International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 127 (2018) 359–380

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International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ijhmt

Review

Heat and mass transfer for compact heat exchanger (CHXs) design:
A state-of-the-art review
Muhammad Awais, Arafat A. Bhuiyan ⇑
Department of Mechanical and Chemical Engineering, Islamic University of Technology (IUT), Board Bazar, Gazipur-1704, Dhaka, Bangladesh

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: This review presents a comprehensive analysis on different ways of enhancing heat transfer rate and
Received 8 March 2018 pressure loss reduction in various types of compact heat exchangers (CHXs). The sole objective of this
Received in revised form 1 August 2018 study is to accumulate major thermodynamic features of CHXs presented by experimental and numerical
Accepted 7 August 2018
investigation for innovative designing purpose. The influence of fins and tubes spacing, geometry and
Available online 20 August 2018
shape on heat transfer performance are widely discussed. The effect of different fins types and their
pattern, height, pitch/spacing on heat transfer augmentation and pressure drop reduction is also
Keywords:
illustrated. Overall, this review will help researchers and academicians for designing modern and
Heat transfer enhancement
Compact Heat Exchangers (CHXs)
innovative compact heat exchangers with light size, moderate cost, augmented heat transfer character-
Fin spacing istics and pressure loss performance, and enhanced thermo-hydraulic features.
Waffle height Ó 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Colburn factor

Contents

1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 359
2. Techniques for enhancing heat transfer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 363
2.1. Passive technique . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 363
2.2. Active techniques . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 364
3. Applications of heat exchangers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 365
4. Different configurations of finned tube heat exchanger . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 365
5. Effect of fin spacing on heat transfer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 366
6. Influence of different number of tube rows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 369
7. Effects of fin and tube’s pattern and alignment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 371
8. Impact of different waffle height and fin thickness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 376
8.1. Effects of waffle heights and thickness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 376
8.2. Effects of fins and tube’s geometry and pattern . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 377
9. Concluding remarks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 378
Conflict of interest. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 378
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 378

1. Introduction
Heat exchanger (HX) is a heat transmission device that allows
heat transfer between two fluids which are at different tempera-
tures [1]. Heat transfer occurs from higher temperature fluid to
lower temperature fluid. In most heat related devices, heat transfer
⇑ Corresponding author.
E-mail address: arafat@iut-dhaka.edu (A.A. Bhuiyan).
surface separates two fluids which may vary with different types of
HXs. The classification of HX is based on their types of construc-
tion, flow arrangements, surface compactness, and transfer pro-
cess, pass arrangement, phase of fluids, and heat transfer
mechanism. Depending upon the flow arrangement, heat exchang-
ers can be parallel flow, counter flow, cross flow, cross- counter
flow etc. In parallel flow heat exchanger, flow direction of both
hot and cold fluid remains same while in counter flow heat
exchanger, flow direction of both fluid is reversed which yields

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijheatmasstransfer.2018.08.026
0017-9310/Ó 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
360 M. Awais, A.A. Bhuiyan / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 127 (2018) 359–380

Nomenclature

A area (m2) t, ft fin thickness (m)

Ao total surface area (m2) Vfr frontal velocity (m/s)
At external tube surface area (m2) Vh height of vortex generator, (mm)
Dc fin collar outside diameter (m) Vl length of vortex generator, (mm)
Do, df outside tube diameter (m) DP pressure drop (Pa)
di inside diameter of bare tube (mm)
f fanning friction factor Abbreviations
Fp, fs, F, H, Pf fin spacing or fin pitch (mm) AR Fins Aspect Ratio
Fh fin height (mm) CFU common flow up
h heat transfer coefficient (W/m. K) CFD common flow down
j Colburn factor DWLVGs Delta Winglet longitudinal vortex generators
j0 Colburn factor for baseline DWVGs delta winglet vortex generators
L wavy fin wavelength (mm) HX heat exchanger
Ld wavy fin length (mm) LVs longitudinal vortices
La louver angle (°) LCT liquid crystal thermography
Lh louver height (mm) LVGs longitudinal vortex generators
Lp louver pitch (mm) TLC thermo chromic liquid crystal
Nu Nusselt number TVGs transverse vortex generators
Nusa Nusselt number with span wise combination of top and TP triangular Prism
bottom plates VGs vortex generators
N Number of tube rows Y coordinate axis
Re Reynold number
ReDc Reynold number based on fin collar outside diameter Greek letters
St Stanton number d fin thickness (mm)
St0 Stanton number for baseline a attack of angle (°)
St transverse pitch (mm)
b area to volume ratio
Sl longitudinal pitch (mm)

better heat transfer performance [2]. According to the pass
arrangement classification of HX, the most common shell and tube
HX can be one shell pass and two tube passes or two shell passes
and four tube passes depending upon the industrial requirements.
The construction and performance features of different types of
heat exchanger [3–5] are documented in Table 1. It is seen from
table that there are various type CHXs such as Shell and tube heat
exchanger (STHXs), Plate and fin heat exchanger (PFHX), Spiral
plate heat exchangers (SPHX), Plate and frame heat exchangers
(PFHX), Printed circuit heat exchanger (PCHEs), Marbond Heat
Exchanger, Continuous smooth fins and circular tube HX, wavy fins
and circular tube HX, Continuous smooth fins and non-circular
tube HX etc. Among these, shell and tube heat exchanger (STHXs)
is widely used due to its flexibility and innovative design. But it
requires larger area to be placed and great amount of space during
removing baffles. PFHXs are preferred over extended surface HXs
due to its highly effective thermal performance which handles
multiple streams quite well. That’s why PFHXs are used in com-
pressor coolers, conditioning plant, and in others cryogenic appli-
cation. While considering the applications in chemical industries,
Fuel processing, Power and energy and refrigeration systems,
PCHEs are widely used. PCHEs are made of Stacks of plates of Stain-
less steel and titanium material bonded together through diffusion
in the pressure and temperature range is 300–500 bar and 200 °C
and 900 °C respectively.
An effective and efficient heat transfer is the fundamental
requirement in many industries where gas to gas and gas to liquid
heat transfer is involved. For the enhancement of convective heat
transfer rate three mechanisms can be considered as developing
boundary layer, swirl or vortices and flow disruption/destabiliza-
tion or turbulence intensification [6]. Heat exchangers (HXs) can
be named as a compact heat exchanger (CHX) when their area to
volume ratio is quite significant i.e. ratio of heat transfer surface
area to the heat exchanger volume is high. Area density of CHXs
is quite dependent on phase of fluids. As for gas to gas and gas to
liquid CHXs threshold value of area to volume ratio (b) is greater
than or equal to 500 m2/m3 or 700 m2/m3, while for liquid to liquid
type CHX, this ratio is greater than or equal to 200 m2/m3 or
400 m2/m3 [7,8]. These HXs can further be classified into several
types such as plate HXs, plate fin HXs, printed circuit exchanger,
spiral exchangers, shell and tube heat exchangers etc. Moreover,
Plate heat exchanger (HXs) is further divided into several cate-
gories such as brazed plate HX, plate and frame HX, partially
welded plate HX, the platular welded plate HX etc. While plate
fin heat exchanger can also be brazed plate fin and diffusion
bonded plate fin heat exchanger as demonstrated in Fig. 1. These
CHXs are widely used in every sector of industries such as refriger-
ation, power, automotive, aerospace, process and cryogenic, waste
gas heat recovery, seawater applications, technical applications,
petrochemical industries and vegetable oil refinery etc. [4,7].
The excessive use of CHXs in almost every sector of industries
coerced researcher to improve innovative ways of augmenting heat
transfer performance by obtaining all above-mentioned heat trans-
fer mechanisms. Installation of extended fins in heat exchangers is
one of the most developed techniques that significantly mend the
heat transfer performance. Fig. 2 depicts different types and geom-
etry of fin and tube heat exchangers and their influence on heat
transfer and pressure drop characteristics is widely demonstrated
in this study. Extended surfaces with turbulence promoters like
louvers, vortex generators, corrugation could provide better heat
transfer results. However, a compact heat exchanger surface incor-
porated with turbulence promoters (such as delta wings and wing-
lets, rectangular winglets and triangular prisms etc.) and
corrugation tends to yield significant influence on both heat trans-
fer enhancement and flow resistance. As winglets and corrugated
surface augment turbulence intensity by inducing various types
of vortices and significantly reduces wake regions behind the tubes
which leads to the higher heat transfer rate. Moreover, along with
 M. Awais, A.A. Bhuiyan / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 127 (2018) 359–380 361

Table 1
Construction and Performance features of different types of Heat Exchangers.

Types of heat Construction features Performance features

exchanger
Shell and tube heat  This is the most notorious type of HX. As around 90% of the heat Advantages:
exchanger exchangers are STHEs in industries.  It is widely used due to its flexibility and innovative design.
(STHXs)  It is consisted of Shell, Tubes, Baffles, front head, rear head, and Disadvantages:
 It requires larger area to be placed and great amount of space dur-
nozzles.
ing removing Baffles.
 Shell diameter: 60–2000(mm)
 Its construction is heavy
 Operating temperature: 20 °C to 500 °C
 Maximum pressure: 600 bar
Finned tube heat  These HXs are made of coils which are expanded either mechani- Advantages:
exchanger cally or hydraulically.  Finned tube heat exchangers are designed for yielding higher heat
 Fins around the tubes may be normal or longitudinal to the tubes. transfer performance and less pressure reduction.
 These fins can be wavy, flat, louver or interrupted and as well as  Finned tube heat exchangers are crucial components of residential
tubes shape can be elliptical, circular or flat heat pump, radiators for internal combustion engine, and air
conditioning
Plate and fin heat  In PFHX stack of plate (parting sheet) and fins are arranged in a Advantages:
exchanger sandwich construction.  PFHXs are preferred over extended surface HXs due to its highly
(PFHX)  Fin types vary (wavy fin, plain triangular, herringbone, serrated effective thermal performance.
and perforated louver).  PFHXs handle multiple streams quite well that’s why they are used
 For PFHX b  6000 m2/m3, which is five times higher than the area in compressor coolers and conditioning plant.
density of conventional shell and tube heat exchangers.  Highly effective (around 90% or more) in cryogenic application.
 can thermally operate at up to 650 °C. Disadvantages:
 Narrow passages in PFHXs makes cleaning difficult by any
 can operate up to 120 bar.
mechanical means.
Spiral plate heat  SPHXs are constructed by rolling metal strips around a central core Advantages:
exchangers generating concentric spiral channels.  SPHXs are self-cleaning and made of highly grade alloy which pre-
(SPHX)  The width of the channel is maintained around 5–30 mm. vent corrosion and erosion.
 For large flow rate and low pressure drop double channel is pro-  Used in the chemical industry, food industry (slurry, sauces) and
duced by simultaneously rolling four metal spiral strips around a wine making.
central core.  SPHXs can be easily installed, pressure loss is comparatively less
and large flow cross-section.
Disadvantages:
 Not suitable when heat transfer process is required from liquid to
liquid, however can be used for liquid-vapor and liquid-gas
applications.
Plate and frame  PFHXs are constructed by compressing pressed corrugated plates Advantages:
heat exchangers together into a frame. Gaskets are installed with each plate which  PFHXs are widely used in food and drink industries, chemical
(PFHX) has two crucial purposes. industries where heating and cooling of chemicals is demanded.
 Plate material is usually stainless steel, titanium and Hastelloy.  Cooling of Sulphuric acid, kerosene, salt solution is done by PFHXs.
 PFHX’s metal plates can tolerate temperature 35 °C to 200 °C and
pressure up to 25 bar.
 Heat transfer surface area varied from 0.02 m2 to 4.45 m2.
Printed circuit heat  Stacks of plates are bonded together through diffusion bonding Advantages:
exchanger  Stainless steel and titanium material is used These HXs are widely used in following sectors,
(PCHEs)  Pressure and temperature range is 300–500 bar and 200 °C and  Chemical industries
900 °C respectively.  Fuel processing
 Power and energy
 Refrigeration
The Marbond Heat  This is the modern type of PCHEs with similar constructional Advantages:
Exchanger procedure.  Used in single phase and as well as two phase streams
 The main difference is that several thinner and slotted plates are  Can be used in same sectors where PCHEs is used.
added in order to form single sub stream.
 It possesses low hydraulic diameter. (Dh)
 It can operate at very vast range of pressure and temperature.i.e.
400 bar and 200 °C and 900 °C respectively.
Continuous smooth  Inline or staggered arrangement of circular tubes is used with  Circular tubes provide large poor heat transfer zone behind the
fins and circular smooth fins. tubes due to its geometric pattern.
tube HX  Arrangement of tubes ominously influences flow field behavior.  Staggered arrangement of circular tubes provide better heat trans-
 Smooth fins impact on thermodynamic features is not quite notice- fer performance than inline ones as it undoubtedly impact fluid
able compared to wavy fins. flow intensity.
Wavy fins and  Optimally designed corrugated fins are rather incorporated here  Fins geometry and pattern significantly affects air side perfor-
circular tube HX with circular tubes. mance of CHXs.
 Wavy fin patters certainly influence thermo-hydraulic perfor-  Widely used in refrigeration and air-conditioning industry.
mance of HX.
Continuous smooth  Modification of tubes is considered while keeping fins smooth  Flat tubes possess less strength against internal and external
fins and non- instead of using wavy patterns. pressure.
circular tube HX  Flat tubes are incorporated with continuous fins in this type of fin-  Heat transfer performance certainly dependent on Reynold num-
and-tube HX. ber for flat-tubes.
 To examine its influence on heat transfer characteristics and pres-  Flat tubes yield smaller wake region compare to cylindrical tubes.
sure drop performance.  Continuous smooth fins yield lower heat transfer performance and
pressure drop compare to other wavy fins.
 Widely used for industrial, air-conditioning, and refrigerator
applications.

(continued on next page)

362 M. Awais, A.A. Bhuiyan / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 127 (2018) 359–380

Table 1 (continued)

Types of heat Construction features Performance features

exchanger
Wavy fins and flat  Modification of both tubes and fins is considered.  Wavy fins continuously break and develop thermal boundary layer
tube HX  Flat tubes with wavy fins are incorporated in this HX. which signifies comparatively higher heat transfer performance
 Wavy fins height, wavelength, pitch affect its thermal than smooth fins.
performance.  Pressure drop penalty is noticeable.
 Widely used for automobile radiators, automobile air conditioning
evaporators and condensers etc.

Classificaon of Heat Exchangers

Plate and Shell Plate fin Fin and Polymer Shell and Spiral Heat Printed circuit
HXs HXs Tube HXs Exchangers Tube HXs Exchangers HXs

Brazed Plate Fin Diffusion Bonded Plate Heat

HXs plate fin HXs Exchangers

Gasketed Brazed Plate Plate and Partially Platular Double wall

Wide gap
Plate HXs HXs Frame HXs Welded plate Welded plate HXs
plate HXs
HXs plate HXs

Fig. 1. Flow diagram demonstrating different types of heat exchangers.

Plain fins Wavy fins

Louver fins Convex louver fins

Fig. 2. Schematic diagram of various fin patterns for fin-and-tube heat exchangers [9].
 M. Awais, A.A. Bhuiyan / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 127 (2018) 359–380
the enhancement of heat transfer performance, rise in flow resis-
tance also appears. As both tubes and protrusions offered resis-
tance to the flowing fluid and certainly increase the noticeable
amount of pressure drop.
To acknowledge the impact of various crucial parameters such
as fins and tubes type, geometry and pattern, fin spacing, tube
rows, waffles height and thickness on thermal and hydraulic fea-
tures i.e. heat transfer augmentation and flow resistance of com-
pact heat exchangers lot of researchers have deducted both
experimental and numerical studies and evaluated significant
results. The impact of fin spacing on heat transfer augmentation
and flow resistance of CHXs is quite confounded and monotonic.
An experimental study in Ref. [10] concluded that by decreasing
fin spacing Nu increases to a significant value and then starts
decreasing by further reducing fin spacing. In Ref. [11] an experi-
mental study was performed to acknowledge the impact of various
types of tape inserts (such as single twisted tape, twin countered
swirl twisted tape, four counter swirl twisted tapes etc.) on heat
transfer and pressure loss performance of circular tubes. An
experimental study in Ref. [12] demonstrated heat transfer
enhancement and pressure drop reduction of fin-and-tube heat
exchanger by increasing turbulence intensity.
To avail optimum designed wavy fins for inducing better heat
transfer performance at lower pressure drop a numerical study
was performed using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) in Ref.
[13]. The numerical study in Ref. [14] investigated the thermal-
hydraulic performance of a louvered-fin and flat tube heat exchan-
ger. The optimum attack angle and pitch of louver fin was found to
avail enhancement in air-side performance of heat exchanger. A
3D-numerical investigation in Ref. [15] elucidated the influence
of various winglets location, aspect ratio and attack angle on heat
transfer characteristics of fin-and-tube heat exchanger. The
numerical study in Ref. [16] investigated the impact of annular
grooved fins on heat transfer and fluid flow characteristics of fin-
and-tube heat exchanger. The comparison of numerical and exper-
imental study was made in Refs. [17,18] to acknowledge the
impact of louvered fins on thermo-hydraulic performance of fin-
and-tube heat exchanger. The studies in Refs. [19,20] elucidate
the application of Bees and multi-objective Algorithms to design
optimal plate-fin heat exchangers and results were compared with
recent studies to acknowledge its accuracy and effectiveness. In
Ref. [21], a numerical study investigated the impact of curved delta
winglet vortex generators on thermodynamic features of fin-and-
tube heat exchanger. It was noticed that winglets play crucial role
in augmenting heat transfer performance by diminishing the wake
regions and enhancing fluid flow intensity [22].
Various authors have reviewed substantial experimental and
numerical studies on thermodynamic features, pressure drop,
designing, manufacturing, and industrial applications of heat
exchangers [23–26]. A comprehensive review study based on
experimental and numerical work in Refs. [27,28] extensively elab-
orated the significance of various types of enhanced surfaces and
their influence on thermal and pressure drop performance of heat
exchangers. The importance of passive techniques was profoundly
scrutinized by demonstrating the impact of various inserts such as
full length twisted tape (FLTT), short length twisted tape (SLTT),
multiple short length twisted tape (MLSTT) and wire coil on heat
transfer and pressure drop characteristics of heat exchangers. In
Ref. [29] a review study evaluated the optimal parameters of
twisted tape inserts to advance thermal performance of heat
exchangers by developing augmented turbulence intensity. In
Ref. [30], utilization, application and performance of various types
of heat pipes was reviewed with the inclusion of both experimen-
tal and numerical studies [31,32]. A review study in Ref. [33]
depicted the fabrication, application and thermo hydraulic perfor-
mance of micro/mini channel heat sinks and heat exchangers [34].
363
In Refs. [23,35–39] inclusive and wide-ranging studies reviewed
the designing, industrial applications and thermal performance of
conventional and specific types of heat exchangers such as Polymer
HXs, Ground coupled HXs, Compact HXs and Helixchangers. It was
concluded that regardless of polymer material’s low thermal con-
ductivities, polymer heat exchangers possess noticeable impor-
tance due to their light weight, low cost, fouling coefficient, and
corrosive resistance features; however more research is required
to acknowledge their thermo-hydraulic performance features and
finally implement them in practical industrial applications. Fur-
thermore, ground couple HXs are drawing lot of attention due to
their significant application in space conditioning, water heating,
and agricultural drying etc. [40] and also Helixchangers impart sig-
nificant role in overcoming fouling problem and low thermal per-
formance in shell and tube heat exchanger as compared to the
conventional shell and tube heat exchanger with serpentine baf-
fles. A review study in Ref. [41] demonstrated the application
and thermal performance of helically coiled tube heat exchangers
by considering two phase flows using nanofluid as a working fluid
and reported that nanofluid has monotonic effect on heat transfer
and pressure drop performance of these heat exchangers.
Moreover, the crucial heat transfer mechanisms which imparts
significant role in obtaining desired thermodynamic features of
CHXs are as follows, (i) Introducing interrupted surfaces to create
secondary and swirl flow, (ii). Augmenting turbulence intensity
by incorporating corrugated and rough surfaces, (iii). Development
and reduction of boundary layer by using fins and vortex genera-
tors, (iv) Mixing the flow along the wall regions by using passive
techniques [6,42].
Overall this review will summarize the recent progress of
enhancement in heat transfer and pressure drop performance of
CHXs by considering the variation in important parameters. The
primary objective is to focus on elucidating all possible techniques
of augmenting heat transfer performance at the expense of mini-
mum pressure loss in compact heat exchangers (CHXs) after care-
ful and thorough study of different researchers and scholar’s work.
The influence of varying fins and tube alignment, geometry and
pattern, fins spacing, number of tube rows, waffle height and thick-
ness on heat transfer enhancement, flow resistance and pressure
drop of CHXs is thoroughly reviewed. The effect of different fins
types and their pattern, height, pitch/spacing on heat transfer aug-
mentation and pressure drop reduction will be considered. The
influence of fin spacing on heat transfer performance and pressure
drop will be discussed. The impact of elliptical and circular tubes
with inline and staggered alignment on heat transfer enhancement
and pressure loss is also being widely discussed. This review will
be useful to design compact heat exchangers with even smaller
area to volume density, low thermal resistance on both air and liq-
uid side, effectively efficient with higher heat transfer and thermal
performance, less pressure drops and pumping power and finally
enhanced thermodynamic performance of HXs.
2. Techniques for enhancing heat transfer
For the last several decades, rising energy value and higher
material cost coerced researchers all around the world to discover
innovative ways of increasing heat transfer performance in all
kinds of heat exchangers (HXs). Since then augmentation of heat
transfer and pressure loss reduction has been the major concern
of all researchers which led to the development of two cornerstone
techniques named as passive and active techniques [3,7,43].
2.1. Passive technique
Passive technique does not require any type of direct applica-
tion of external power which makes it more preferable over active
364 M. Awais, A.A. Bhuiyan / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 127 (2018) 359–380
techniques. As thermal resistance on gas side is comparatively lot
more than on the liquid side as expressed in Refs. [44,45]. Thu-
lukkanam [3], mentioned that heat transfer coefficient of gas side
is around 1/50–1/10 of the liquid side. The implementation of
extended surfaces on both liquid and gas sides leads to the reduc-
tion of thermal resistance. In fin-tube heat exchanger, where tubes
are circular, on gas side fins are installed around the tubes. These
fins disguised in several geometries such as, wavy fins, louver fins,
plan circular fins, offset fins, slotted fins, segmented fins etc. The
sole objective of these interrupted fins is to enhance the heat trans-
fer surface area and hence improve heat transfer coefficient by
overcoming high thermal resistance. On liquid side, the insertion
of twisted tape or star-shaped in plain tube is generally used
[46,47]. Furthermore, making finned tubes internally spiral and
corrugated, heat transfer coefficient can be improved. The effec-
tiveness of micro-fin tubes in refrigerators is quite predominant
as they can significantly improve heat transfer rate at the expense
of lower pressure drop and material requirement for micro-fin
tubes is comparatively less than that required for other internally
finned tubes. Moreover, treated surface used in boilers and con-
densers which involves fin-scale alternation of surface finish or
coating such as hydrophobic coating and porous coating also yields
better heat transfer rate [48]. The addition of various types of vor-
tex generators such as rectangular delta winglets, curved rectangu-
lar winglets, triangular winglets and prisms etc. in heat transfer
surface area significantly improves the thermodynamic features
of compact heat exchangers [49]. Along with the horse shoe vor-
tices induced by tubes, vortex generators also develop longitudinal
and corner vortices. Which signifies better flow mixing, fluid inten-
sity and interruption and development of thermal and hydraulic
boundary layers [50]. The manufacturing of these swirl inserts is
Plate heat Double pipe heat
exchangers exchangers
Food processing, Air
condioning and
refrigeraon systems,
Marine applicaons,
Chemical processing, solar
energy applicaons, Gas
and oil applicaons etc.
Convenonal heang and cooling
Chemical and petroleum system through ground source heat
industries for heat recovery pumps (GSHP) or borehole heat
and heat rejecon
processing
Fig. 3. Application of different types of heat exchangers.
quite easy which also makes passive techniques more suitable than
active techniques [32]. For single phase flow, rough surfaces (rang-
ing from random sand-grain type roughness to discrete protuber-
ances) are introduced in channels. These rough surfaces are not
intended to increase the heat transfer surface area but their sole
objective is to intensify turbulence intensity, hence better flow
mixing. Additive for liquids (solid particles and gas bubbles) and
gas (solid particles and liquid droplets) are also used for better
improvement of heat transfer performance [51]. Moreover, com-
prehensive review studies performed in Refs. [32,52] insinuate all
the crucial details regarding use of significant passive techniques
in HXs.
2.2. Active techniques
Active techniques are carried out with the help of external pow-
ers. The most innovative Active techniques which are mostly used
in many industries to improve heat transfer rate are electrostatic
field, fluid vibration, mechanical aids, surface vibration and bound-
ary layer suction. The electrostatic fields (A.C or D.C) are applied in
several ways to dielectric fluids which leads to the greater bulk
mixing of fluids in the vicinity of heat transfer surface and
improvement of heat transfer rate. Moreover, combination of elec-
tric and magnetic field yield force convection or also called electro-
magnetic pumping [46]. Fluid vibration is the most practical
technique particularly for single phase flow. Its pulsation value
changes from 1 Hz to ultrasound depending on the mass of the
heat exchangers. This technique is carried out where our main con-
cern is about boiling, condensing or single-phase flow [7]. Mechan-
ical aids involve stirring of the fluid by mechanical means or by
rotating the surface or by surface scraping. Surface scraping is
Applicaons of heat
exchangers
Commercial, Industrial and
domesc Ulizaon
Heat Pumps Shell and tube Finned tube heat
heat exchangers exchangers
Petroleum-refining, Chemical
industries, steam generators,
condensers, boiler feed water
heaters, oil coolers, disllaon,
refrigeraon and power
generaon
Locomove radiators, charge
air cooling, steam condensers,
Air condioning and
exchangers (BHE) refrigeraon systems
 M. Awais, A.A. Bhuiyan / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 127 (2018) 359–380
carried out for viscous liquids [3]. Surface vibration involves vibrat-
ing the heat transfer surface at either high or low frequencies for
manipulating the boundary layer by deteriorating and restarting
it and inducing secondary flow to develop better single-phase heat
transfer [7]. Boundary layer suction involves removal of boundary
layer and restarts the boundary layer in the downstream region by
removing vapor through porous heated surface in nucleate or film
boiling [3]. Compound techniques are obtained by mixing above
techniques together to achieve highly effective turbulent flow pat-
tern and weak wake region behind the tubes for better results [7].
In Ref. [53], a comprehensive review study further elucidates these
techniques to obtain optimal and enhanced performance of CHXs.
3. Applications of heat exchangers
Heat exchangers possesses significant importance in every sec-
tor of industries due to their innumerable applications and require-
ments. For the past few decades the extensive classification of heat
exchangers has prominently augmented their importance for both
commercial and residential utilization. For example, the develop-
ment of ground source heat pumps (GSHP) or borehole heat
exchangers (BHE) has diminished conventional heating and cooling
problems in worldwide due to their higher thermal performance
(e.g. growth rate of GSHP in Sweden is 30,000 installations per
year) [41]. The vast classification of plate type heat exchangers
based on their size, applications and service applicability (gas-
gas, liquid-liquid, gas liquid, condensation and evaporation), com-
pactness and thermo-hydraulic performance has enhanced their
consumption in various sector of industries such as HVAC & R
industries, food processing industries, pulp and paper industries
etc. [54]. Finned-tube heat exchangers yield lower air side thermal
Geometry
Tube based
Circular Oval/Ellipcal
Inline or
Staggered
Longitudinal tube pitch,
Transverse tube pitch
Fig. 4. Schematic of Configuration and Designing of finned tube heat exchanger.
365
resistance because of the inclusion of various types of extended
surfaces which provides higher heat transfer surface area and
hence enhanced thermal performance. These heat exchangers are
extensively employed in chemical engineering and refrigeration
such as air conditioning, compressor intercoolers, refrigeration sys-
tems, charge air cooling etc. [55]. Shell and tube heat exchangers
(STHXs) and double pipe heat exchangers are vastly utilized in
every industry due to their wide classifications based on transfer
process, number of fluids and surface compactness and also higher
operating conditions such as from high vacuums to ultra-high
pressure (over 100 MPa) and from cryogenics to high temperatures
(about 1100 °C) [56,57]. Fig. 3 depicts numerous applications of
various crucial heat exchangers in details.
4. Different configurations of finned tube heat exchanger
By using external or internal short fins in fin-and-tube heat
exchangers, wavy fins, offset strip fins, louvered fins, spiral fins,
crimped spiral fins, convex louver fins, slit fins, herringbone wavy
fins, sinusoidal wavy fins in plate fin heat exchangers could signif-
icantly improve heat transfer rate by decreasing thermal resistance
on gas side [44]. However, fin efficiency starts decreasing with
increasing its area (A) which leads to the limitation of fin sizes.
Therefore, optimized design of heat exchanger is mandatory for
better performance and higher efficiency. Southall [58] discussed
the most common factors that certainly influence design of HXs
such as, selected material must qualify desired pressure, tempera-
ture and process fluid, moderate pressure drop and thermal effec-
tiveness should always exist. Moreover, less cost, weight, installed
height, footprint and higher thermodynamic features are the opti-
mum conditions for designing all kind of HXs [59]. In order to
Configuraon and Designing of
finned tube heat exchangers
Material
Fin based
External or Internal
Parameters
Tubes Fins
Wavy fins, offset strip
fins, Louvered fins, Spiral
fins, Crimped Spiral fins,
Fin pitch, Wavy angle, Wave
amplitude and height, Fin thickness
 366 M. Awais, A.A. Bhuiyan / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 127 (2018) 359–380

attain these properties, several optimization techniques and mod-

References

els were developed by researchers. The most crucial and innova-

tive optimization technique and model is genetic algorithm (GA)
[83]
[84]

[85]

[86]

[87]

[88]

[89]

[44]
[90]
technique and e-NTU model respectively. Both are extremely help-
ful to design effective and efficient HXs with minimum annual
cost, capital cost, total pressure and total weight of heat exchanger.

(d/
The introduction and details of GA technique was explicitly
) 0.317
]

0.2003
demonstrated by [60,61]. Furthermore, several studies given in
) 0.121
]

Refs. [62–65] used GA technique to investigate optimized parame-

[0.264[0.105 + 0.708exp( ReDC/225)]ReDC0.637(A0/At) f 0.263(P /D
c

(Fh/Lp)0.5458(Ld/Lp)
ters that are used for designing purpose of heat exchangers (HXs)
[0.768[0.0494 + 0.142exp( ReDC/1180)](A0/At) f 0.0195(P /D
c

such as, fin length, fin height, fin pitch and fin thickness etc. to for-
tify designing consideration and compactness condition of HXs.
[1.16Re 0:309(Fp/Fh) 0.3703(FP/2A) 0:25(Ld/L) 0.1552]

The use of e-NTU model was also demonstrated by [66,67] to esti-

[1.039RecDC0.418(t/D ) 0.104N 0.0935(Fp/Dc) 0.197] mate pressure drop and effectiveness of heat exchanger. However,

0.9925
in past several decades, researchers have been finding out innova-
1.2235

[2.1768ReD 0.2679(ft/fs) 0.2468(Sl/St) 1.8680

]
]

tive ways of augmenting heat transfer at the expense of minimum

0.06(P /D ) 0.0798
)4.14

[42.38Re 0.501(sin a)0.0143(Vh/Vl).04]

[0.54486ReLP0.3068(La/90)0.444(Fp/Lp)
pressure drop and pumping power and developed several correla-
f c

(Sl/St)

For staggered tube arrangement

[0.02083ReDC0.637 (A0/At) 4.75(P /D

tions based on their findings. Fig. 4 shows different configuration

c
For inline tube arrangement
0.5215

and designing parameters of finned tube heat exchanger. A list of

(St/d0) 0.3011 (df/d0) .4470]

(6.47Re 0.670) (xf/Pd)0.269

developed correlations is documented in Table 2.
(St/d0) 0.6334 (df/d0)1.2]
(A0/At) f

(ft/fs)

The studies [1,68–71] conducted by the authors comprehen-

f-factor correlation

4000 < ReD < 10000

800 < ReD < 7500
0.4172

sively investigated the performance of finned tube heat exchangers

200 < Re < 2500
0.461
(ReDC < 1000)

(ReDC < 1000)

(ReDC > 1000)

(HXs) considering plain and wavy configurations, different tube

(ReDC > 1000
[2.486 ReDC

[0.1635ReD

arrangements such as staggered and inclined, effects of different

Lp) .0688]

geometric parameters such as longitudinal tube pitch, transverse

tube pitch, fin pitch, wavy angle, wavy height for laminar, turbu-
–

lent and transitional flow regime. A numerical study in Ref. [72]

evaluated the modified configuration of fin-and-tube heat exchan-
(d/
]
2.1720

ger by manipulating the thickness at base and tip of the fins to

0.2147

make it more compact and thermally effective in terms of heat

(ft/fs) 0.8363(Sl/St)1.9926 (St/d0)2.2810 (df/d0)

[0.26712ReLP0.1944(La/90)0.257(Fp/Lp) 0.5177 (Fh/Lp)1.7159 (Ld/Lp)

[0.1970ReD 0.1295(ft/fs)0.1452(Sl/St)1.1874(St/d0).8238 (df/d0).0010 ]

transfer and pressure loss performance. The experimental and

numerical studies in Refs. [73–81] investigated the conspicuous
role of delta wings and winglets type vortex generators in augmen-
(Pf/Dc)5.152]
(A0/At) 0.601N .069(Pf/Dc) 0.84]
[.0836Re 0.2309(Fp/Fh)0.1284(Fp/2A) 0.153(Ld/L) 0.326]

(1.44–0.159 N) (0.196Re 0.318) (s/D)0.309(xf/Pd)0.163

tation of heat transfer rate and pressure loss performance of fin-

[0.394ReDC c 0.392(t/D ) 0.0449N 0.0897(Fp/Dc) 0.212]

and-tube heat exchangers. The VGs parameters such as location,

length, height, and attack angle prominently influence thermal
0.212

performance of CHXs. It was found that delta winglets type VGs

[0.9856Re 0.571(sin a)0.0086(Vh/Vl).0014]
(A0/At)3.085N

yield comparatively higher heat transfer performance at the

For staggered tube arrangement

expense of pressure drop penalty as corner and longitudinal vor-

tices induced by these winglets significantly improve heat transfer
For inline tube arrangement

0.170 N 0.141 (F/D0)0.384ReDh

rate by guiding fluid towards center from the edges and eradicat-
0.115
) 0.256

ing the poor heat transfer zones behind the tubes. However, flow
[3.9048*10 4Re0.0637
j-factor correlation

4000 < ReD < 10000

)

resistance offered by these winglets leads to the higher pressure

[0.782RefDC1.058(P /D

D
[16.06RefDC1.02(P /D

800 < ReD < 7500

c

200 < Re < 2500

drop compared to HX without VGs. The comparison was made

500 < Re < 900
(ReDC < 1000)

(ReDC < 1000)

between bare tube heat exchanger and fin-tube heat exchanger

through a numerical study in Ref. [82]. It was acknowledged that
Lp) .05]
Correlations for different types of compact heat exchangers [44,83–90].

optimally designed fin-and-tube HXs provide better thermal per-

formance than bare tube HXs. The experimental and numerical
investigation performed in Ref. [5] deducted that louvered fin
Fin-and-tube heat exchanger with sinusoidal fins

and round tube heat exchangers yield higher thermo-hydraulic

Fin-and-tube heat exchangers with various fin

performance than wavy fin and round tube heat exchangers, as

Convex-louver fin-and-tube heat exchangers

louver fins continuously deteriorate thermal boundary layer which

Wavy fin and flat tube heat exchanger

significantly heat transfer rate.

Wavy Fin-and-Tube Heat Exchangers

exchanger using crimped spiral fins

exchangers with large fin pitch

fin compact heat exchangers

5. Effect of fin spacing on heat transfer

exchangers with plane fins

Flat plate finned-tube heat

Plate fin-and-tube heat

Fin spacing refers to the distance between fins. The impact of fin
Heat exchanger type

Convex-Louver and

spacing on heat transfer performance and pressure loss is still

Cross-flow heat

Multi-louvered

obscured in compact heat exchangers (CHXs) as many researchers

studied the influence of fin spacing on heat transfer coefficient and
patterns

extracted results accordingly but the contradiction in their result is

quite obvious. Rich [91] and Wang [9] demonstrated that fin spac-
ing do not impart any significant impact on heat transfer perfor-
Table 2

No

mance but it was investigated that at Reynold number (Re) lower

1
2

than 1000 fin spacing impact on heat transfer performance is quite

 M. Awais, A.A. Bhuiyan / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 127 (2018) 359–380
Fig. 5. Effect of fin pitch on the j and f factors for wavy fin and tube heat exchanger
[94].
effective while as the Reynold number (Re) reaches up to 1000 fin
spacing influence on heat transfer performance begin to diminish.
Romero-Méndez [92] conducted a flow visualization and numeri-
cal study to acknowledge the effect of fin spacing on convection
in plate fin and tube heat exchanger. Their results depicted that
nature of flow is quite dependent on fins spacing, as for higher
fin spacing vortex starts to appear at upstream region which leads
to the higher Nu number. The studies given in Refs. [68,69] pre-
sented the numerical investigations for the prediction of heat
transfer and pressure drop characteristics for plate finned tube
heat exchangers and concluded the significance of fin spacing
effects. Also, similar type of observations were predicted for the
wavy cases [70,93]. Junqi [94] concluded that by increasing the
fin pitch, the Colburn’s (j) and friction (f) factor increases while
keeping the fin’s length and height constant 65 mm and 8 mm
respectfully at the Reynolds number (Re) in the range of 800–
6500 and as the Reynolds number (Re) increases, j factor decreases
as shown in Fig. 5. It was also observed that better mixing of air
flow takes place in the corrugated flow channel when the size of
the fin pitch increases at same Reynolds number (Re) which leads
to the enhancement of heat transfer coefficient.
Fig. 6. Effect of fin pitch on the j and f factors of the samples having louver and slit fin pattern HX of (a) 1 row, (b) 2 row and (c) 3 row [104].
367
The experimental study of Ref. [95] investigated the influence of
various fins spacing on heat transfer coefficient of annular finned-
tube heat exchanger and elucidated that increasing the fin spacing
heat transfer coefficient rises. Wang [96] performed an experimen-
tal study to acknowledge the effect of the fin spacing of both louver
and plain fin on the heat transfer coefficient and pressure drop at
different air frontal velocities. It was noticed that at low air frontal
velocity the heat transfer coefficient decreases with increasing the
size of the pitch and finally the effect of fin pitch starts to disappear
at greater air frontal velocities. Moreover, at higher velocities flow
becomes unsteady and vortex formed by tubes starts disappearing
and the effect of fin pitch on heat transfer coefficient does not
remain noticeable anymore. This is because the vortex shedding
caused by the tube starts to take effect. Furthermore, comparison
was made between louver fin and plain fin surfaces for better heat
transfer performance and it was observed that fin spacing effect on
the plain fin is smaller than the louver fins because of better mix-
ing of air flow occurs in louver fins. The experimental and numer-
ical study in Ref. [97] investigated the impact of off-strip fin arrays
on heat transfer characteristics and pressure loss performance of
compact heat exchanger by varying the spacing, length and bend-
ing distance of fins. It was concluded that as the fin pitch increases
Colburn j factor decreases which in result reduces the fin effi-
ciency. It could be explained as the distance between fins
increases, air side heat transfer area decreases. While the corre-
sponding pressure drop decreases as more fin spacing yield larger
flow area and lower flow resistance.
The study in Refs. [98,99] demonstrated the fin spacing influ-
ence on thermal hydraulic features of annular finned-tube HX
through flow visualization method and Taguchi method. The
experimental study was performed in Ref. [84] to acknowledge
the impact of convex louver and wavy fins on fin-tube heat
exchanger. It was noticed that heat transfer performance is higher
at lower fin spacing and poor when the fin spacing is large. While
the effect of the fin pitch on wavy fin was found almost negligible
with multiple row configuration as compared to louvered fin. This
could be explained by the phenomenon that at higher fin spacing
recirculation zone is larger as compared to the lower fin spacing.
Heat transfer performances for Fp = 2.54 mm is quite lower than
those of Fp = 1.69 mm and 1.21 mm. However, the study in Ref.
[98] claimed through numerical study that fin pitch has significant
role in inducing horseshoe vortex and developing boundary layer
at higher frontal velocities which leads to the better heat transfer
performance.
While considering large fin pitch, Kim [89] elaborated the effect
of fin pitch on heat transfer characteristics of flat plat finned-tube
368 M. Awais, A.A. Bhuiyan / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 127 (2018) 359–380
heat exchanger. It was found that with the rise of the fin pitch, j
factor increases in the low Reynolds number (Re) region while
the fin spacing impact diminishes as the Reynolds number (Re)
increases, which is contradicted to the previous studies shown in
Ref. [84]. It could be explained by a phenomenon presented in
Ref. [100] through flow visualization study as, for larger fin spacing
vortex formation was quite dominant as compared to the smaller
fin spacing. So, when the fin spaces were smaller, poor perfor-
mance of heat transfer was achieved as compared to greater fin
spacing due to the formation of vortices. Fig. 6 depicts the fin spac-
ing effect on j factor while changing the row number from N = 1 to
4 and keeping the tube alignment inline. It can be seen that j factor
increases with the rise of the fin pitches as the interruption of
boundary layer is delayed to the next row. The numerical and flow
visualization study in Ref. [92] insinuated the influence of fin spac-
ing on fin and tube heat exchangers. It was concluded that smaller
fin spaces induce flow resistance which leads to the higher pres-
sure drop, however with larger fin spacing, number of fins reduces
and effective heat transfer is obtained. While a 3-D numerical
study in Ref. [101] evaluated the influence of fin density and
Reynold number on thermodynamic features of CHXs. It was
demonstrated that at low Re number viscous effect reduces the
extent of swirl flow induced by fins waviness, however counter-
rotating vortices strongly appears by overcoming the viscous effect
at higher Re number which in result reduces the flow resistance
and augment heat transfer performance. Moreover, it was depicted
that higher fin density yield enhanced thermal hydraulic
performance.
In the experimental study of Wang in Ref. [85] of fin-tube heat
exchanger with louver fins, the heat transfer and friction character-
istics were presented. It was established that for multiple tube row
number the effect of fin spacing on the convex louver fin configu-
ration’s heat transfer performance is higher at Fp = 2.54 mm as
compared to Fp = 1.69 mm and Fp = 1.27 mm at low Reynolds
number (Re) and reverse trend is exhibited in higher flow region.
It was determined that at higher value of fin spacing the friction
factor starts decreasing at Re < 2000. While fin spacing effect is
not pronounced at higher Re number region. But the study con-
ducted experimentally by Kim [102] concluded that effect of the
fin pitch has no influence on the heat transfer performance and
friction factor. It was noticed that louver fin heat exchangers have
higher j and f factor as compared to the slit fin heat exchangers.
The comparison was performed between the louver, slit and plain
fin experimentally to observe the heat transfer and friction charac-
teristics of theses heat exchangers. It was found that the j factor of
louver fin was 87% larger than that of the plain fin and the average f
factor is 155% larger while for the slit fins the j factor was 84% lar-
ger than the plain fin and the average f factor was 71% larger than
the plain fin. Similar type of observations was determined in the
study of Ref. [103]. It was concluded that as the fin pitch increases
j factor decreases for the plate fin surface but proper trend was not
appeared for louver fin surface. The experimental study in Ref. [4]
elucidated the influence of different shapes and density of pin fins
on pressure drop and friction factor of rectangular channel. It was
deducted that at Re > 300 and same fin height and transverse pitch,
elliptical pin fins yield lower flow resistance as compared to trian-
gular pin fins. Moreover, it was found that at Re < 300, triangular
pin fins with lower density provides smaller friction factor (f)
and elliptical fins with comparatively larger density yield higher
flow resistance. While at Re > 300, the reverse trend was
acknowledged.
Fig. 6 clearly depicts the effect of fin pitch on louver and slit fin
pattern HX with various tube row configurations. It was seen that
louver fin provides better performance at any row configuration as
compared to slit fin pattern HX and friction factor ratio between
slit fin and louver fin for one, two and three tube row configura-
tions was 0.88, 0.87 and 0.75 respectively and j factor ratio was
0.72, 0.80 and 0.78 respectively which exhibits that the effect of
fin pitch is negligible on j and f factor [104].
The study of Wang [105] illustrated the heat transfer perfor-
mance in the form of j factor against Re. The tube rows (N) are 1,
2, 4 and 6 and corresponding Fp are 2.05 mm, 2.05 mm, 2.08 mm
and 2.07 mm. It was found that as the tube row number increases,
h decreases at Re < 2000 and h is not effected by tube number at Re
> 2000. It can be explained by a phenomenon that at low Reynolds
number (Re) downstream turbulence tends to eradicate and
weaker, hence less effective vortices come in play. While it is
reversed at higher Re and better flow mixing takes place at down-
stream region. As far as the f factor is concerned, it was noticed
that tube row numbers have negligible influence on f factor which
could be explained by channel flow effect. Moreover, the study in
Ref. [106] demonstrated the effect of fin pitch on heat transfer
and friction characteristics of staggered layout with two rows
and three different fin pitches and concluded that heat transfer
coefficient (j) is independent of fin pitch. While the proper trend
of f-factor was not obtained. The experimental study in Ref. [89]
demonstrated the influence of various fin spacing on heat transfer
characteristics of flat plate fin-tube heat exchanger. In Ref. [107],
Yuan-Jan Du deduced the influence of super-slit fins on heat trans-
fer and friction characteristics of fin-tube heat exchanger. It was
mentioned that j factor of slit fin with Fp < 2.1 mm is 20–25%
higher than the slit fin with Fp > 2.1 mm. This phenomenon was
explained in [108] when flow visualization method was used to
determine the maximum heat transfer condition for louver fin
arrays. They reported that higher mixing angle leads to the higher
heat transfer performance. Mixing angle can be defined as angle
formed by the dye as measured from the louver of the first contact.
The impact of various tube rows with the variation of fin spac-
ing (1.41 mm, 1.81 mm and 2.54 mm) on the heat transfer perfor-
mance with two different fin thickness (0.115 mm and 0.250 mm)
are illustrated in Ref. [109]. It was demonstrated that fin pitch has
quite negligible impact on the j factor regardless of different fin
thicknesses. When the fin spacing increases at the same Re the bet-
ter flow mixing takes place in the corrugated channel flow which
leads to the enhancement of heat transfer coefficient. While at
the same time rise of the fin spacing create a recirculation zone
at the downstream of the wavy apexes which in result reduces
the heat transfer coefficient (h). So both effects cancel each other
and keeping the effect of fin spacing on the j factor unchanged.
The corresponding friction factor showing that fin spacing
increases, f factor increases at higher Re. However, at very low Re
fin spacing has no influence on f factor. The study in [44] deducted
the same result through experimental investigation and found that
heat transfer and friction factor is quite independent of fin pitch. A
comparison was made between herringbone wavy and plain fin HX
and it was concluded that for 2 row tube number j factor for both
fin is same while corresponding friction factor of herringbone wavy
fin is 3–4% greater than the plain wavy fin. They have also dis-
cussed the effect of fin spacing on j and f factor of the sinusoidal
wave fin while keeping the waffle height constant approximately
same as the herringbone wavy fin (1.5 mm) with one, two and
three row tube numbers. It was found analogous to the herring-
bone wavy fin the f factor of sinusoidal wavy fin is not influenced
by the fin pitch. A comparison was made between sinusoidal wavy
and plain wavy fin. It was found that j factor of sinusoidal wave fin
is 6–13% greater than the plain fin at low Reynold number (Re),
while the difference is increases at as the Reynold number (Re)
rises. The corresponding f factor of sinusoidal wavy fin is 18–35%
greater than those of the plain fins.
The impact of the fin pitch on j and f factor with various tube
row number can observed in Ref. [110] that both j and f factor
decreases as the Reynolds number (Re) increases and as the tube
 M. Awais, A.A. Bhuiyan / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 127 (2018) 359–380
row number increases the effect of fin spacing tends to diminish on
the heat transfer performance. As greater the tube row number, the
better the flow mixing. However, the corresponding friction factor
trend is not quite explicable but for N = 8 friction factor slightly
rises.
6. Influence of different number of tube rows
Along with the effectiveness of fin spacing, tube rows number
(N) [71] is another important parameter which can’t be ignored
as it certainly possesses large amount of impact on heat transfer
and pressure loss characteristics of fin-tube heat exchangers too.
Ref. [89] illustrated the impact of tube row number (N = 2 and 4)
and fin spacing (Fp = 1.7 mm and 3.1 mm) on j and f factor with
constant waffle height (Pd = 1.18 mm and 1.58 mm). It was found
that for larger fin spacing influence of tube row number on j factor
is quite negligible while for smaller fin spacing j factor rises as the
tube row number decreases at low Reynolds number. The negligi-
ble influence of tube rows number on heat transfer performance
was also demonstrated by the studies [111,112], which could be
explained by a phenomenon that, in the region of lower (Re) for
smaller fin spacing and less tube row number the flow is steady,
so the effect of vortex shedding caused by the tube is not quite
noticeable which leads to the higher j factor. It was observed that
rise of the fin spacing or tube row number would result in
unsteady wake flow which leads to the lower j factor. And the cor-
responding friction factor does not influence by the fin spacing and
tube row number (N). The experimental study in Ref. [113]
acknowledged the air side performance of fin and tube heat
exchanger by varying the various important perimeters. It was
noticed that as the number of tube rows increases the influence
of fin spacing on heat transfer characteristics starts diminishing.
Moreover, it was observed that the influence of tube diameter on
heat transfer performance is also quite dependent on fin spacing.
The 3D-numerical study in Ref. [114] investigated the impact of
delta winglet vortex generators on thermodynamic features of
fin-and-tube CHXs with three rows of staggered and inline tubes.
It was concluded that horseshoe and longitudinal vortices induced
by tubes, fins and winglets significantly improved the heat transfer
performance. It could be explained by a phenomenon that induced
vortices increases the turbulence intensity and reduces the poor
heat transfer zone or wake region behind the tubes. Moreover, flow
resistance offered by tubes, fins and winglets yield moderate
Fig. 7. Variation of j-factor with number of tube rows (N = 1, 2, 3 and 4) for fin pitch (a) 7.5 mm and (b) 15 mm [116].
369
pressure drop. In Ref. [115] the influence of number of tube rows
on heat transfer performance of inline finned-tube bank was
elucidated.
To acknowledge the impact of tube row number on the air side
performance of finned-tube HX, j factor was plotted against Rey-
nolds number (Re) with different row numbers and two different
fins spacing as shown in Fig. 7. Fig. 7(a) illustrated that as the
row number increases j factor decreases at low Reynolds number,
while the decreasing rate tends to diminish as the tube row
increases at fixed Reynolds number. However, more tubes seemed
to make the flow field uniform at the rear of the HX [116].
The study in Ref. [84] conducted a comprehensive analysis of
compact heat exchanger incorporating convex louver and wavy
fins and deduced the impact of tube rows number (N). Their results
showed that effect of number of tube rows on friction factor is not
quite pronounced for both wavy and convex louver configurations.
But it was clearly reported that heat transfer performance is influ-
enced by the number of tube rows. As the tube rows increases heat
transfer performance starts decreasing. At Re < 2,000, 4-row coil
has 15% lower heat transfer performance as compared to 1- row
coil. While at Re > 2000, the effect of tube row number is not
noticeable. Experimental studies in [85,113] presenting the same
remarks regarding tube rows (N) and fin pitch impact on j and f
factor i.e. at higher Re number (>2000) effect of tube rows on j fac-
tor is vanished while f factor is not influenced by tube rows num-
ber and it decreases as the Reynolds number (Re) increases. Also,
other studies [87,102] provided the same results after performing
experimental investigation on the air-side performance of fin-
and-tube heat exchangers with radial slit fins (1.5 mm thickness)
and plane fins (0.2 mm thickness) respectively i.e. as at low Re
number tube rows has quite significant impact on j factor while
at higher Re this effect starts to disappear. It can be explained as
at high Reynolds number (Re) downstream turbulence eddies tend
to diminish which leads to the better flow mixing appearance at
downstream region and low Reynolds number (Re), the effect is
reverse.
The contribution of Chi-Chuan Wang [105,106,110,117] in the
development of innovative ways of augmenting heat transfer per-
formance in compact heat exchanger is quite impeccable. Without
ignoring the influence of fin spacing and tube rows number on j
and f factor, he has focused on elaborating this effect through
several experimental and numerical techniques e.g. In Refs.
[105,106,110,117], the author clearly elucidates effectiveness of
370 M. Awais, A.A. Bhuiyan / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 127 (2018) 359–380

Fig. 8. Effect of number of inline transverse tube on (a) heat transfer enhancement ratio j/j0 and (b) friction factor ratio f/f0 with respect to Reynolds number (Re) [78].

fin pitch and number of tube rows with respect to Re. Their result
can be summarized in this way; as higher number of tube rows can
only significantly impact heat transfer performance when Re num-
ber is high (>2000). While at low Re number (<2000) and tubes
with one row (N = 1) provide comparatively higher heat transfer
rate than tubes with more than one row (N > 1), which is mainly
due to the fact that tube rows blockage, prone to cause additional
vortex shedding. Moreover, the influence of Fp on j factor was
noticed quite negligible at higher Reynolds number. It could be
explained as, at higher Re downstream turbulence eddies tends
to diminish and better flow mixing occurs which in results leads
to the enhancement of downstream turbulence intensity and heat
transfer coefficient. However, for particularly slit fins with smaller
length, the impact of greater tube rows on h is negligible at Re >
1000. Because at higher Re number, turbulent intensity becomes
almost uniform and does not quite affect the heat transfer perfor-
mance. While the corresponding friction factor is independent of
tube rows and fin spacing. Refs. [89,91,109] also concluded the
same remarks and explained them with the same phenomenon.
Moreover, it was noticed that tube rows with staggered arrange-
ment yields quite better performance than tube with inline
arrangement. It could be explained as smaller bypass air flow
and formation and breakup of thermal boundary layer at lower
and higher Re respectively tends to create difference between
inline and staggered arrangements.
Fig. 8 depicts the impact of number of transverse tube rows
with inline arrangement on the heat transfer enhancement ratio
(j/j0) against Re. At Re < 1000, the ratio of j/j0 decreases but for
higher Reynolds number (Re > 1000) this effect is reversed
[78,118]. At low Re, vortex strength caused by the tubes is less
which can’t dominate the poor heat transfer wake region behind
the tubes. However, as the Re increases, vortex strength increases
i.e. turbulent intensity increases which lead to the better flow mix-
ing by overcoming the poor heat transfer wake region behind the
tubes. Moreover, at higher Re, turbulence intensity increases which
strengthen the horseshoe vortex induced by the tubes and also
reduction of the wake region behind the tubes leads to the better
augmentation of heat transfer rate and at higher Re the impact of
tube row number tends to diminish on j factor due to the high tur-
bulence intensity. It can be seen that 3 tube rows can play signifi-
cant role in augmentation of heat transfer enhancement ratio but
with increased number of tube rows vortex strength generated
by first tube row gets affected by the wake of the front row of
the tubes. When inline tube arrangement is replaced with

Slit fins Offset fins

Louver fin Convex louver fin array

Fig. 9. Fin arrays of different types of heat exchanger [108].
 M. Awais, A.A. Bhuiyan / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 127 (2018) 359–380
staggered one, the enhancement in j factor is observed at the
expense of greater pressure loss. As vortex induced by staggered
arrangement of tubes are quite stronger than the vortex induced
by inline arrangement of tubes. For inline arrangement of tubes
corresponding friction factor ratio (f/f0) increases more than heat
transfer ratio j/j0 at the same Re number because of the form drag
brought about by the tubes shown in Fig. 8b as discussed in previ-
ous Ref. [105].
7. Effects of fin and tube’s pattern and alignment
Along with the fin spacing and tube rows number, their pattern
and dimension is also crucial to impart significant influence on
heat transfer characteristics of heat exchangers. Therefore, fins
and tubes of heat exchangers are classified into several types and
categories. Each type has its own effect on heat transfer and fric-
tion characteristics. That’s why it’s very important to study the
affectivity of each pattern and elaborate them with help of differ-
ent researchers and scholar’s work. Fig. 9 is depicting different
arrays of fins of heat exchanger.
The study in Ref. [118] conducted both experimental and
numerical study of 3D laminar flow and heat transfer in plate-fin
and tube heat exchanger. Their numerical study showed that tubes
arrangement significantly affects heat transfer coefficient. As stag-
gered array yields higher heat transfer performance than inline
array at the expense of 20–25% pressure drop as explained in
Ref. [89]. It was also deducted that as tube row number increases
(N > 4) their influence on heat transfer performance starts to
diminish as discussed in previous Ref. [105].
The numerical study in Ref. [119] investigated the impact of
curved winglets and tube pitch on heat transfer characteristics
and pressure loss performance of fin-and-tube heat exchanger. It
was concluded that both winglets and tube pitch significant influ-
ence the heat exchanger performance. As curved vortex generators
attached across the tubes enhance the heat transfer performance at
the expense of moderate pressure drop by inducing longitudinal
vortex generators and eradicating the wake regions and poor heat
transfer zones behind the tubes [120]. Moreover, as the tube pitch
decreases the Colburn j factor increases which signifies improve-
ment in heat transfer rate. While the corresponding pressure drop
rises due to the augmentation in flow resistance offered by reduc-
tion in tube pitches. The experimental and numerical study in Ref.
Fig. 10. Effect of fin alignment on the heat transfer performance for inlined and staggered tube arrangement with an increase of tube row (N) [116].
371
[121] insinuated the influence of louver fin and tube pitches along
with other crucial parameters on thermo-hydraulic performance of
louvered fin-and-flat tube heat exchanger. It was deducted that
both longitudinal and transverse tube pitch have no influence on
heat transfer performance, while the corresponding pressure drop
increases by increasing tube pitch due to rise in un-louvered
surface area. A numerical study in Ref. [122] demonstrated the
improvement of air-side performance of fin-and-tube heat exchan-
ger by the combination of both elliptical and circular tube at the
expense of higher frictional resistance.
The experimental data regarding influence of fin and tube align-
ment on fin-tube heat exchanger having larger fins spacing was
illustrated [116]. Fig. 10 is taken from [116] which illustrated the
impact of fin alignment on heat transfer performance. It can be
seen that wavy alignment enhances heat transfer performance
7% as compared to the inline alignment of fins, while 15% more
than the continuous flat plate finned-tube HX. It elucidated that
by implying both staggered and inline fin alignment heat transfer
performance can be increased by 20% as compared to continuous
flat plate type finned-tube. In general, discrete type fin provides
higher heat transfer performance than Continuous fin type. As cor-
rugation pattern of discrete type fins leads to the higher turbulence
intensity and flow mixing of hot and cold fluids as compared to the
continuous fins. Similar type of results were also found by Ref.
[123].
Louver fin surfaces are capable of outperforming plain fin and
offset-strip fin surfaces when it comes to the heat transfer
enhancement as demonstrated by studies [124,125]. Ref. [96] also
claimed through experimental study that louver fin has 70% higher
heat transfer performance than plain fin at ReDC = 2000 and found
that friction factor for louver fins is 52% higher than the plain fins
at Reynolds number (Re) of 5000. It could be explained as louver
fins surfaces impart significant role in intensifying turbulent inten-
sity and flow mixing rate than plain fin offset-strip fins. The exper-
imental and numerical study in Ref. [126] investigated natural
convection from rectangular interrupted fins. It was found that
addition of interruptions to continuous fins leads to the higher
thermal performance due to the disruption of thermal and hydrau-
lic boundary layers.
Efficiency index (j/f) is defined as the ratio of Colburn factor (j)
to the friction factor (f) for any type of heat exchanger (HX) [68].
The significance of efficiency index (j/f) is to do good balance or
372 M. Awais, A.A. Bhuiyan / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 127 (2018) 359–380
(a). Louver
(d). Corrugated 1
Fig. 11. Visualization of different types of fin configuration: (a) Louver, (b) Extended louver, (c) louver + winglet, (d) Corrugated 1, (e) Corrugated 2, (f) Wavy [127].
good choice based on the requirements of the designers as well as
the overall heat transfer performance. The contribution of experi-
mental study in Ref. [104] was to investigate the effect of nonsym-
metrical slit fins on air side thermal resistance of fin-tube heat
exchanger and also compared it with louver fin surface. The results
were expressed in the form of efficiency index against Re number
(500 < Re < 3000) with different tube configuration. It was con-
cluded that for one row configuration ratio of j/f for louver fin
was 21% greater than slit fin pattern and for two and three row
configurations it was 10% and 3.2% greater than slit fin pattern.
Which implies that slit fin pattern is better than louver fin geom-
etry at larger tube row number (N).
In Ref. [127], experimentally investigated the heat transfer and
friction characteristics of several types of interrupted and wavy
fins in fin-tube heat exchanger. Fig. 11 is showing the configuration
of louvered and wavy/corrugated fins. It was deducted that louver
fins provide comparatively higher heat transfer performance as
compared to wavy fins at the expense of additional pressure loss.
However, extended louver fins yield exceptionally higher j factor
as compared to other corrugated, wavy, louver and louver + wing
let fins. It could be explained as extended louver fin surfaces
develop more vortexes shedding than any other fins. Moreover, slit
fins provide higher heat transfer rate than plane fins and vortex
generator fins at the expense of greater friction and pressure drop
which is depicted in Fig. 13(a) and (b) in the form of j-factor, Nu
number, f-factor and DP against air frontal velocity Vfr at (N = 12)
[128].
Wavy fins provide higher heat transfer performance over plate
fins without any doubt. Ref. [129] performed an experimental
study to backup this statement by incorporating different types
of fins such as plate fin, wavy fin and compound fin in compact
heat exchanger shown in Fig. 12. They reported that compound
and wavy fin depicts better heat transfer coefficient as compared
to plate fins at the expense larger pressure drop as discussed in
previous Ref. [123]. As the enhancement of heat transfer perfor-
mance is penalized by the pressure drop. It was noticed that as
the air velocity increases the pressure drop rises regardless of fin
patterns. But compound and wavy fin gives higher pressure drop
(b). extended louver (c). louver + winglet
(e). Corrugated 2 (f). Wavy
34.1–62.9% and 11–32.1% as compared to plate fin pattern. It could
be explained by the phenomenon that at higher velocity fluctua-
tion and higher acceleration in the circulation region appears in
compound and wavy fin which leads to the better h factor and
higher pressure drop. Similar types of results were obtained by
the numerical works in [130–132]. An experimental study in Ref.
[133] investigated the influence of plain fins, louver fins and
semi-dimple vortex generator configurations on air-side perfor-
mance of fin-and-tube compact heat exchangers. It was concluded
that for smaller fin pitch and higher air inlet velocity, louver fins
yield comparatively higher heat transfer performance than semi-
dimple vortex generators and plain fin configuration. However,
for larger fin-pitch semi-dimple vortex generators dominate louver
fin geometry in terms of heat transfer performance. In Ref. [134],
an experimental study elucidated the impact of wavy channels
on thermo-hydraulic performance of plate fin heat exchanger. It
was found that corrugated wavy channels yields better heat trans-
fer performance than parallel plate channel due to better flow mix-
ing and intensity with periodically interruption of thermal
boundary layer. While the corresponding pressure drop appears
due to the presence of flow resistance offered by corrugated chan-
nels. In Ref. [135] an experimental study was performed to
acknowledge the impact of perforated rectangular fin arrays on
thermal performance of CHXs. The enslavement of heat transfer
enhancement on orientation, diameter and angle of perforation
was noticed.
Wavy fins can also be classified as sinusoidal wavy fins and her-
ringbone wavy fins. Both types have their own influence on heat
transfer performance. Refs. [44] and [136] compared the perfor-
mance of both fins through conducting an experimental study at
700 < Re < 4000. They reported that sinusoidal wavy fins impart
preferable heat transfer over herringbone wavy fins when the tube
row increases. Herringbone wavy fins are further classified in two
parts depending upon their corrugation pattern shown in Fig. 13.
Type 1 yields comparatively larger heat transfer rate (5.25–
15.39%) and pressure drop (0–6.61%) than type one. Because corru-
gation pattern of the type 2 fin can reduce the size of the wake
which improves the better air flow mixing behind the tubes, in
 M. Awais, A.A. Bhuiyan / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 127 (2018) 359–380 373

(i). Plate fin

(ii). Wavy fin

(iii). Compound fin

(a) (b)
Fig. 12. (a) Plate, wavy and compound fin configurations and (b) their effects on heat transfer coefficient and pressure drop with average inlet velocity of fluid for the different
test fins [129].

result better heat transfer performance and also corrugated pattern

of fin type 2 forces the air stream inside the corrugated channel to
change the flow direction immediately after passing over the
tubes.
Ref. [106] experimentally studied the characteristics of wavy fin
and tube pattern and tube rows number in fin-tube heat

Fig. 13. Classification of herringbone wavy fins of with different pattern type [136]. Fig. 14. Heat transfer of tube rows at 5 impacting angles [137].
374 M. Awais, A.A. Bhuiyan / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 127 (2018) 359–380

exchanger. It was illustrated that at low Reynolds number (Re) the j
factor reduces as the tube row number increases and becomes
independent at higher (Re > 2000). It can be explained that in the
inline arrangement when the Reynolds number (Re) is low (Re <
2000) boundary layer thickness is strong because bypass air flow
effect, which in result leads to the reduction of j factor with the rise
of tube row number. While in the region of higher Reynolds num-
ber (Re), boundary layer gets broken up by the air flow in the fin
passage. Refs. [109] and [68] concluded the same remarks about
inline and staggered tube arrangements. They also reported that
staggered tube arrangement provides higher heat transfer perfor-
mance as compared to inline tube arrangement because the turbu-
lence intensity increases in case of staggered tube arrangement. It
was also found that staggered tube arrangement with 4 row tube
number gives more j factor as compared to 8 row number or the
staggered layout may cause downstream turbulence and hence
the increase of heat transfer coefficients with the increase in the
number of tube rows. A numerical study in Ref. [137] evaluated
the influence of tubes inclination on heat transfer and pressure
drop performance of fin-and-tube heat exchanger. Fig. 14 depicts
the effect of various impact angles of tubes inclinations on ratio
of Nu of each tube row to the overall average Nu of tube banks with
different number of tube rows at 20,0000 Reynold number. It can
be seen that after N = 2, impact angle has negligible effect on Nu
number ratio.
The impact of corrugated fins and oval tubes on thermo-
hydraulic performance of fin-and-tube heat exchanger was investi-
gated through a numerical study in Ref. [138]. The crucial objective
of this attempt was to acknowledge the impact of modified fin
geometry and availing higher heat transfer performance without
incorporating any kind of winglets. It was found that corrugated
fins with oval tubes yield comparatively higher Nu number at the
expense of moderate pressure drop penalty. As longitudinal vor-
tices induced by modified fins and weaker wake region behind
the tubes leads to the higher thermal performance of HX. A numer-
ical study in Ref. [139] indicated that flat tubes yield comparatively

Fig. 15. (a) Effect of fin length (Ld) and (b) fin height (Fh) on Colburn factor (j) for various Re [94].

Fig. 16. Effect of fin height on the airside performance for the (a) inline arrangement and (b) staggered arrangement [140].
 M. Awais, A.A. Bhuiyan / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 127 (2018) 359–380 375

higher thermo-hydraulic performance for fin-and-tube heat
exchanger than oval and circular tubes.
Ref. [94] presented the effect of the fin length on the j and f fac-
tor. It was observed that the size of the fin’s length increases j and f
factor decreases against Reynold number while keeping the fin
height and pitch constant 8 mm and 2 mm respectively. It also pre-
sented the effect of the fin height on the j and f factor which is elu-
cidated in the Fig. 15. It was observed that when the fin height
increases, j factor increases and also fin length seemed to have
no influence on friction factor (f).
In Ref. [140], numerical study showing the influence of fins and
tube’s geometrical parameters on plate fin and tube heat exchan-
ger. It was shown that fin spacing and height has significantly
effect on heat transfer rate and pressure drop. Ref. [86] presented
the influence of the effect of height on heat transfer performance
performed experimentally and depicted in graph where heat trans-
fer coefficient and frontal velocity are plotted as shown in Fig. 16,
while keeping the fin spacing (3.85 mm), outside diameter d = 21.
7 mm and transverse and longitudinal tube pitch 71.4 and 50.0
mm respectively constant. It can be seen from the Fig. 16, that
fin height has significant effect on heat transfer performance. As
the fin height rises, heat transfer reduces as discussed in Ref.
[94]. It could be explained by phenomenon that fins having greater
height (Fp = 15 mm) has larger resistance on air side as compared
to fins having smaller height (Fp = 10 mm) which leads to the air-
flow bypass effect. A numerical study in Ref. [141] investigated the
impact of important fins geometric perimeters and Reynold num-
ber on thermal performance of fin-and-tube heat exchanger. The
rise in overall heat transfer rate was noticed with increasing Rey-
nold number. Fins density positively influence heat transfer rate,
while the corresponding pumping power reduces as fins density
increases.
In order to understand the effect of tube diameter on heat trans-
fer performance for the inline arrangement of tubes, heat transfer
coefficient and pressure drop is plotted against air frontal velocity
while keeping the fin spacing (3.85 mm), fin thickness (0.4 mm),
fin height (10 mm) constant as shown in Fig. 17. It was detected
that heat transfer coefficient rises with the reduction of tube diam-
eter. However, pressure drop increases with the rise of the tube
diameter. The reason for reduction of heat transfer performance
and enhancement of pressure drop is that for the inline arrange-
ment of tubes huge flow circulation appears in behind the tubes.
When size of the tubes increases, the wake region behind the tubes
gets bigger which increases the poor heat transfer rate across the
tubes [140]. The effect of the tube diameter on heat transfer perfor-
mance and pressure drop for staggered arrangement is compara-
tively less analogous to the inline arrangement of the tubes as
shown in Fig. 19a. It was observed that recirculation zone is not
quite stronger in case of staggered arrangement. From figure it is
obvious that fin height on the heat transfer coefficient for stag-
gered arrangement is similar to the inline arrangement of tubes.
but the fin height has quite negligible effect on the pressure drop

Fig. 17. Effect of tube diameter (d0) on air side performance with (a) staggered arrangement (b) inline arrangement [140].

Fig. 18. Schematic diagram of waffle height for wavy fin configuration [142].
376 M. Awais, A.A. Bhuiyan / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 127 (2018) 359–380
in staggered arrangement of tubes as compared to inline arrange-
ment of tubes that’s because subsequent tube rows has quite
noticeable effect on pressure drop [140].
8. Impact of different waffle height and fin thickness
8.1. Effects of waffle heights and thickness
The influence of waffle height and fin thickness on heat transfer
and pressure drop characteristics of heat exchangers has also been
investigated by numerous researchers. As these are other impor-
tant geometric perimeters like fin length, fin height, fin and tube
pattern that could certainly affect thermodynamic features of
HXs. Waffle height of wavy fin is shown in Fig. 18. The variation
in waffle height and fin thickness could bring subtle change in cru-
cial factors which are directly related to the heat transfer perfor-
mance such as, intensity of flow mixing of fluids, wake region
behind tubes, recirculation zones etc. That’s why it’s very impor-
tant to consider this perimeter along with other fin’s perimeters
during optimum designing of heat exchangers. Here, following
paragraph is elucidating the major findings of several researchers’
Fig. 19. Effect of fin thickness on the air-side performance of wavy fin-and-tube heat exchangers with different fins spacing, tube rows and fin thickness [148].
work regarding affectivity of waffle height and fin thickness on
heat transfer and pressure drop characteristics of heat exchangers.
The impact of waffle height on thermodynamic features of CHXs
was analyzed by several authors. In Ref. [142], an experimental
investigation was carried out to determine the impact of different
waffle heights on heat transfer performance and friction character-
istics of fin-tube heat exchanger with wavy fins and compared
their result with plain fin-tube heat exchanger. It was found that
for small fin spacing and larger waffle height, the effect of waffle
height on heat transfer enhancement ratio is prominent but at
the expense of large pressure drop. The influence of waffle height
on heat transfer coefficient, overall thermal conductance (formula)
and pressure drop against air frontal velocity was also demon-
strated by Ref. [89] and concluded the same results. It was reported
that for constant fin pitch of 1.7 mm and two tube row numbers,
when the waffle height increases both the pressure drop and heat
transfer coefficient of wavy fin type rises as compared to plain fin
type. It was concluded that for the wavy fin type with the waffle
height of Pd = 1.18 and 1.58 mm heat transfer coefficient rises
4.5 and 24% and the corresponding pressure drop increases 38
and 60% respectively at 2.5 m/s air frontal velocity compared to
the plain fin type. The study in [9] also deducted the same results
 M. Awais, A.A. Bhuiyan / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 127 (2018) 359–380
through experimental study and acknowledged a strong relation
between heat transfer enhancement and ratio of waffle height to
wavelength. However, another study [44] conducted an experi-
mental study of fin-tube heat exchanger by using sinusoidal fins
with specific geometric perimeters and found that influence of
waffle height on heat transfer performance and pressure drop is
not quite pronounced.
8.2. Effects of fins and tube’s geometry and pattern
Refs. [111,143] discussed the importance of fins and tube’s
geometry and pattern on heat transfer and friction factor of plate
finned-tube heat exchanger based on experimental study. It was
noticed that fin thickness imparts significant impact on j-factor
or heat transfer at the expense of low pressure drop. The experi-
mental study in Ref. [144] elucidated the impact of tube diameter
on heat transfer characteristics of CHXs. It was noticed that tubes
with larger diameter compare to smaller ones reduces the heat
transfer performance and also increases the flow resistance which
augment significant pressure drop. The experimental study in Ref.
[145] investigated convective heat transfer from cam shaped tube
banks arranged in inline manner while keeping the Reynold
number in the range between 27,000 and 42,500. It was concluded
that tubes position and shape has significant influence on drag
coefficient and heat transfer rate. It was noticed that cam shaped
tubes yield comparatively higher thermo-hydraulic performance
factor than circular tubes due to its preferable aerodynamic shape.
While the corresponding friction factor for cam shaped tubes was
found noticeably lower than circular tubes. In Ref. [146] an empir-
ical investigation was performed to acknowledge the impact of
flatting tubes and nanoparticle on boiling heat transfer. It was
found that flatter tube yield higher heat transfer augmentation
ratio as compared to round tubes. A comprehensive review study
in Ref. [52] extensively demonstrated the importance of curved
tubes with conventional and Nanofluid as working fluid in aug-
mentation of thermo-hydraulic performance of compact heat
exchangers. An experimental study in Ref. [147] evaluated the
effect of dimples in flat tubes on heat transfer performance of com-
pact heat exchanger. It was noticed that dimples in flat tubes leads
to the higher heat transfer augmentation factor.
Ref. [148] worked out the effect of the fin thickness on the j and
f factor with different fin pitches (1.41 mm, 1.81 mm and 2.54 mm)
by keeping the number of tube rows constant (N = 2). It was found
that as the fin thickness increases, j factor increases regardless of
Fp. The rise of the fin thickness leads to the formation of horseshoe
vortex at the leading edge of the fin to the upstream rows of the
Fig. 20. Heat transfer performances for four types of fins. (a) hove with Re. (b) DP with Re. [152].
377
HX. Which leads to the better air flow mixing and in result heat
transfer performance increases. For N > 2 the effect of the fin thick-
ness is depicted on the j and f factor against Re in Fig. 19. At Re <
1800, j factor decreases with increasing the fin thickness while at
Re > 2500 J factor increases with increasing the fin thickness. It
could be explained as the fin thickness increases for 4 and 6 row
tube configurations, the reduction in free flow area occurs caused
by reduction of fin spacing. So, better flow mixing does not occur
i.e. fluid exchange tends to vanish at the inside and outside of
the wake region behind the tubes. However, when the Reynold
number increases downstream turbulence eddies tends to disap-
pear which leads to a better flow mixing so heat transfer perfor-
mance rises. In Ref. [97] experimental and numerical study
investigated the impact of crucial fins parameters on thermody-
namic features of compact heat exchangers. It was noticed that
as the fin length decreases both Colburn (j) and friction (f) factor
increases. A numerical study in Ref. [149] evaluated the impact
of different crucial parameters of staggered pin fin on heat transfer
performance of fin-and-tube heat exchanger. It was noticed that
thermo-hydraulic performance is positively influenced at the
expense of higher friction factor by various pin-fin length, pin-fin
height and pin-fin number around N tubes.
While Refs. [87,150,151] claimed that fin thickness do not play
any significantly role in improving sufficient amount of heat trans-
fer performance. Furthermore, rise in fin thickness could lead to
the higher pressure drop. The formation of complex flow pattern
and recirculation zones is the main reason of negligible influence
of fin thickness on heat transfer coefficient and quite significant
impact on pressure drop of heat exchangers. However, optimum
fin thickness could increase surface area and increase mean veloc-
ity. After examining above discussion carefully, it can be noticed
that contradiction between different authors work is quite obvious.
Which directly relates to the fact that individual impact of waffle
height and fin thickness on thermodynamic efficiency of heat
exchanger is not quite prominent i.e. by varying other crucial
perimeters such as Reynold number, fin spacing, tube rows num-
ber, pattern and alignment of fins and tubes along with varying
waffle height and fin thickness values, heat transfer performance
is certainly influenced. An experimental study in Ref. [152] demon-
strated the impact of fin pattern on thermal performance of fin-
and-tube heat exchanger. Fig. 20 depicts the impact of continuous
fins, discontinuous fins, staggered fins and fins with vortex gener-
ators on overall heat transfer coefficient (h) and pressure drop
(DP). It can be seen that staggered fins yield comparatively higher
heat transfer coefficient than other fins as the Re number increases,
while the corresponding pressure drop penalty is also significantly
378 M. Awais, A.A. Bhuiyan / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 127 (2018) 359–380
higher. It could be explained as staggered fins play crucial role in
deteriorating and developing both hydraulic and thermal boundary
layer, while they also offer extensively higher flow resistance
[153].
9. Concluding remarks
This study is an attempt to provide designers innovative tech-
niques of designing compact heat exchangers (CHXs) incorporating
highly effective heat transfer performance, moderate pressure
drops and less pumping power with low area to volume density
(b) and cost-effective products. The major findings of this review
are illustrated in the following sections:
 Discrete, wavy and corrugated fins certainly yield higher trans-
fer performance regardless of fin pattern, fin spacing, fin thick-
ness and number of tubes compared to flat plate fins. However,
at very low fin spacing and Re number, this superiority might
get lost.
 Louver fins provide higher heat transfer rate as compared to
plain fins, offset-strip fins and slit fins at same Re number.
While for large number of tube rows slit fins are beneficial
compared to louver fins. Convex louver fins are highly effective
than louver and plane fins in terms of heat transfer rate and
pressure loss. As they are capable of intensifying turbulent
intensity of fluid flow.
 It has been reported that influence of fin spacing is monotonic
and obscured on heat transfer and friction characteristics. Only
at higher Reynolds number (>1000), Fp has no effect on j and f
factor and at lower Reynolds number (Re < 1000) j factor
decreases with the reduction of fin spacing.
 Staggered alignment as compared to inline alignment of tubes
in CHXs leads to the higher heat transfer performance at the
expense of larger pressure drop.
 It was reported by many investigators that number of tube rows
has negligible impact on friction factor (f).
 Elliptical tubes provide lesser drag as compared to circular
tubes which is the main reason that oval tubes yield better heat
transfer characteristics.
 Position of tubes in downstream region instead of upstream
region is preferred as higher heat transfer enhancement appears
due to the significant horseshoe vortex formation.
 Fin thickness and waffle height along with the variation of other
important perimeter like tube row number, fin spacing, align-
ment and pattern of fins and tubes etc. have significant influ-
ence on thermo-hydraulic performance of heat exchangers.
 Genetic algorithm (GA) technique, Bees algorithm, multi-
objective algorithm and e-NTU model can play significant role
in finding out most crucial optimized parameters for better
designing of compact heat exchangers (CHXs).
Conflict of interest
The authors declared that there is no conflict of interest.
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