Journal of Emerging Trends in Engineering and Applied Sciences: Research Areas

Article Title: Experimental Comparison of the Thermal Effectiveness of Hybrid-Finned and Single-Finned Air-Cooled Condensers
by Ayodeji, O. Z.; Akinola, A. O. and Fapetu, O. P

Abstract:
Overheating in thermal systems causes malfunctioning, graphitization, rupture, and eventual system failure. This has encouraged research work in enhancing heat exchange rate of engineering systems via the use of passive, active or combined active-passive technique. Albeit, optimum heat exchange enhancement technique is yet to be ascertained in literature. This work focuses on improvement of heat exchange rate, evaluating and comparing the thermal effectiveness of hybrid-finned and single-finned air-cooled condensers to optimize thermal dissipation and system efficiency. Dissimilar finshapes\hybridizations of fin array constitute the hybrid-finned structures of the air-cooled condensers while individual shapes of fin are used for the single-finned condensers. Six (6) sets of hybrid-finned air-cooled condensers considered for study were developed from three different fins geometrical (circular, triangular and square) shapes. Findings showed that triangular-square-hybrid-finned has the most thermal effectiveness of 1.0 and circular- single-finned (the conventional) air-cooled condenser has the least of 0.44.It is concluded that hybridization of extended surfaces is another passive method of augmenting the heat transfer rate of heat exchangers. This work has opened up a potential impact for improving the performance of other HVAC equipment.

Keywords: condenser, fin shapes augmentation technique, hybrid, efficiency, effectiveness

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