one two-row coil rated end to end at a measured test point.
- Against
- Wind-tunnel calorimeter measurements on commercially made coils by Taylor (2004, Figures 5.1 and 5.2, Appendix I), digitised, with a stated uncertainty of 11% on the Colburn factor and 5% on the friction factor; a measurement on a rig.
- The agreement
- Wang's relations deviate from the measurements by 8.4% on the Colburn factor and 11.1% on the friction factor, averaged over the four coils, and Taylor's own comparison (Table 6.3) is reproduced to within two points on the Colburn factor. At the measured test point the rated heat transfer rate is 13.4% and the conductance 24.4% above the measurement, and the conductance is 7.8% above it with the measured Colburn factor in place of Wang's.
- What it shows
- The case measures the accuracy of the plain-fin relations of Wang et al. (2000) inside their declared domain on coils that carry none of the relations' own data, and checks the coil rating of the dry cooler at one measured point. It tests the coil alone and says nothing about a dry cooler's fan, plenum or platform.
- Source
- C. Taylor, 'Measurement of finned-tube heat exchanger performance', MSc thesis, Georgia Institute of Technology, December 2004 (advisor S. V. Shelton)Tables 3.1 and 3.2 (coils), section IV (data reduction, Eqs. 4.3 and 4.4), Table 5.1 and section VII.A (uncertainty), Figures 5.1 and 5.2 (data), Tables 6.2 and 6.3 (the thesis's own comparison), Appendix I (the recorded test point of coil C, 10 May 2004)