Air-Side Heat Transfer Enhancement With a Novel Self-Agitator

Plate fin heat exchanger is widely used for air side cooling. To enhance its thermal performance, a novel self-agitator for air-side heat transfer enhancement was developed and validated both numerically and experimentally. Self-Agitator made of 3D printing material connected to well-designed metal beam was placed between the plate fins. It could lose stability and start to oscillate in the channel due to fluid structure interaction. The oscillation enhanced the mixing so that self-agitator can improve the heat transfer in plate fin. Wind tunnel experiment was carried out and self-agitator can save pumping power up to 40% with the same rejected heat. Numerical model was also developed and verified for this fluid-structure interaction process.