Frost behavior of a louvered fin heat exchanger with vortex-generating fins

•Frost growth in louvered fin heat exchange with vortex-generating fins was observed.•Thermal performance was enhanced by utilizing vortex generators under dry condition.•Vortex generator improves the frost uniformity in the louvered fin heat exchanger.•Thermal performance decrease over time is slowed down by utilizing vortex generator. A heat exchanger with vortex-generating fins at the center of each louver was manufactured. Through 3D computational analysis, we analyzed the air flow characteristics and the fin temperature in the heat exchanger under dry conditions. In addition, we conducted an experiment for observing frost behavior and variation in thermal performance of the louvered fin heat exchanger. The fins generated vortexes and increased the length of air flow, which improved the dry condition thermal performance by 12%. The vortex-generating fins reduced the blockage ratio of frost at the louvers of the head part and improved the frost uniformity of the front and rear sides of the heat exchanger, increasing the usability of the rear louver. Therefore, the decrease in the heat transfer rate of the heat exchanger with vortex-generating fins over time by frost formation was smaller than that of the conventional heat exchanger, and the heat transfer performance was improved by at least 28%.