Numerical optimization of louvered fin heat exchanger with variable louver angles

Several studies of the louvered fin heat exchanger have already been done. Both experimental and numerical studies are available. Investigations to the optimal louver angle have been performed, many times in combination with other fin parameters such as louver pitch and fin thickness. Most studies assume a single louver angle for all the louvers in the heat exchanger. Hsieh and Jang [1] on the other hand studied the effect of a variable louver angle for 5 different cases with successively increasing or decreasing louver angles. Tube-fin interactions were not taken into account. In this study, a round tube and fin geometry with individually varying louver angles is analyzed. The thickness of the fin was neglected. Any interactions between the optimal louver angles and the fin thickness are hence not captured. A laminar and steady calculation was performed, with symmetric boundary conditions. For the Reynolds number on the hydraulic diameter (Re_Dh) of 535 that was studied, a Von Karman vortex street is present behind the last tube row of heat exchanger. The steady calculation is hence only an approximation of the reality, but is shown to give reasonable results. An ordinary kriging response surface model was used to explore the entire parameter space. Updates to the model were made on the basis of improving the Pareto front, visualizing the tradeoff between heat transfer and pressure drop. It is shown that the use of individually varying louver angles allows increasing the Colburn j factor by 1.3% for the same friction factor, with respect to the optimal uniform louvered fin configuration.