Experimental investigation of air side heat transfer and fluid flow performances of multi-port serpentine cross-flow mesochannel heat exchanger

Air side force convective heat transfer and flow characteristics of cross-flow mesochannel heat exchanger are investigated experimentally. A series of experiments representing 36 different operating conditions have been conducted on a finned mesochannel heat exchanger through the fully automated dynamic single-phase experimental facility which is capable of handling a wide variety of working fluids in air-to-liquid cross-flow orientation. The mesochannel heat exchanger is made of 15 aluminum slabs with arrays of wavy fins between slabs; 68 one millimeter circular diameter port located at each slab, and the air side frontal area of 304-mm × 304-mm. The ethylene glycol–water mixture as the working fluid in the liquid side was forced to flow through mesochannels maintaining constant inlet temperature and flow rate at 74 °C and 0.0345 kg/s respectively whereas the inlet flowing air into the arrays of wavy fins was changed at four different temperature levels from 28 °C to 43 °C. Frontal air velocity was altered in nine steps from 3 m/s to 11 m/s at each temperature level corresponding range of Reynolds number 752 < Rea < 3165. The air side heat transfer and flow characteristics of mesochannel heat exchanger were evaluated during air heating, and heat transfer and fluid flow correlations were derived accordingly. The air side Nusselt number (Nua) and Colburn factor (ja) were found higher in comparison with other studies.