Significance of Thermal Contact Resistance on Performance and Size of Finned Tube Heat Exchangers

The findings of various investigators during the past decade have greatly enhanced the ability to accurately analyze, model, design, and optimize finned tube heat exchangers, including those for automotive air conditioning condensers and evaporators. One parameter quite often neglected is the thermal contact resistance which exists for interference-fitted fin-tube geometries. This paper presents the results of including thermal contact resistance as a parameter in estimating the performance of finned tube heat exchangers.