Experimental study on the influence of the air maldistribution on the performance of a finned tube condenser.

In this work, an experimental analysis of the effects of the non-uniform air distribution on the performance of a finned tube condenser is presented. By using a suitably designed device for producing artificially an irregular air distribution at the condenser inlet, the effects of two different velocity profiles have been analyzed. In order to isolate the effect of the air maldistribution, the experimental campaign has been carried out maintaining constant the refrigerant inlet conditions and the mean value of the air velocity (2.5 m/s). The analysis is furthermore supported by the visualization of the wall temperature profile along the condenser by means of thermography and temperature sensors. The results show how the thermal capacity undergoes only slight changes, while the condensation temperature increases depending on the area of the heat exchanger where the heat rejection is penalized by the air maldistribution.