AC-11 Method Evaluation and Improvement for High-Finned Air-Cooled Heat Exchangers

Z. H. Yang

2002

HTRI conducted experimental studies of high-finned tube banks in the 1970s and again in 1997. More than 70 tube banks were tested under isothermal and non-isothermal conditions. Data were collected from the HTRI wind tunnel in Alhambra, California, USA, and the Hudson Products Corporation wind tunnel in Houston, Texas, USA. Using these data, HTRI evaluated and improved the heat transfer and pressure drop methods for high-finned tubes. The latest improvements, which were implemented in Xace^™ 1.0, provide a high level of accuracy in designing and rating air-cooled exchangers. This report reviews the experimental data, evaluates the methods, and contrasts the predictions of the methods in ACE with the new methods in Xace.