Thermal performance of louvered fin-tube heat exchanger under frosting condition.

The present study predicted and verified local frost thicknesses, blockage ratio (BR), heat transfer rates of louvered fin-tube heat exchanger under both standard frosting condition (SFC) (ISO 5151, 1994) and high frosting condition (HFC). Local frost properties were predicted by applying segment by segment method for each segment with 10 fins. Reduction of air volume flow rate and locally different air velocity were obtained by applying curve and the maximum frost thickness. The heat transfer rate for each segment was predicted by using ε-NTU method. The predicted maximum frost thicknesses for the SFC case showed the deviation of average 4% from the measured values. The predicted total heat transfer rate agreed with the measured data within 10%. Non-uniform profiles of local frost thickness of louvered fin0tube heat exchanger under frosting condition were property predicted. Predicted BRs were agreed with the measured data within 7%.