Yujie Yang

State Key Laboratory of Power Engineering and

Multiphase Flow,
Department of Refrigeration and
Cryogenic Engineering,
School of Energy and Power Engineering,
Xi’an Jiaotong University,
Xi’an 710049, China
e-mail: yyj_898@stu.xjtu.edu.cn
Yanzhong Li1
State Key Laboratory of Power Engineering and
Multiphase Flow,
Department of Refrigeration and
Cryogenic Engineering,
School of Energy and Power Engineering,
Xi’an Jiaotong University,
Xi’an 710049,China
e-mail: yzli-epe@mail.xjtu.edu.cn
Biao Si
Department of Refrigeration and
Cryogenic Engineering,
School of Energy and Power Engineering,
Xi’an Jiaotong University,
Xi’an 710049, China
e-mail: si.biao@stu.xjtu.edu.cn
Jieyu Zheng
Department of Refrigeration and
Cryogenic Engineering,
School of Energy and Power Engineering,
Xi’an Jiaotong University,
Xi’an 710049, China
e-mail: zjy.521331@stu.xjtu.edu.cn
Analysis of the Fin Performance
of Offset Strip Fins Used in
Plate-Fin Heat Exchangers
As an important consideration in the design of plate-fin heat exchangers, the selection of
plate-fin surfaces is associated with the estimation of the fin performance in many cases.
The fin performance of offset strip fin (OSF) and plain fin is numerically investigated with
well-validated 3D models in the present study. The comparative analysis shows that the
conventional fin efficiency and fin effectiveness concepts provide an incomplete assess-
ment of the fin performance of the fins, and lead to impractical suggestions of using OSF
fin. Further investigation indicates that the idealization of uniform heat transfer coeffi-
cient over all the surfaces in fin channel, which runs through the conventional concepts,
is untenable, and strongly restricts the fin performance analysis. An actual fin effective-
ness is then proposed to measure the fin performance. It physically represents the ratio of
the heat flux over the fin surfaces and that over the primary surfaces in the fin channel.
With this method, the effects of the geometrical parameters of the OSF are discussed
carefully. The results show that there exists a specific fin thickness-to-height ratio a and
fin density c, which contribute to the highest fin performance for a given mass flux, and
the optimal c (or a) increases (or decreases) as mass flux increases. The OSF fins with
relatively large fin thickness-to-length ratio d perform better in low Re region and the op-
timum d decreases with the increasing Re number. [DOI: 10.1115/1.4033615]
Keywords: plate-fin heat exchanger, plain fin, offset strip fin, fin performance, numerical
simulation, constant wall temperature

Rui Kang
Department of Refrigeration and
Cryogenic Engineering,
School of Energy and Power Engineering,
Xi’an Jiaotong University,
Xi’an 710049, China
e-mail: kangrui996996@stu.xjtu.edu.cn

1 Introduction performance is the major concern for designers in fin selection.

The corresponding investigation is necessary and important.
Plate-fin heat exchangers are widely used in aerospace, automo-
The analysis of fin performance is usually conducted by means
bile, air separation, gas liquefaction, etc. due to their high effec-
of the fin efficiency concept, and many relevant researches have
tiveness and compactness. In the process of designing a plate-fin
been carried out with respect to different fin surfaces. Gardner [2]
heat exchanger, the most basic and important consideration is
has derived general equations for the temperature distribution in
selecting plate-fin surfaces. There are different types of fin surfa-
fins with a set of idealizing assumptions and has presented the sol-
ces, such as plain fin, OSF, perforated fin, wavy fin, louvered fin,
utions for the efficiency for several forms of fin shapes. Schmidt
etc. For each type of fin surface, the range of design parameters is
[3] has developed simple formulas for calculating the fin effi-
considerable. Generally, the selection of the fin types and determi-
ciency of finned tubes in different arrangements. With the method,
nation of the structural parameters involve the optimization issues
Hashizume et al. [4–6], Wang et al. [7], Tao et al. [8], Cortes et al.
about increasing heat duty, reducing surface area, and reducing
[9], and Song et al. [10] have analyzed the fin efficiency of various
pressure drop [1]. In many actual cases, especially those associ-
fin-tube surfaces, while Prasad [11] and Manglik et al. [12] have
ated with cryogenic systems, however, the prime objective of fin
analyzed the effect of plain-fin surfaces on heat transfer used in
selection is to ensure that the designed heat exchanger transfer a
plate-fin heat exchangers. In addition to these studies with the
specified quantity of heat with high efficiency. Thus, fin
ideal one-dimensional fin efficiency, there has been great effort to
investigate the fin efficiency accounting for some of the effects of
the idealizations. Huang and Shah [13] have summarized the fin
1
Corresponding author. efficiency results of many previous researches with the assessment
Contributed by the Heat Transfer Division of ASME for publication in the
JOURNAL OF HEAT TRANSFER. Manuscript received August 11, 2015; final manuscript
of the limitations of the various assumptions. They have made
received May 5, 2016; published online June 7, 2016. Assoc. Editor: Danesh / D. K. some recommendations for the determination of the fin efficiency
Tafti. for plate fins, although 1D and 2D models are used for the

Journal of Heat Transfer Copyright V

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 analysis. Aziz and Beers-Green [14], Braga and Saboya [15],
Mokheimer [16], and Agwu-Nnanna et al. [17] have carried out
the fin efficiency analyses considering the effect of thermal con-
ductivity of fin or variable heat transfer coefficient. In these litera-
tures, the thermal conductivity is treated as a linear function of the
temperature, and the local heat transfer coefficient is obtained by
empirical Nu–Re or Nu–Ra correlations. Recently, numerous
studies have focused on calculating the 1D or 2D fin efficiency of
various fin shapes by using those methods such as ADM [18,19],
DTM [20,21], VIM [22,23], HPM, or HAM [24–26] and other
methods [27–29]. For most of these studies, it is usually assumed
that the heat transfer coefficient is constant. In addition, Wang et al.
[30] and Ameel et al. [31] have conducted 3D numerical simulation Fig. 1 The geometries of OSF fin and plain fin (a) offset strip
to investigate the fin efficiency of fin-tube surfaces by using compu- fin and (b) plain fin
tational fluid dynamics (CFD) technique. With the numerical
results, they have discussed the difference of the defined fin effi-
ciency and ideal 1D fin efficiency. Table 1 Hydraulic diameters of plain fin and OSF fin
Besides fin efficiency, fin performance can also be measured by
fin effectiveness [32]. Gardner [2] has referred to the fin effective- Plate-fin type Hydraulic diameter Dh
ness in his paper and has given its expression as a function of the fin 4ðh  tÞðs  tÞ
Plain fin
efficiency. Kundu and Das [33] have investigated the thermal per- 2ðh þ s  2tÞ
formance of different types of fin arrays with the concept of fin OSF fin 4lðh  tÞðs  tÞ
effectiveness. In their analysis, they have assumed the uniform heat  
2 lðh  tÞ þ lðs  tÞ þ tðh  tÞ þ tðs  2tÞ
transfer coefficients over the fin surface and the prime surface.
From the literature review, although there has been significant
research into the analysis of fin efficiency and fin effectiveness,
few do touch on the analysis for plate-fin surfaces. The selection
of the plate fins remains open to question. Conventionally, the fin With the geometric parameters, the Dh expressions of plain fin
performance of a plate-fin surface is evaluated by the ideal 1D fin and OSF fin based on the unit fin channel are listed in Table 1.
efficiency [11,12,34]. However, the scope of application of the
ideal fin efficiency is very limited due to many idealizations in the
deviation. Furthermore, the main point of the fin efficiency analy- 2.2 Governing Equations and Boundary Conditions. The
sis in the previous studies is essentially to discuss the extent of 3D simulation is conducted in the laminar region of Re  1000 for
potential loss of the temperature on the fin surfaces due to using OSF fin and Re < 2000 for plain fin, with the following
the fin with limited thermal conductance. However, the discussion assumptions:
may not be comprehensive enough for plate-fins and may even
lead to an inaccurate and/or biased view of using them. In addi- (1) steady-state flow and heat transfer with no phase transition
tion, few researchers examine the behavior of the conventional fin (2) ignoring the thermal radiation and natural convection
efficiency and fin effectiveness under different operating condi- (3) the thermophysical properties of fluid and solid remain
tions in the performance analysis of different plate-fins. constant
The present study focuses on the analysis of the fin performance With these considerations, the governing equations that
of OSF fins. In order to investigate characteristics of the conven- describe the fluid flow and heat transfer are as follows:
tional fin efficiency and fin effectiveness carefully, plain fin is Continuity equation
also employed for the analysis. The analysis is conducted in only
laminar flow regime by using CFD technique. The 3D models are @ ðqui Þ
well validated by comparing with the available experimental data. ¼0 (2)
@xi
It will be shown that using the conventional concepts for the
selection of OSF fin is inappropriate. Then an actual fin effective- Momentum equation
ness is proposed for the fin performance analysis. The behavior of
the actual fin effectiveness for OSF fin under different operating     
@ ðqui uj Þ @p 2 @ @uk @ @uj @ui
conditions and how it is affected by the structural parameters is ¼  l þ l þ (3)
also finally discussed. The results can provide helpful guidance in @xi @xj 3 @xj @xk @xi @xi @xj
selecting the OSF fins in the design of plate-fin heat exchangers.
Energy equation for the fluid area
   
2 Numerical Simulation @ ðqui cp T Þ @ @T @uj 2 @uj 2
¼ k p  l
@xi @xj @xj @xj 3 @xj
2.1 Geometries of OSF Fin and Plain Fin. Figure 1 sche-
 
matically shows the geometries of typical OSF fin and plain fin. It l @uj @ui 2
is usually assumed that the fin channels are rectangular and the fin þ þ (4)
2 @xi @xj
offset for OSF fin is uniform and equal to a half-fin spacing [35].
The geometric parameters include fin height h, fin space s, fin Energy equation for the solid area
thickness t, and fin length l. Considering the comprehensive effect
of fin thickness, the nondimensional design parameters are the fin  
@ @T
thickness-to-height ratio a (¼t/h), fin density c (¼t/s), and the fin ks ¼0 (5)
thickness-to-length ratio d (¼t/l). @xi @xi
The definition of hydraulic diameter is
The computational domains for the fin channels are schemati-
cally shown in Fig. 2. To guarantee that the ratio L/Dh is more
4Ac L than 60 in the present study, the OSF fin channels have at least 24
Dh ¼ (1)
A rows of periodic fins along the flow direction, and the flow length

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 Fig. 2 The computational domains for OSF fin and plain fin

in the plain fin channels is not less than 200 mm. The thickness of 2.4 Data Reduction and Model Validation. To examine the
the covered plate, which is denoted by symbol b, is 1 mm for all accuracy of the model, the numerical f and j factors are calculated
the studied fin channels. and then are compared with available experimental data. The pro-
In the computational domain shown in Fig. 2, the no-slip cedure of the data reduction is as follows:
boundary condition is adopted at the interface between the fluid The Reynolds number and the Prandtl number are defined as
and solid. The mass-flow-inlet condition, pressure-outlet condi-
tion, and constant temperature boundary condition are used on the GDh
Re ¼ (6)
inlet, outlet, and covered-plate walls, respectively. The periodic l
boundary condition for plain fin and OSF fin are applied on the
two sides of the fluid and solid area. lcp
Pr ¼ (7)
k
2.3 Numerical Procedure. The CFD preprocessor GAMBIT
2.4.6 and solver FLUENT 15.0 are employed for grid generation and The Fanning f factor is determined by
simulation, respectively. Structured meshes are generated with
hexahedral elements in the computational domain, as shown in Dp qDh
f ¼ (8)
Fig. 3. The SIMPLEC algorithm is used for solving the G2 2L
pressure–velocity coupling equations, and the second-order
upwind scheme is selected to discretize the differential equations. where Dp is the pressure drop between the inlet and outlet of the
The grid independence tests are carried out to obtain a more accu- plate-fin channel.
rate solution. The solution is considered to have converged when The j factor is calculated by
the residuals for each field variable are less than 106.
j ¼ StPr2=3 (9)

where the Stanton number St is

hc;app
St ¼ (10)
Gcp

Following Kays and London [34] and considering the present

model with two covered plates, the apparent heat transfer coeffi-
cient, hc,app, is calculated by

1 1
hc;app ¼ (11)
go 1 b A

U ks 2Aw;cp

The overall heat transfer coefficient, U, is determined as

Q
U¼ (12)
ADTLMTD

where DTLMTD is the logarithmic mean temperature difference

between the base wall of the covered plate and the fluid in the fin
channel, and is defined as

ðTbase  Tbulk;in Þ  ðTbase  Tbulk;out Þ

DTLMTD ¼   (13)
Tbase  Tbulk;in
ln
Tbase  Tbulk;out

The surface efficiency go for the fin channel is

Fig. 3 Mesh generation in the computational domain (partial A sec  

go ¼ 1  1  gf ;id (14)
region) A

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 The ideal 1D fin efficiency gf,id that has been used for data compared with the experimental data in the concerned Re range.
reduction in literatures [34,36] is expressed by It can be seen that the numerical f and j factors are in well accord-
ance with the experimental results from Ref. [34]. The RMS val-
 
h ues of the f and j factors for the plain fins and the OSF fins are
tan h m listed in Table 3. The comparisons show that the numerical mod-
2
gf ;id ¼ (15) els provide reliable results of the flow and heat transfer in the two
h
m types of fin channels.
2
rffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
2hc;app 3 The Conventional Fin Efficiency and Fin
m¼ (16) Effectiveness
ks t
The fin efficiency is commonly defined as the ratio of the actual
The calculation of the required areas involved in Eqs. (11), heat transfer rate through a fin to that which would be obtained if
(12), and (14) is presented in Table 2. From Eqs. (9)–(16), the j the entire fin and the base were at the same temperature [13]. It is
factor can be obtained iteratively. noteworthy that here the calculation of the heat transfer rate for
The plain fins 6.2 and 11.11 and the OSF fins 1/9-25.01 and the case with the temperature gradient of zero in the fin is not
1/10-27.03 from Kays and London [34] are used for model valida- associated with new flow and temperature fields in the fin channel.
tion. In the simulation, air is the tested fluid, and the materials of Following Ameel et al. [31], the required heat transfer rate for the
these fins are copper for the plain fin 11.11 and aluminum for ideal case should be a fictitious heat transfer rate, and the fin effi-
others. Figures 4 and 5 show the numerical f and j values ciency is defined as

Q sec
Table 2 Calculation of the required areas for plain fin and OSF gf ;def ¼ (17)
fin Q sec ;fict

Area Plain fin OSF fin where the fictitious heat transfer rate is calculated by
ð
Aw;cp 2sL 2sL
   Q sec ;fict ¼ hc ðAÞðTbase ðAÞ  Tbulk ðAÞÞdA (18)
L s
A 4Lðh þ s  2tÞ 4Lðh þ s  2tÞ þ 4t  1 h þ  2t A sec
 l  2

L s The local heat transfer coefficient is determined as
A sec 4Lðh  tÞ 4Lðh  tÞ þ 4t  1 h þ  2t
l 2
qð AÞ
hc ð AÞ ¼ (19)
Tw A  Tbulk ð AÞ
ð Þ

The local fin efficiency can be represented by the dimensionless

temperature difference hsec

h sec T sec ð AÞ  Tbulk ð AÞ

hsec ¼ ¼ (20)
hbase Tbase ð AÞ  Tbulk ð AÞ

The ideal fin efficiency expressed by Eq. (15) is analytically

obtained under idealized conditions including the very question-
able one that the heat transfer coefficient is uniform over the pri-
mary and secondary fin surfaces. Therefore, it can be considered
as a special case of gf,def.
The fin effectiveness is defined as the ratio of the heat transfer
rate over a fin to that which would be obtained over the same fin-
base area if no fin were there [31]. Therefore
Fig. 4 Comparison of the numerical results and the experi- Q sec
mental data for the plain fins ef ¼ (21)
Qnosec

According to Gardner [2], the fin effectiveness under the condi-

tion of constant base temperature can be expressed as

A sec
ef ¼ g (22)
Afb f ;def

where Afb is the area of the fin base.

Table 3 RMS values of the percent differences for the numeri-

cal results

Fin model f factor (%) j factor (%)

6.2 9.8 2.2

11.11 6.2 6.3
1/9–25.01 10.6 15.5
Fig. 5 Comparison of the numerical results and the experi- 1/10–27.03 6.2 8.7
mental data for the OSF fins

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 The behavior of the fin efficiency and fin effectiveness is dis-
cussed in Sec. 4.1.
4 Results and Discussion
4.1 Behavior of the Conventional Fin Efficiency and Fin
Effectiveness. The plain fin with a ¼ 0.03, c ¼ 0.136, and the
OSF fin with the same cross section of the fin channel and with
d ¼ 0.025 are used here to investigate the behavior of the conven-
tional fin efficiency and fin effectiveness. The material of the fin is
aluminum.
Figure 6 presents the defined fin efficiencies of the plain fin and
the OSF fin with different Re number. It is seen that the gf,def val-
ues for both plate fins decrease with the increase of Re number.
Furthermore, the fin efficiency of the OSF fin is lower than that of
the plain fin regardless of Re number. The gf,id data for the two
types of fin surfaces are plotted in Fig. 7. The ideal fin efficiency
follows the same behavior as the defined fin efficiency, except for
a slight difference in their values. These results suggest that if
using the fin efficiency or the fin effectiveness to select the fin sur-
face when designing a plate-fin heat exchanger, plain fin is a bet-
ter choice than the OSF fin when the heat exchangers is operated
at lower Re number. However, OSF fins are normally used as the
air-side fin surfaces in plate-fin heat exchangers, as indeed they
are. This is because the air-side heat transfer enhancement is im-
portant to improve the compactness and performance of the heat
exchangers and OSF fin channels can provide a greater heat trans-
fer coefficient due to the laminar boundary layer restarting. More-
over, simply reducing the mass flow rate of plate-fin heat
Fig. 6 Behavior of the defined fin efficiency in terms of Re
number for the plate fins
Fig. 7 Behavior of the ideal fin efficiency in terms of Re num-
ber for the plate fins
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exchangers to improve their fin performance is usually far from
the real situation.
To illustrate the characteristic of the fin efficiency further, the
analysis of the local data is necessary. Figure 8 shows the posi-
tions of the studied surfaces including the surface of covered
plate, the primary fin surface, and the secondary fin surface in the
present study. In addition, the symbols y* ¼ y/(h  t) and z* ¼ z/
(h  t) are also introduced here for the analysis.
The local dimensionless temperature difference and local heat
transfer coefficient on the secondary fin surfaces of the plain fin
with those of the OSF fin are presented in Figs. 9 and 10. It is seen
from Fig. 9 that the dimensionless temperature difference of OSF
fin is smaller than that of plain fin, which indicates that the tem-
perature loss of OSF fin is higher than that of plain fin. As illus-
trated in Fig. 10, however, the heat transfer coefficient on the OSF
fin surface is more than twice as high as that of plain fin. In this
situation, therefore, only considering the fin efficiency is insuffi-
cient to measure the fin performance. The fin efficiency concept,
which essentially represents the extent of temperature loss on the
fin surfaces, might not be a practical alternative for the fin selec-
tion though it is unobjectionable in its definition.
Figure 11 illustrates the feature of the fin effectiveness results
for the plain fin and OSF fin. The ef value for the OSF fin is lower
than that for the plain fin, except in low Re range (Re < 350 in
Fig. 11). Nevertheless, the OSF fin performs slightly better than
the plain fin in terms of the fin effectiveness in the low Re range
just because the Asec/Afb of the OSF fin is larger than that of the
plain fin, according to Eq. (22) and the behavior of the defined fin
efficiency. Since the Asec/Afb is not a thermal-performance
Fig. 8 The positions of the surfaces in the analysis of local
data
Fig. 9 Local dimensionless temperature difference on the sec-
ondary fin surface
OCTOBER 2016, Vol. 138 / 101801-5
 Fig. 10 Local heat transfer coefficient on the secondary fin Fig. 12 Local dimensionless temperature difference over the
surface heat transfer surfaces of OSF fin

Fig. 11 Behavior of conventional fin effectiveness in terms of Fig. 13 Local dimensionless temperature difference over the
Re number for the plate fins heat transfer surfaces of plain fin

parameter, the fin performance of the plate fins cannot be esti-

mated comprehensively by using the fin effectiveness. surfaces. Noting that Eq. (27) is obtained without any assump-
tions, it can be available in all cases of extended surface heat
4.2 Actual Fin Effectiveness. For plate-fin channels, the total transfer. If neglecting the radiation heat transfer in the fin channel,
heat transfer rate Q transferred through the entire surfaces A can the actual fin effectiveness has the form
be divided into the Qpri transferred through the primary surfaces
Apri and the Qsec through the secondary surfaces Asec, which were hc; sec h sec
ef ;act ¼ (28)
expressed by the following equations: hc;pri hpri

Q ¼ Qpri þ Q sec (23) From Eq. (28), the actual fin effectiveness is affected not only
by the temperature differences hsec and hpri but also by hc,sec and
Q ¼ qpri Apri þ q sec A sec (24) hc,pri, which represent the mean coefficient of convection heat
transfer prevailing at the secondary surface and that over the pri-
Q ¼ qA (25) mary surface, respectively. It can also be found that when suppos-
ing hpri ¼ hbase and hc,sec ¼ hc,pri, the actual fin effectiveness just
Here, the primary surfaces include the primary fin surfaces and represents the fin efficiency. Here, it is necessary to discuss the
the surfaces of the covered plates in a plate-fin channel. validity of the two questionable assumptions carefully before
Equations (23) and (25) yield investigating the fin performance by means of the actual fin
  effectiveness.
Apri A sec Figures 12 and 13 present the local dimensionless temperature
q ¼ qpri þ ef ;act (26)
A A difference over the primary surfaces in both the plate-fin channels.
The positions of the studied surfaces are given in Fig. 8. It is seen
where ef,act is called the actual fin effectiveness and is defined by from Figs. 12 and 13 that the hpri ( ¼ hpri/hbase) values for both
plate-fin channels are close to unity, which means that there is
q sec only a small extent of temperature loss over the primary surfaces.
ef ;act ¼ (27)
qpri The assumption hpri ¼ hbase is barely acceptable in the analysis of
the fin performance. Figures 14 and 15 show the local heat trans-
The actual fin effectiveness is physically the ratio of the heat fer coefficient over the heat transfer surfaces in the OSF fin chan-
flux over the secondary surfaces and that over the primary nel and the plain fin channel, respectively. It can be seen from

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 Fig. 14 Local heat transfer coefficient over the heat transfer
surfaces of OSF fin
Fig. 15 Local heat transfer coefficient over the heat transfer
surfaces of plain fin
Fig. 14 that for the OSF fin, the heat transfer coefficient over the
secondary surface is more than five times as high as that prevail-
ing at the primary surface. Even for the plain fin, the hc,sec is about
four times higher than hc,pri, as shown in Fig. 15. Evidently, the
idealization of hc,sec ¼ hc,pri, which runs through the conventional
fin efficiency and fin effectiveness concepts, strongly restricts the
analysis on the fin performance of plate-fin surfaces.
Figure 16 shows the actual fin effectiveness of an OSF fin and a
plain fin with the same cross section in terms of Re number with
the same inlet temperature difference. It is seen that the ef,act val-
ues for the OSF fin are more than 3.4, and for the plain fin are
more than 3.2, in the concerned Re range. These results reflect the
extremely high effectiveness of the plate-fin surfaces used in
plate-fin heat exchangers. It is also clear from Fig. 16 that the
actual fin effectiveness of the OSF fin is higher than that of the
plain fin in the range of Re < 1000, which illustrates that OSF fin
performs better than plain fin in low Re region. Besides, the ef,act
values for the two types of fin surfaces increase initially and then
decrease as Re increases. The maximum value of ef,act for the OSF
fin appears when the Re number reaches about 550, and the opti-
mum Re number for the plain fin is in the vicinity of 1200.
4.3 Geometrical Effects of OSF Fin on Actual Fin
Effectiveness. The geometrical attributes of OSF fin have been
introduced in the foregoing. In this section, the effects of fin
thickness-to-height ratio a and fin density c are investigated with the
method given in Ref. [37] because these two parameters, which
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Fig. 16 Behavior of the actual fin effectiveness in terms of
Reynolds number
Fig. 17 The front-fin-end area Affe of OSF fins
Fig. 18 ef,act versus c with Affe/t2 as a parameter for OSF fins
determine the cross-sectional shape of the fin channel, have compre-
hensive effects on the heat transfer performance. The effect of fin
thickness-to-length ratio d is investigated with univariate analysis.
Following Ref. [37], the OSF fins with different cross sections
can be distinguished by the dimensionless parameter Affe/t2 ( ¼ 1/
a þ 1/(2c)  2). The Affe is the front-fin-end area in a unit cell of
the fin, as illustrated in Fig. 17. For a given Affe/t2, the ratios a and
c are mutually related. Thus, the analysis of fin performance can
be conducted efficiently. In addition, it is necessary to keep the
same mass flux for varied fin-channel shapes in the analysis.
The actual fin effectiveness of OSF fin versus fin density with
G ¼ 3 kgm2s1 and with Affe/t2 as a parameter is presented in
Fig. 18. When Affe/t2  100, ef,act increases with the increasing of
fin density. In the region of Affe/t2 > 100, however, ef,act initially
increases and then decreases with an increasing of fin density,
which indicates that higher fin density (or larger fin height) cannot
OCTOBER 2016, Vol. 138 / 101801-7
 5 Conclusions
The fin performance of plain fins and OSF fins is analyzed by
using CFD technique. The characteristics of the conventional fin
efficiency and fin effectiveness are carefully investigated. An
actual fin effectiveness, ef,act, is developed to measure the fin per-
formance of the plate-fin surfaces. The behavior of the actual fin
effectiveness for plain fins and OSF fins is also discussed in detail.
According to the analysis, the conclusions are summarized as
follows:
(1) The ef,act physically represents the ratio of the heat flux
over the secondary surface and that over the primary sur-
face. This parameter takes into account the effects of the
questionable idealizations in the conventional fin efficiency
concept. The larger the value of the actual fin effectiveness,
the higher is the thermal performance of the fin surface.
(2) The fin performance of OSF fin is higher than that of the
plain fin with the same cross section in relatively low Re
Fig. 19 ef,act versus c with mass flux G as a parameter for OSF region, while plain fins perform better when Re > 1000.
fins For a specific OSF fin and plain fin, there is optimum Re
number corresponding to the highest fin performance.
(3) The effects of the geometric parameters of OSF fin on the
fin performance are comprehensive. Overall, for a given
mass flux in the fin channel, the OSF fins with Affe/t2 ¼ 120
perform better than others do when c > 0.07. For a given
groups of OSF fins with the same Affe/t2, there exist specific
a and c which contribute to a peak fin performance, and the
special c (or a) increases (or decreases) with the increasing
of mass flux. In addition, the OSF fins with large d are bet-
ter choices in low Re region, while those with small d are
more suitable for use under the condition of relatively high
Re number.

Acknowledgment
The authors acknowledge the financial support provided by
Funds of National Key Technology R&D Program of China
(2012BAA08B03), National Natural Science Foundation of China
(51376142), and the Specialized Research Fund for the Doctoral
Program of University by MOE China (20130201110069).
Fig. 20 Actual fin effectiveness of OSF fin in terms of fin
thickness-to-length ratio
Nomenclature
A¼ area (m2)/total heat transfer surface area (m2)
always contribute to higher fin performance. This can be Ac ¼ free-flow area (m2)
explained by the fact that for the groups of OSF fin channels with Afb ¼ the area of fin base (m2)
larger Affe/t2, the decrease of mean heat flux on the secondary Affe ¼ the front-fin-end area of OSF fin
surfaces is more considerable than that on the primary surfaces in Aw;cp ¼ the wall area of the covered plate (m2)
fin channels with an increase of fin density according to the inter- b¼ thickness of the covered plate
mediate results. It is also seen from Fig. 18 that the OSF fins with cp ¼ specific heat at a constant pressure (J kg1 K1)
Affe/t2 ¼ 120 perform better than other groups when fin density c Dh ¼ hydraulic diameter of fin channel (m)
is more than 0.07. The actual fin effectiveness of OSF fin versus f¼ Fanning friction factor
fin density with Affe/t2 ¼ 140 and with mass flux G as a parameter G¼ mass flux (kg m2 s1)
is shown in Fig. 19. With G ¼ constant, ef,act passes through a h¼ height of the OSF fin (m)
peak value as the c increases. The fin density that contributes to hc ¼ heat transfer coefficient (W m2 K1)
peak ef,act increases with increasing values of mass flux. hc;app ¼ apparent heat transfer coefficient (W m2 K1)
Figure 20 presents the actual fin effectiveness versus fin j¼ Colburn factor
thickness-to-length ratio for OSF fin. The Re number is employed l¼ fin length of the OSF fin (m)
as a parameter since the fins have the same cross section. The L¼ total length of fin channel (m)
studied d range is from 0.013 to 0.05. It can be seen that the ef,act p¼ pressure (Pa)
increases with an increase of d when the Re number is less than Pr ¼ Prandtl number
500. In the range of Re  500, the actual fin effectiveness passes q¼ heat flux (W m2)
through peak values as the ratio d increases. The d value that cor- Q¼ heat transfer rate (W)
responds to the peak ef,act decreases with the increase of Re num- Re ¼ Reynolds number
ber. These results indicate that the OSF fins with relatively large d s¼ fin spacing (m)
perform better in low Re region, while those with small d are St ¼ Stanton number
more appropriate to operate under the condition of relatively high t¼ fin thickness (m)
Re number. As shown in Fig. 20, the envelope curve is plotted T¼ temperature (K)
approximately in dashed line, which helps to select the OSF fins Tbulk ¼ bulk temperature of fluid (K)
conveniently in the design of a plate-fin heat exchanger. u¼ velocity (m s1)

101801-8 / Vol. 138, OCTOBER 2016 Transactions of the ASME

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