A porosity model for flow resistance calculation of heat exchanger with louvered fins

A full 3-dimensional flow simulation of a louvered fin heat exchanger assembly requires a huge number of grid points and enormous computing time. This work proposes a porous media model for the flow resistance calculation of the louvered fin side in order to efficiently simulate a complex 3-dimensional flow over the louvered fins. In the present model, we determine the permeability and Ergun constant in the modified Darcy equation. We first build up a database of the friction factor from the available experimental data and our own CFD data, and then develop the friction factor correlation in the range of the Reynolds number based on the louver pitch from 0.001 to 20000 for 14 different louvered fin types. We use the non-linear and multi-linear regression analyses to obtain the friction factor correlation as a function of louvered fin geometric parameters such as louver pitch, louver angle and fin pitch. The present friction factor correlation shows an excellent agreement with the previous experimental and CFD data. The modified Darcy equation with the proposed permeability and Ergun constant for the louvered fin side can easily be coupled with the 3-dimentional computation of the main tube flow.