Numerical Simulation of Heat Transfer in Finned Tube of Heat Recovery Unit Using Fluid-Solid Coupled Method

Heat recovery unit (HRU) is a heat exchange device in drying process. In HRU, room air is preheated by waste hot air and then transported to drying oven to remove moisture, which helps to save both energy and time. The main purpose of this paper is to build a heat transfer model of HRU and study its characteristics. A numerical method based on fluid-solid coupling was used to calculate the heat transfer between tube and fluids, and the actual structure was simplified to improve computation efficiency. The results were validated by theoretical calculation and experiments. Effects of Reynolds number (Re) on outlet temperature, Nusselt number, and pressure drop were investigated. It was found that the thermal resistance of shell side is large, by reducing which the total heat transfer coefficient can be improved. The difference between finned tube and smooth tube is in the shell side. Larger Re of shell side leads to good heat transfer performance but also larger pressure drop which increases the flow resistance.