Recent Advancement in Heat Transfer and Fluid Flow Characteristics in Cross Flow Heat Exchanger

Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 113 (2019) 109220
Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/rser
Recent advancement in heat transfer and fluid flow characteristics in cross T

flow heat exchangers
Chidanand K. Mangrulkara,∗, Ashwinkumar S. Dhoblea, Sunil Chamolib, Ashutosh Guptab,
Vipin B. Gawandec
a
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Visvesvaraya National Institute of Technology, Nagpur, India
b
Mechanical Engineering Department, Govind Ballabh Pant Institute of Engineering & Technology, Pauri-Garhwal, Uttarakhand, India
c
Department of Mechanical Engineering, P. R. Pote College of Engineering and Management, Amravati, Maharashtra, India
ARTICLE INFO ABSTRACT
Keywords: The cross-flow heat exchanger is a special type of heat exchanger involving the exchange of heat in the case of
Cross-flow two fluids flowing in an orthogonal direction. The heat exchanger often comprises of a number of cylinders
Heat transfer carrying hot fluid, along with the colder fluid flowing across/over the tubes or cylinders. The system also
Friction factor comprises of additional fins across the tube cross-section along with delta winglets so as to generate the addi-
Vortex generator
tional turbulence for increasing the rate of heat transfer. The addition of vortex generators helps in promoting
Fins
system miniaturization. Moreover, the implementation of the passive techniques in cross-flow heat exchangers
significantly escalates the pumping power requirement. Thereby, the objective of this paper is to carry out a
review on the recent developments and their potential candidature for improving the thermal performance of
heat exchanger. The latest state-of-the-art developments are deeply discussed with its evaluating parameters and
some recommendations are made for further investigation in this area.
1. Introduction are relatively modular in design with low maintenance. However, an

initial study performed by Ganapathy [4,5], Nag [6], Bejan [7] shows
As a result of rapid industrialization in the last 3 decades, there has that the majority of the process heat exchanger employed in industrial
been a significant rise in the demand of energy for industrial, com- applications involves flow over the tube or cylinder surface [8–10].
mercial and domestic use. In order to minimize energy consumption, Amongst the different tubular heat exchangers, the cross-flow heat
compact and efficient thermal transport systems are continuously being exchanger is widely used in industry [11,12]. The cross-flow heat ex-
designed and developed by the researchers. The heat exchanger is changer comprises of flow across multiple cylinders with the develop-
found to be the most important device of any thermal system and ment of boundary layer, flow separation, and vortex formation. Fig. 1
employed in many industrial applications including the regime of the indicates the generalized classification of the cross-flow heat exchanger
domestic and commercial sector. Heat exchangers are mostly deployed for heat transfer enhancement according to the geometry type, fin
in the condensation and evaporation section of the refrigeration unit, surface and with the use of fin and vortex generators.
cooling in power plant, cars radiator, chemical processing unit, solar The requisite of high convective heat transfer in heat exchangers
air/water heater, unit of waste heat recovery, cogeneration, and phar- escalate the development of new techniques of heat transfer enhance-
maceutical industries. The thermal performance enhancement, energy ment that accumulate low friction penalty. The researchers are usually
and material saving of heat exchanger unit can be achieved by esca- focused on the development of methodology with maximum heat
lating the convective heat transfer rate [1,2]. transfer at minimum pressure drop. These advancements inculcate the
The heat exchangers are most commonly used for the exchanger of forced flow of fluid such as air, water, mineral oil, ethylene glycol and
heat in process industries. The heat from the exhaust gaseous is used for other Nano-fluids over the heated surface. The heated surface may be
pre-heating air, water for the various commercial and industrial ap- smooth, rough, stationery or moving, which depend on the applica-
plications. The heat exchangers used in industries are tubular type heat tions. Mainly, heat transfer enhancement methods are classified as an
exchanger such as double pipe heat exchanger, shell and tube type heat active and passive method. The passive method of heat transfer en-
exchanger, plate heat exchanger, etc. [3]. The tubular heat exchangers hancement receives more attention due to ease of application and low
∗
Corresponding author.
E-mail address: cmangrulkar@gmail.com (C.K. Mangrulkar).
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2019.06.027
Received 28 September 2017; Received in revised form 4 November 2018; Accepted 11 June 2019
1364-0321/ © 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
C.K. Mangrulkar, et al. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 113 (2019) 109220
Nomenclature PIV Particle image velocimetry

RWP Rectangular winglet pair
Symbol Description Eu Euler number
Re Reynolds number
Num numerical PDR Pitch to tube diameter ratio
Exp experimental f friction factor
EHD Electro-hydrodynamic j Colburn factor
Cir circular Cp Coefficient of pressure
long longitudinal ε Effectiveness of heat exchanger
Ri Richardson number Pr Prandtl number
η Efficient of heat exchanger CD coefficient of drag
Nu Nusselt number CL coefficient of lift
Se secondary flow intensity VG Vortex generators
Sc Schmidt number St Stanton number
PEC performance evaluation criteria Sh Sherwood number
Fig. 1. General classification of the cross-flow heat exchanger.
cost. The passive methods are simple and thus do not require any ex- exchangers. The present study will be beneficial in terms of selection of
ternal power and usually utilize the modified surfaces and/or insertion the suitable passive enhancement method for the cross-flow heat ex-
of vortex generators in the flow direction. This technique significantly changer for improving the overall thermal performance of the system,
altered the thermal and fluid flow fields and escalate the convective based on flow Reynolds number, pressure drop characteristics and type
rate of heat transfer by altering the boundary layer and vortex forma- of applications. The main aim of this review article is to highlight the
tion. Recently, researchers developed some new devices with surface recent advances which affect the performance of heat exchangers that
modification [13–15], insertion of vortex generators [16,17]. The directly employed in the industrial applications [10,18,19]. Building on
vortex generators generate the fluid turbulence and enhance the overall other published review papers [20–22] this paper aims to update the
thermal performance of the system. The development of the cross-flow research progress and development in heat exchangers in the last
heat exchangers for increased heat transfer rate is achieved by finning decade. In this paper, various devices and their characteristics are re-
the tubes of different tube geometry and pitch ratios. The latest de- ported and discussed with the key contribution for the rise in the
velopment is the use of the vortex generators or winglets so as to in- overall thermal performance in terms of Nusselt number and pressure
crease the fluid turbulence. drop or friction factor. The overall thermal performance is reported for
The present work explains in brief about the development of cross- the various passive configurations such as tube pitch ratio, vortex size,
flow heat exchangers from bare cylinder array to the use of vortex fin pitch, and flow Reynolds number. Recent developments in cross-
generators over fin surface along with the major technical challenges flow heat exchangers including the innovative application areas and
and areas which has not been much investigated so as to enhance the various experimental and theoretical investigations of them are sum-
effectiveness of the cross-flow heat exchanger. However, the con- marized and reported. Moreover, from the conclusive outcomes of this
solidated study of review work which comprises of experimental, nu- review, the new research directions are also targeted and addressed.
merical and analytical study on various passive enhancement process is
very limited. With the intent to get better insight into the latest de-
velopment in the area of cross-flow tube bank, it is necessary to carry 2. Thermal and hydraulic characteristics of the heat exchanger
out the present study which represents the overview of the different
passive enhancement methods pertaining to the cross-flow heat The thermal and hydraulic characteristics of any heat exchanger
depend on the rate of heat transfer enhancement along with friction
2
transfer rate. The flow visualization gets disturbed and the boundary
layer gets affected by modifying the surface parameters. The passive
mode involves the change in cross section of the geometry, the or-
ientation of tubes, a variation of the pitch ratio, variation in fin para-
meters as fin pitch and thickness along with vortex generators which
ultimately affects the heat transfer and pressure drop characteristics of
the system. Hence the passive techniques in the heat transfer aug-
mentation are more effective over other methods. This research article
focussed only on the various passive methodologies adopted for the
thermal performance improvement in cross-flow tube bank.
Subsequently, some other methodologies such as the use of Non-
Newtonian fluids as an active technique and multi-optimizations tech-
niques are also discussed in the subsequent section.
Fig. 2. Computational domain [28].
3.1. Enhancement by modifying tube cross-section

factor which is estimated from the pressure drop across the tube bank.
In most of the thermal enhancement techniques, researchers prefer to
The tube cross-section is mostly the circular one, but however, nu-
estimate the rise in the Nusselt number for the various test geometries
merous researchers aimed at achieving better heat transfer and thermal
[23]. However, the rise in the Nusselt number with a drastic rise in the
performance by shifting from the conventional circular section to more
pressure drop across the tube section is not advantageous. The perfor-
streamline tube sections. The various sections such as elliptic, oval,
mance of the thermal and hydraulic characteristics for the heat ex-
tubular sections are used to promote better energy interaction in a
changer is proposed by Webb et al. [24], by considering both heat
cross-flow mode. The foundation work related to circular tube cross-
transfer and friction factor characteristics. Numerous researchers make
flow is performed by Roshko et al. [25–27] indicating the flow dy-
use of the proposed correlation for estimating the overall thermal
namics representing the wake and vortex at the cylinder downstream as
performance of the heat exchanger [14]. The proposed relation is also
flow past over the circular cylinder. The effective control on the wake
termed as Webb efficiency and most commonly used for the passive
and the vortex formation could represent in the enhance heat transfer
mode of heat transfer enhancement. The magnitude of the Webb effi-
from the cylinder. The numerical simulation, initially based on the 2-D
ciency greater than unity suggests the superiority of the test geometry
finite element method as a lack of computational power and storage
over the baseline configurations. In addition to this, some of the re-
memory was the major hurdle in computation. Buyruk [28] numerically
searchers prefer Colburn factor and Fanning friction factor as the per-
studied heat transfer characteristics on tandem cylinders, in-line and
formance evaluating parameters for the cross-flow heat exchangers, as
staggered tube banks in the cross flow of air by finite element method.
pressure drop decreases the overall thermal and hydraulic performance
The variation in the tube pitch ratio was 1.13, 2, 3, and 6 while the
of the heat exchanger.
Reynolds number was maintained constant at 400. The three isothermal
cylinder and four isothermal cylinders were selected for the staggered
3. Modes of thermal performance enhancement and in-line configuration as shown in Fig. 2.
Narayana et al. [29] performed the finite element simulation of
The heat transfer process in any heat exchanger can be incorporated transient laminar flow and heat transfer past an in-line tube bank with a
by active or passive modes of enhancement. The active mode of en- pitch to diameter (PDR) ratio as 1.5 and 2.0 with Reynolds number of
hancement is achieved by changing the fluid flow properties such as 100 and Prandtl number of 0.7. The study revealed that the average
thermal conductivity of the working fluid, flow turbulence by a sec- Nusselt number and friction coefficient are inversely proportional to the
ondary fan or swirl generators. The use of the secondary device requires pitch to diameter ratio of the tube bank. At PDR of 1.5, the higher
the additional prime mover as the source of energy. The provision of the pressure drop is observed, rather than 2.0. Gowda et al. [30] explored
additional energy source is usually difficult in the heat recovery system. the mixed convection finite element analysis over in-line tube bundles
However, the overall cost of the heat exchanger increases along with its for the laminar region. The Reynolds number for the fluid flow con-
weight. The use of alternative active modes of heat transfer enhance- sidered was 50, 100, and 150, with a pitch to diameter ratio as 1.5 and
ment such as the use of Nanofluids is being used since last decades. 2.0 and Prandtl number as 0.71. They explored the effect of Richardson
However, the passive modes of heat transfer enhancement provide number on flow and heat transfer characteristics. The average Nusselt
better control in terms of Nusselt number and pressure drop over the number for the first row tubes increases with increase in Richardson
active techniques. The passive modes do not require any additional number, while for the rest of the rows the change is nominal.
energy so as to drive any prime mover which enhances the heat transfer The non-circular tubes were also frequently used by the numerous
rate. The passive mode of enhancement is achieved by incorporating researchers [31–37]. Ota et al. [31] studied the heat transfer char-
changes in the surface of the flow geometry so as to promote the heat acteristics and flow behavior over an elliptic cylinder with an axis ratio
Fig. 3. Attack angle on the tube side and various aspect ratio of the tube [39].
3
of 1:3. The Reynolds number for cross fluid air varied from 8000 to [36] as depicted in Fig. 7.
79000, with attack angle from 0° to 90°. The highest mean heat transfer They reported high cumulative thermal performance over conven-
coefficient was observed for attack angle range from 60° to 90°, with the tional circular tubes. The elliptical tubes are preferred more over the
lowest value higher than that of the conventional circular cylinder. circular tubes due to reduced drag and thus investigated by numerous
Merker et al. [38] also experimentally studied the heat transfer and researchers in the last decade. Ibrahim et al. [35] experimentally and
pressure drop for a staggered tube bank with oval tubes by using the numerically studied the thermal performance of elliptic tubes in
mass transfer analogy which makes use of naphthalene. The pumping crossflow. The study incorporates Reynolds number from 5600 to
power is relatively low in case of the oval tube due to the lower frontal 40000, aspect ratio from 0.25 to 1 and flow angle from 0° to 150° in the
area over the conventional circular tubes. In a similar way, Aiba [32] interval of 30°. The adopted geometry is represented in Fig. 8. They
investigated the heat transfer in case of circular in-line tubes near the concluded that the increase in attack angle increases the rate of heat
plane wall at Reynolds number ranging from 8000 to 40000. The transfer, with a maximum thermal performance at 0° attack angle. In
Nusselt number was estimated by varying the wall clearance and the continuation, Berbish [42] also examined the heat transfer and flow
tube pitch to diameter ratio. Toolthaisong et al. [39] studied the effect behavior around four staggered elliptic cylinders in crossflow. The el-
of attack angles on airside thermal and pressure drop of the cross-flow liptic cylinders were arranged in a staggered manner with the aspect
heat exchanger with a staggered arrangement of flat tubes as indicated ratio as 1:2 with zero attack angle. The elliptic tubes were placed with
in Fig. 3. the longitudinal and transverse tube spacing ratio ranges from 1.5 to
They reported that the aspect ratio of 0.18 provides the maximum 4.0, as indicated in Fig. 9.
area normal to flow attack. The pressure drop parameter is also similar The result predicted that for the smaller longitudinal tube spacing
to heat transfer characteristics. The maximum thermal performance is for Reynolds number less and greater than 14000, the maximum value
at 0° for each aspect ratio and minimum at 90° attack angle. Anand of a local Nusselt number is at two points nearest to the leading edge of
et al. [33] extended the work of Toolthaisong et al. [39] by integrating the tested downstream cylinder, whereas for higher spacing ratio the
both in-line and staggered arrangements. The schematic layout of the maximum value is at the leading edge. Apart from the heat transfer
tube bank used is depicted in Fig. 4. aspect the drag and the wake formation in the case of the elliptic tube
The effect of Reynolds number along with longitudinal and trans- were also studied. Faruquee et al. [43] investigated the effect of aspect
verse pitch was studied on heat transfer and pressure drop character- ratio on laminar fluid flow around an elliptical cylinder for estimation
istics. The circular tubes are superior to the flat tubes in case of heat of drag coefficient and wake around the cylinder. It is observed that the
transfer rate only, while flat tubes are preferred in case of only lower size of the wake at the cylinder downstream decreases as the aspect
pressure drop characteristics. Hence there is a need to investigate the ratio of the tube is reduced from 1.0. The drag coefficient is found to
optimum aspect ratio along with tube pitch ratio for the overall thermal increase with the increase of aspect ratio of the tube. The pressure drag
performance of the flat tubes considering the combined effect of heat is very high with an aspect ratio greater than 0.60. The effect of pro-
transfer and pressure drop within tube banks. Horvat et al. [34] com- gressive attack angle was explored by Alawadhi [44]. In their study, the
pared the heat transfer conditions in the tube bundle cross flow for laminar forced convection past over an in-line elliptical cylinder with
different tube shapes. The author interested in finding the drag coeffi- progressive inclination from 0° of the first cylinder to 90° for the last
cient and the Stanton number for the different tube bundles. The three cylinder was investigated. The used geometrical configurations of el-
different types of tubes were – cylindrical, ellipsoidal, and wing-shaped liptical tubes are as depicted in Fig. 10.
as indicated in Fig. 5. The pitch to diameter ratio in the staggered ar- The Reynolds number for the flow was in between 125 and 1000.
rangement was varied from 1.125 to 2.0. The result indicates the progressive inclination of the tubes has a re-
The general trend for the drag coefficient and Stanton number is markable impact on the thermal performance, as heat transfer rate in-
same for all geometries. However, drag coefficient and Stanton number creases by 238% along with penalty in pressure drop of 700% respec-
decrease with increasing the Reynolds number. The results show that tively. However, further research continues in the more streamline
the drag coefficient and Stanton number are lower for ellipsoidal and tubes and in this regard Davidson et al. [37] performed numerical si-
wing-shaped tubes than that for the cylindrical tubes. Park et al. [40] mulation of flow field and heat transfer on lenticular and elliptical
estimated the heat transfer characteristics for a circular and elliptic cylinders as shown in Fig. 11.
cylinder in case of in-line configuration. The Reynolds number was The lenticular section is similar to an elliptic tube, but with sharp
varied from 7150 to 50,350 for the two rows of tubes. Fig. 6 shows the leading and trailing edges. The drag and heat transfer coefficient are
orientation of the tube bank in the air tunnel. estimated for elliptical and lenticular tubes with an aspect ratio of 0.3,
The study revealed that the separation of the fluid was delayed in 0.5, and 0.8 while the cross fluid air Reynolds number is from 500 to
case of the elliptic cylinder over the conventional circular cylinder. The 10000. The average Nusselt number of an elliptical or lenticular cy-
Nusselt number for the second row of the cylinder was higher than the linder with an axis ratio of 0.5 and 0.3 is 15–35% lower than that of a
first row of the cylinder. The elliptic cylinder has significantly lower circular cylinder. Zeeshan et al. [45] numerically studied the optimal
friction factor compared to the circular cylinder for the entire range of shape of the tubes for the different tube aspect ratio and tube pitch
Reynolds number. The irregular streamline section such as a cam- ratio. The tubes selected for the numerical study were elliptical and
shaped was also explored by Lavasani et al. [41] and Mangrulkar et al. tubular as illustrated in Fig. 12.
Fig. 4. Flat tube banks: in-line and staggered layout [33].
4
Fig. 5. Heat exchanger tube bundle with circular, elliptical and wing-shaped tubes.
The reduction in the aspect ratio of tubes for both the tube geo-
metries increases the overall performance of the heat exchanger. The
reduction in the j/f factor is observed with the reduction in the aspect
ratio of the elliptical tubes for all the values of flow Reynolds number.
The elliptical tube with an aspect ratio of 0.50 indicates the best overall
thermal performance amongst the other tube configurations. As ellip-
tical tubes indicate the improvement in thermal performance, re-
searchers also investigated the use of twisted oval shaped tubes.
Dongsheng et al. [46] performed the experimental study to evaluate the
heat transfer and pressure drop characteristics over the twisted oval
tubes in cross flow as indicated in Fig. 13.
The flow Reynolds number was varied from 7500 to 18000 so as to
develop the fully turbulent flow conditions. The results signify the rise
of 25-33% in Nusselt number over the circular tubes. As the tubes are
twisted which leads to the rise in the pressure drop by 76-88% over the
circular tubes. The Nusselt number increases with increased Reynolds
number.
In a similar way, to explore more aerodynamic tube profile Ahmed Fig. 7. Cam-shaped in-line tubes [36].
et al. [47] studied the effect of air attack and cone angle on airside
characteristics of wing-shaped tube bundle as indicated in Fig. 14. for vortex shedding suppression was examined at the front surface, a
The result indicated the co-relation for pressure drop in terms of rear surface, and top/bottom surface at Re = 150. The lift and drag
Reynolds number along with various numerically derived contours such fluctuations for the optimum configuration decay and the maximum
as velocity contours, turbulent kinetic energy contours, and fluid flow reduction in the drag force were 61%, 67% and 72% for Re = 70, 100,
field. The pressure drop coefficient has found to be lower and greater 150, respectively. With the ever increasing computational power, the
than circular and elliptic tubes by 36% and 20% respectively. Hence researchers prefer the numerical study to investigate the insight of the
most of the researchers prefer an elliptic tube profile as non-circular conventional circular tube with different pitch ratio, as Lee et al. [50]
tube geometry for tube bank. In addition to the streamline section of the studied the uneven longitudinal pitch effect on tube bank heat transfer.
tube authors also investigated the use of the bluff section of tubes as The computation domain is as shown in Fig. 16.
Chatterjee et al. [48] makes use of square section for 2-D numerical It is found that the transverse pitch governs the maximum Reynolds
mixed convection heat transfer in cross-flow mode at low Reynolds number of the flow within the tube bank with no significant impact on
number of 50–150, as shown in Fig. 15. The front face experiences the heat transfer. The similar study is also performed by Kim [51] and
highest heat transfer rate while the rear face contributes to the claimed that the SST k-ω turbulence model is most suitable for the flow
minimum rate of heat transfer. Sohankar et al. [49] use an additional in tube bank. The reduction in the heat transfer is noticed with the
plate in order to reduce the fluid forces and heat transfer in case of cross increasing the longitudinal pitch. However, if the longitudinal pitch is
flow for a square cylinder in a laminar regime. The optimum condition increased beyond 2.7, no impact on heat transfer rate is observed.
Fig. 6. Elliptic tubes in the air tunnel [40].
5
comparative analysis of Nusselt number for the elliptic tubes at various

attack angle and cam-shaped tubes. The elliptic section [42] with an
aspect ratio of 0.5 in staggered configuration indicates the higher value
of Nusselt number, over the in-line arrangement [40]. The increase in
the attack angle increases the Nusselt number but penalty in pumping
power also increases simultaneously [54]. Hence the thermal perfor-
mance is the best at zero attack angle of the cross fluid for the elliptic
tube profile followed by the lower attack angle. The attack angle of 90°
represents the worst thermal performance even for the elliptic tube
section, due to the intense rise in the pressure drop.
For a better perspective of the reported geometries, the important
work on tube cross-section modification has been listed in Table 1.
3.2. Enhancement by providing the fins over the tube surface
The extended surface heat transfer is the most conventional method

Fig. 8. Schematic of the elliptic tube with attack angle [35].
enhancement of heat transfer by extending the net effective area
available for heat transfer. The conventional method is initially used in
case of the single tube but the extension of it is used in the array of
tubes oriented in the in-line and staggered manner. The fin on the
surface of the tube may a short solid fin or a continuous running fin
over the entire length of the tube.
Mitra et al. [55] studied the conjugate heat transfer of a finned tube
as depicted in Fig. 19 for the circular tube and estimated the flow
pattern, pressure distribution, Nusselt number, and fin efficiency. It
represents the conventional orientation of the fin over the tube surface,
along with hot and cold fluid directions which also resembles the most
simple fin tube configuration.
Balaji et al. [56] studied the optimum design of shell and tube heat
exchanger with low fin tubes depicted in Fig. 20 which have wide ap-
plications in a hypersonic wind tunnel. The tube comprises of integral
Fig. 9. Computational domain for the elliptic cylinders [42].
built-in short fins over the tube length having inside and outside dia-
meter of the finned tube, the root diameter of the fin and mean fin
Mittal et al. [52] studied unsteady incompressible flow past two cy- thickness. The result indicates that the multiple optimum solutions can
linders in tandem and staggered arrangements for Reynolds number of be obtained and is very much suitable for low-pressure drop heat ex-
100 and 1000. The longitudinal distance between the centers is 2.5D to changers up to 50 Pa of stream fluid.
5.5D, while transverse distance as 0.7D, where D is cylinder diameter. It The more simple method was illustrated by Sparrow et al. [57]
is observed that the downward cylinder lies in the wake of the upstream which states that providing the single fin at the front, back, and the
cylinder and experience large unsteady forces. Chen et al. [53] ex- combination of front and back in case of the circular tubes. The sche-
perimentally investigated the thermal performance enhancement of matic of the fins layout is as shown in Fig. 21. The Reynolds number for
staggered tube bundles with metallic foam as depicted in Fig. 17. the cross fluid is up to 8000. The study revealed that by longitudinally
The results indicate that Nusselt number increases with the in- fining, the tube increases the heat transfer rate along with some re-
creased porosity, while the heat transfer rate is relatively low for lower duction in pressure drop in for fins attached to the back side of the
porosity. cylinder over the un-finned tube. In the case of fined tubes at the front
In general, the aerodynamic profile of the tube geometry improves and back ends, both heat transfer rate, and pressure drop increases.
the heat transfer capacity of the heat exchanger. The tube geometry in The further extension of longitudinal finned tube work was carried
the form of flat tubes [33] and lenticular section [37] decreases the heat by Mangrulkar et al. [58] by performing experimental and CFD pre-
transfer rate with a decrease in the pumping power capacity, with a diction of heat transfer and friction factor for staggered tubes in tube
reduced frontal area of the tubes. However, an elliptic section of tube bank with splitter plate as depicted in Fig. 22. The Reynolds number is
profile is considered to be more promising and has been used by the varied from 5500 to 14500 with fin length to tube diameter ratio as 1.
numerous researcher in past decades. Fig. 18 illustrates the They reported superior overall thermal performance than the plain
Fig. 10. Elliptical cylinder array with progressive inclination [44].
6
Fig. 11. Elliptic section and a lenticular

section of the tube [37].
tube. The multiple fin configurations were also studied by the re- 7.95–34.90% over the circular tubes. Increasing the fin height and fin
searchers as Wang et al. [59] studied experimentally and numerically width along with decreasing tube and fin pitch increases the heat
air side performance of fin-and-tube heat exchanger with various fin transferability along with pressure drop for the finned tubes.
patterns as a crimped spiral, plain fin, slit fin, and fin with delta Ghazanfarian et al. [64] numerically investigated unsteady forced
winglets which are as indicated in Fig. 23. convection over a cylinder with radial fins in cross flow as indicated in
The cross fluid Reynolds number varied from 4000 to 10000, with Fig. 28 using open source code Open Foam. The simulations were
Colburn factor, and friction factor, used as an evaluating parameter. performed for flow Reynolds number from 100 to 200, with di-
The result indicates that the crimped spiral fin indicates a higher heat mensionless fin height from 0.15 to 1.50. It was found that by in-
transfer rate along with higher pressure drop relative to the other fin creasing fin height, Strouhal number decreases with increased drag
configurations. The possible reason may be due to the increased velo- coefficient. The best Nu/Cd ratio was obtained for a cylinder with two
city to the fin base as air available to the fluid flow reduces due to the parallel flow fin. The 4 fins represent the best performance for a cy-
fin-tube interface. Vicente et al. [60] introduced the concept of helical linder with fins.
segmented fins depicted in Fig. 24 and performed a comparative study In a similar way, the plain helical fin is also studied by Huisseune
of heat transfer and pressure drop with different semi-empirical models et al. [65]. They performed the thermal hydraulic study of the single
for exhaust flue gas. The results obtained from the semi-empirical row heat exchanger with helically-finned tubes as indicated in Fig. 29.
models are compared with the experimental data. The outside tube side The cross fluid Reynolds number varied from 1000 to 15000 with the
Reynolds number was maintained in the range from 6000 to 11000. The effect of transverse pitch on the thermal performance. They developed
experimental data shows the high precision of above 95% with the co-relation for the Nusselt number and friction factor based on the flow
present Kawaguchi - Gnielinski models. Further optimization is per- Reynolds number and transverse tube pitch ratio. Most of such studies
formed by Franz et al. [61] for serrated helical fin by estimating the of finning each tube are performed on a single tube or cylinder and not
effect of fin twisting. In their study, fluid flow Reynolds number varied on the entire array of tubes. Gross et al. [66] performed a numerical
from 600 to 2600, and effect of fin twisting was studied by maintaining study on fin spacing in case of annular-finned tube heat exchanger and
twist angle as 0° and 25°, respectively along with a number of fin seg- suggests that the boundary layer and horseshoe vortex formation within
ments per pitch of the fin. The serrated fins with and without fin twist the fin spacing significantly increases heat transfer and pressure drop
are indicated in Fig. 25. The result shows that the serrated fins are much characteristics across the tubes. Jacobi et al. [67] conducted air side
superior to the full fins and twist angle up to 10° has no additional thermo-hydraulic performance of flat tube heat exchangers with louv-
pumping power of the cross fluid, while increasing above 15° results in ered, wavy plain fins under dry and wet conditions. The typical louver
deterioration of serrated fins. fin and wavy fin configurations are as shown in Figs. 30 and 31 re-
In as similar way, Nadooshan et al. [62] experimentally performed spectively.
the effect of perforated fins on heat transfer rate from circular tubes as The effect of fin spacing, fin length, fin thickness, and Reynolds
illustrated in Fig. 26. The perforated fins have better heat transfer ef- number is observed on Colburn factor and friction factor. It was re-
fects at the lower range of Reynolds number. Apart from the reduction ported that the louver fin facilitates the mass transfer on either side of
in weight, the perforated fins increase the heat transfer rate by 8-9%, the fin surface through the louver opening which is unique amongst the
while at higher Reynolds number heat transfer rate decreases, relative other fin surface. The louver angle is the measure of the intensity of
to the non-perforated fins. mass transfer. Wu et al. [68] extended the work on louver fin around
Xu et al. [63] performed the numerical simulation of flow and heat the tube heat exchanger by considering the dimensionless parameter,
transfer characteristics of aligned external three-dimensional rectan- which comprises of equivalent Colburn factor and friction factor. The
gular fins over circular tubes as indicated in Fig. 27. The effect of fin four louver fin design with different louver angles were used to de-
height, fin thickness and fin pitch are evaluated and compared with the termine the air-side heat transfer performance. However, performance
bare circular tubes. The Nusselt number is reported to be increased by evaluation criteria remain the same as used by Jacobi et al. [67] which
Fig. 12. Variation in the flattened and elliptical tubes [45].
7
Fig. 13. Twisted oval tubes.
68-53% of the total heat transfer as the cross fluid velocity is increased.
The optimum value of the dimensionless parameter was found to be
0.62.
Duan et al. [69] numerically studied the use of intermittent wavy
finned flat tube heat exchanger in cross flow for heat transfer char-
acteristics as shown in Fig. 32. The impact of fin spacing, wave spacing,
wave amplitude, and flow Reynolds number on the heat transfer per-
formance were investigated. The longitudinal and transverse vortices
were generated with the use of intermittent wavy fins which increases
the heat transfer rate of the system. The optimum heat transfer char-
acteristics are obtained for fin spacing of 3.0 mm, wave spacing of
9.5 mm, and a wave amplitude of 2.3 mm.
Apart from the conventional cross-flow heat exchanger, Liu et al.
[70] investigated the theoretical model for air-to-air cross flow heat
exchanger with the corrugated aluminum spacer as indicated in Fig. 33.
The frosting limit of the heat exchangers was determined and vali-
Fig. 14. Flow across the wing-shaped tube [47].
dated with the earlier empirical experimental findings. The effect of
aspect ratio of the aluminum spacer, flow rate of air, and permeability
of the membrane was investigated on the frosting limits. The present
model critical temperature for frosting is 5-10 °C lower than the con-
ventional cross-flow heat exchanger. The further extension of the cor-
rugated aluminum spacer is a novel cross flow plate type heat ex-
changer proposed by Wu et al. [71]. The novel cross flows to the heat
exchanger is developed by stacking two pieces of the same plate with a
unique process to develop an elliptical or oval channel as indicated in
Fig. 34.
The proposed design was more suitable for the phase change ap-
plications from the gas to the liquid phase. The present plate air heater
is more advantageous over conventional finned tube heat exchangers
with increased heat transfer efficiency; lower production cost of fins
and corrugated surface for cross fluid.
Fig. 15. Schematic layout of the computational domain [48]. However, apart from the latest advancement in the different types of
the fin surface, the conventional plain fins are also preferred for the
comprises of Colburn and friction factor. The flow pattern shows that various applications. Lee et al. [72] experimentally explored the air side
the louver fin directed the fluid flow with strong interfering mass heat transfer characteristics for the flat plate finned tube heat ex-
transfer through the louver fin opening. The first row contributes to the changer with large fin pitches under frosting conditions. The
Fig. 16. Computational domain of the tube bank and boundary condition [50].
8
Fig. 17. Staggered tube bank with metal foam.
developed multiple co-relations on the air side heat transfer and friction
factor characteristics in a tube bank as depicted in Fig. 37 with con-
sidering the effect of Reynolds number, tube pitch, and fin pitch.
It was found that the Nusselt number and friction factor decreases
with an increase in a number of tube rows, and increases with an in-
crease in the tube diameter. Similarly, an increase in fin pitch also in-
creases pressure drop in tube banks. The correlation developed are in
good agreement with the experimental data obtained from the earlier
studies. The extension of the circular tube study is performed by
changing the tube geometry to the elliptic tube by Matos et al. [75]
which considers the effect of tube spacing, eccentricity, fin spacing for
the Reynolds number from 852 to 1065. The elliptic tube has a relative
gain of 19% enhancement in heat transfer over a circular tube due to
streamline tube section. The tubes were oriented in a similar way as in
the case of Xie et al. [74]. The plain thin fin is most convenient fin
surface, as it can accommodate different orientation of the tube since
Wang et al. [76] performs criteria for the conjugate numerical method
in the study of heat transfer characteristics of the flat tube-fin heat
exchanger. The flat tube and fin orientation are shown in Fig. 38.
The study determines the criteria for selecting the system as a
constant temperature numerical model or a conjugate system with the
Fig. 18. Nusselt number for the elliptical and other aerodynamic tube profile.
magnitude of fin efficiency. When the fin efficiency is greater than 80%,
the constant temperature numerical model is suitable, while for lower
experimentation performed on the 4-row tube with 30 mm pitch with efficiency index of the fin, a conjugate method is applicable as variation
the continuous fin of 0.2 mm thickness, along with the longitudinal and in Nusselt number is higher than 5%.
transverse length of 30 mm and 65 mm respectively as shown in Fig. 35. The very few studies make use of Large Eddy Simulation (LES) as Lai
The fin pitch is to be varied from 7.5 mm to 15 mm, with air flow rate is et al. [77] performed LES on the plain fin and tube heat exchanger with
maintained at 1.4 m3/min. They revealed that the Nusselt number in- small diameter tubes. The computational domain is as shown in Fig. 39
creases by 123% and 93% with the increase of fin pitch from 7.5 mm to which is similar to that of Xie [74]. The heat transfer coefficients of
15 mm due to the increase in Reynolds number, and reduction in the smaller tubes are much higher than large tubes with much better fin
possibility of boundary layer interruption within the fins. The effect of efficiency as high as 0.92 is obtained. The plate-fin and tube heat ex-
large fin pitch was investigated by Choi et al. [73]. The selected geo- changers are preferred if the pressure drop penalty can be permitted.
metry for investigation is depicted in Fig. 36. The experimentation is The fin pitch for the thin continuous plain fin is constant for the entire
performed in open air close refrigerant loop with Ethylene glycol-water tube array, however, the variation in the fin pitch is obtained by finning
is used as a refrigerant. The outer tube diameter was 8 mm with each tube individually with a number of fins. Zhao et al. [78] nu-
transverse tube pitch as 26 mm, while longitudinal pitch varied from 1 merically studied the air side performance on rectangular finned el-
to 7 mm. The fin pitch was varied from 7.5 to 15 mm, with the air mass liptical tubes in a turbulent flow regime as indicated in Fig. 40.
flow rate from 1.1 to 1.7 m3/min. They concluded that for fin pitch 7- The effect of tube pitch ratio, fin pitch, fin thickness, and Reynolds
15 mm, j factor of the finned tube was about 6-11% higher than con- number were investigated for the thermo-hydraulic performance of
tinuous plate-fin type, while staggered arrangement was 5.5% higher tube bank. The fin pitch and thickness affect the fin efficiency, with a
than in-line arrangement. Nusselt number for each of the rows as almost stable with a maximum
The higher heat transfer rate can be achieved by using plain fin by variation of 9%. They proposed correlations for the air side heat
reducing the fin pitch along with staggered tube configuration as sug- transfer and friction factor with and without considering the effect of
gested by Xie et al. [74]. They performed the parametric study and fin thermal resistance.
9
Table 1
Summary of the work performed by changing the tube cross section in case of the cross-flow heat exchanger.
Author and Year Nature of study Tube shape Re range orientation Co-relations/Evaluation criteria
Buyruk [28] (2002) num cir 400 tandem N/A

Narayan [29] (1998) num cir 100 In-line Cp = 2 (P Pin)
Gowda [30] (1998) num cir 50-150 In-line Richardson number (Ri = Gr/Re2)
Ota [31] (1984) exp elliptic 8000-79000 single Num = A.Ren
Merker [38] (1986) exp oval 4000-40000 staggered Sherwood No, Sh = 0.442Re0.622
Aiba [32] (1990) exp cir 8000-40000 4 tubes in-line Num = 0.103(p/d) 0.12(c/d)0.23Re0.74
Toolthaisong [39] (2013) exp tubular 4000-10500 staggered Nua =

ha .dh 2. p
f=
ka u2max .Nr
Anand [33] num tubular 25-400 In-line and staggered N/A
Horvat [34] (2006) num Wing, elliptic, cir 400-4500 staggered St. and drag = f(dh, Re)
Park [40] (2015) exp and num elliptic 7150- 50,350 In-line havg .D
Nuavg =
k
2. p.H
f=
.V2.L
Lavasani [41] (2014) and Mangrulkar [36] exp and num cam 10500-42500 In-line Nuavg.cam /Nuavg.cir
=
(2017) fcam /fcir
Ibrahim [35] (2009) exp and num elliptic 5600-40000 staggered
()
1.11
=1.41Re 2.65Pr 0.33 a (sin( + 10)) 15.33
b
Berbish [42] (2011) exp and num elliptic 400-50000 In-line staggered
( )
0.023 S y 0.018
Num /Nu s,m = 0.435(Re) 0.124 ( )
Sx
c c
Faruquee [43] (2007) num elliptic 40 Single cylinder CD=0.37AR2+0.69AR+0.465
CDp=0.43AR2+0.57AR+0.004
CDf=0.0578AR+0.476
Alawadhi [44] (2010) num elliptic 125-1000 Inline Nu (Nu) =0
(Nu) enh = x100
(Nu) =0
Davidson [37] (2006) num lenticular 500-10000 Single cylinder Elliptical and lenticular
0.4±0.1 0.554±0.008
NuD,e = (0.37±0.03) o,e ReD,e
NuD,l = (0.3±0.1) 0.46±0.06Re 0.60±0.05
o,l D,l
Zeeshan [45] (2017) num Elliptical tubular 400-900 In-line staggered j = St. Pr2/3
Zhu [46] (2018) exp Oval 8000-15000 staggered Nu = 0.42884Re0.57491 Pr0.33
Ahmed [47] (2015) exp. and num Wing shaped 2000-10000 staggered
P= a+ b(Rea )+ c 1 + (
) + d(Re ) 90 a
2
( ) + f(Re )(1 + )
2
+e 1+ a
90 90
Chatterjee [48] (2013) num square 50-150 Two cylinders CL = CLP + CLV =
2.F L
.u2 d
2.FD
CD = CDP + CDV =
.u2 d
Sohankar [49] (2015) num square 70-150 One cyl. Nu=0.575Re0.419 + 23.328 110.325 Re3.461
Nu=0.827Re0.294 + 0.067 Re1.150
Lee [50] (2013) num cir 500-2000 In-line
NuD,i = C1 .f ( ) Re SL
D
0.80
D,max Pr
0.33
Kim [51] (2013) num cir 5000-30000 In-line Nu

= 1.0 2.260.exp( 1.675SL)
NuZukauskas
Mittal [52] (1997) num cir 100 and 1000 Tandem and Strouhal number
staggered
Chen [53] (2018) exp cir 100-1000 staggered Nuwa = 1.86(Rewa. Prwa/L.Din)0.33
Fig. 19. Finned tube heat exchanger [55].

Fig. 20. Geometric orientation of integral low fin tube [56].
Wang et al. [79] performed extensive experiments on the wavy fin-

Reynolds number in the range of 400–8000. They reported that the fin
and-tube heat exchanger to estimate the heat transfer and friction factor
pitch and number of tubes rows has a negligible impact on Colburn
characteristics by incorporating a different number of tubes, fin pitch,
factor and friction factor respectively. Due to the wavy fin surface, the
and flow arrangements as illustrated in Fig. 41. The performance is
thermal boundary layer resulting in higher fluid turbulence and hence
evaluated on the basis of the friction factor, and Colburn factor for the
the rate of heat transfer is more than plain fins.
10
Fig. 21. Finned tubes at the a) front (F), b) Back (B), and c) Front and back end (F&B) [57].
Fig. 22. Schematic of tube bank with a splitter plate [58].
He et al. [80] performed three-dimensional numerical studies for

heat transfer through plain plate fin-and-tube heat exchangers using
field synergy principle. The effect of Reynolds number, fin pitch, tube Fig. 24. Helically segmented finned tube [60].
row number, span wise and longitudinal tube pitch on thermal per-
formance was observed. The schematic orientation is shown in Fig. 42. condition by considering different fin pitches and a number of tube
They concluded that the synergy between the velocity and the tem- rows. They concluded that for the oval tubes, the effect of fin pitch on
perature gradient is poor with the increased Reynolds number. The friction factor and Colburn factor is not significant. H-type finned tube
similar synergy field principle in the case of wavy fin heat exchangers bank as depicted in Fig. 44 was explored by Jin et al. [84]. They used
with elliptic tubes was also conducted by Tao et al. [81] by developing field synergy principle to investigate the performance characteristics.
the three-dimensional numerical model. The effect of Reynolds number, The effect of several parameters such as fin thickness, slit width, fin
eccentricity, fin pitch, fin thickness, and tube spanwise pitch was in- height, fin pitch, along with tube pitch ratio on heat transfer and
vestigated on the wavy fin and elliptic tube heat exchangers as depicted pressure drop were evaluated.
in Fig. 43. The study revealed that the tube pitch and slit width are the most
The results show that the average Nusselt number and friction factor and the least important parameter affecting the thermal performance of
decreases with the increase in the tube eccentricity, and an increase of the system. The performance characteristics of the herringbone wavy
spanwise tube pitch while increases with the increase in the fin thick- fin pattern as depicted in Fig. 45 was explored by Wang et al. [85]. They
ness. They reported that an elliptic tube can enhance the heat transfer performed regression analysis by varying longitudinal pitch, transverse
by 30% by incorporating 10% increase in the penalty for the friction pitch, wave height, and fin collar outside diameter.
factor. Yan and Sheen [82] experimentally studied heat transfer and The results indicated that the proposed heat transfer and friction
friction factor characteristics of fin-and-tube heat exchangers by con- factor co-relation are 91% and 85% within 15% with the mean devia-
sidering a different sample of plate fin, wavy fin, and louvered fins. In tion of 6.89% and 8.82% respectively. Singh et al. [86] perform studied
the continuation Kim et al. [83] also investigated the airside perfor- on the fin profile to improve the overall thermal performance and to
mance of oval tube heat exchangers having sine wave fins under wet
Fig. 23. Different types of fin configurations [59].
11
Fig. 25. Serrated fin with and without twisting [61].
reduce the weight of the heat exchangers. The constant fin-base

thickness and variable fin-base were studied with a rectangular fin
profile as the base configuration as indicated in Fig. 46. The heat
transfer and pressure drop are evaluated for Reynolds number from
5000 to 13000. The Nusselt number, Euler number and efficiency index
are evaluated for predicting the overall thermal performance of the
system. The results show that the overall thermal performance in-
creases by 7-17% with a reduction in the weight by 27-7% by changing
the aspect ratio of the fin from 1.0 to 0.10 respectively. Fig. 27. Rectangular fins over circular tubes.
From the above rigorous review on the usage of fins for thermal
performance improvement of the heat exchanger, it is observed that the
pitch and the thickness of the fin are critically depended on the tube
bank array size. As numerous work is performed by the researcher
across the globe with the different orientation of fin surface to promote
the better heat dissipation ability relative analysis of the fin surface for
thermal performance is necessary. In general, cross tubes in tube banks
are finned by individual fins [60,61,64] as helical, serrated, rectangular
or by the continuous fin. Furthermore, individual fins are preferred
when the tube pitch ratio is more than 3.0 D, to facilitate the fluid
movement on either side of the tubes and fin. The individual fins in-
volve higher production cost along with higher pressure drop across the
air side, as flow disturbances are increased. Hence the continuous fins
are preferred and more frequently used in industrial appliances. Fig. 47
illustrates the comparative analysis of H-type fins over individual tubes
and rectangular plain fins over the tubes in cross flow. The H-type of
fins represents the enhancement of 5-7% rise in Nusselt number over Fig. 28. Cylinder with radial fins.
the rectangular fin surface, for Reynolds number less than 10000. With
the increase in the Reynolds number, the Nusselt number remains the
for thermal enhancement. Fig. 48 represents the Nusselt number and
same for both the fin surface. The H-type of fin represents the higher
friction factor for thin continuous and wavy fins. As illustrated, the
pressure drop at the lower Reynolds number while at higher Reynolds
wavy continuous fins represent the improved heat transfer rate along
number rectangular fins have a higher drop in pressure of the order of
with higher pressure drop characteristics. With the increase in the flow
10%. But considering the complexity involved in the manufacturing
Reynolds number, the Nusselt number and friction factor increases for
and assembly of slotted fins, the thin continuous fins are more fre-
the wavy fins, due to increased turbulence by the fin surface. The rate of
quently used in the industrial applications.
increase in Nusselt number and friction factor is higher at higher Rey-
As thin plain fins are more advantageous in terms of heat transfer
nolds number. The fin thickness is directly proportional to the pressure
with relatively lower pressure drop, thin wavy fins are more beneficial
Fig. 26. Circular finned tubes: a) unperforated, and b) perforated.
12
different shapes of vortex generators to escalate the convective heat

transfer. As the fluid flows across the tube surface, there is a formation
of wake and vortex at the tube downstream. The proper control me-
chanism is needed so as to redirect the fluid flow at the tube down-
stream which will further enhance the thermal performance. So there is
a strong need for the vortex generators or winglets. The vortex gen-
erators are of various shapes such as delta shaped, short length ex-
tended surfaces. The winglets are designed to increase the turbulence
level by generating the secondary flow with the minimum drop in the
pressure field. The area of the winglet reduced along its length further
Fig. 29. Tube with helical fin [65]. offers less resistance to the fluid flow. The higher turbulence is gener-
ated by creating swirl motion in the fluid flow region. The vortex
generators may be punched out or externally mounted on the fins [22].
In the case of the punched surface, conduction paths in the fin gets
arrested along with different vortex is generated due to punched fin.
Hence it is preferred to mount the vortex generator on the fin surface,
rather than punching the fin. The research finding of the different au-
thors incorporating the delta winglet as the vortex generators is dis-
cussed in the following section.
The initial work was carried out by Biswas et al. [90] which aimed
at heat transfer enhancement can be achieved by providing the winglet
type of vortex generator. The numerical simulation shows that the
Fig. 30. Typical louver fin tube arrangement. presence of the winglet at the cylinder downstream in the wake region,
enhance the heat transfer as high as 240% over the bare cylinder. Liou
drop, as higher fin thickness increases the pumping power of cross fluid. et al. [91] studied the heat transfer and fluid flow in a square duct with
However, lower fin thickness will lead to the uniform temperature as 12 different shaped vortex generators. The fluid flow pattern is ob-
that of the tube surface henceforth the Nusselt number increases. served by Laser-Doppler velocimeter, while the Reynolds number is
Similar observations were observed in case of continuous inter- maintained constant as 12000. The different vortex generators are in
mittent fin for the circular and flat tubes. However, intermittent fins form of - oblique, broken V-shaped, while V-shaped, delta wing, delta
promote the superior heat transfer over plain fin due to surface irre- winglet with common flow up and common flow down arrangements.
gularities. The trend for the Nusselt number and friction factor remain Amongst the different vortex generators, V-shaped 45°, and delta wing
the same in case of flat or circular tubes. The wavy and intermittent fins vortex generator with flow up configuration provides the highest pitch
indicate around 50% rise in the Nusselt number over the plain fin. The averaged Nusselt number enhancement ratio of 2.5. A similar way of
staggered tube layout will further increase the rate of heat transfer in flow visualization of annular delta winglet vortex generators in fin-and-
the cross fluid across the tubes. tube heat exchanger applications is also performed by Lo et al. [92] by
Similar observations were observed in case of continuous inter- utilizing the dye-injection technique in a water tunnel. It was observed
mittent fin for the circular and flat tubes as depicted in Fig. 49. How- that the longitudinal vortices are formed at the tube downstream, and
ever, intermittent fins promote the superior heat transfer over plain fin the strength of the rotating vortices increases with an increase in the
due to surface irregularities. The trend for the Nusselt number and height of the annular vortex. This lead to the basis for enhancing the
friction factor remain the same in case of flat or circular tubes. The heat transfer rate by providing the vortex generator of various config-
wavy and intermittent fins indicate around 50% rise in the Nusselt uration and angle in the case of the cross-flow heat exchanger by
number over the plain fin. The staggered tube layout will further in- considering the minimum penalty in the pressure drop.
crease the rate of heat transfer in the cross fluid across the tubes. Torii et al. [93] experimentally studied the heat transfer along with
The summary of the work performed by considering the different pressure drop for winglet type vortex generators for fin-tube heat ex-
orientation of the fin surface is presented in Table 2. changers for common flow up and common flow down configurations.
The schematic layout of the vortex generators is as shown in Fig. 50.
The Reynolds number in the range of 250–2100 was maintained.
3.3. Enhancement by providing vortex generators (VG) The in-line and staggered configuration of the tube bank indicates heat
transfer enhancement of the order of 10-20% and 10-30% respectively
The passive enhancement methodology involving the use of along with an increase in the pressure drop of 8-15% and 34-55%
Fig. 31. Fin configuration-a) Louver fin and b) wavy fin.
13
Fig. 32. Finned flat tube with wavy fins.
respectively. The extension of the winglet flow configuration work is

performed by Jain et al. [94] and Tiwari et al. [95] in the case of oval
finned tube cross-flow heat exchanger as depicted in Fig. 51.
The placement of the delta winglet behind the tube surface results in
significant separation delay, reduction in the size of the wake, along
with the removal of the zone of poor heat transfer near wake of the
tubes. They reported 43% enhancement in the heat transfer for the case
of two winglet pairs in staggered mode. Shi et al. [96] identified the
optimal fin spacing for three-row flat tube bank with vortex generators
as depicted in Fig. 52 by experimental and numerical simulations. The
effect of the three different fin spacing as 4, 5, and 6 mm is used.
In a similar way, Wang et al. [97] and Chang et al. [98] investigated
the local/average heat and mass transfer and developed a relationship
between the rate of heat transfer enhancement and absolute vorticity
flux along the main flow direction over flat tube bank embedded with
delta winglets. The tubes orientation is similar to that of Shi et al. [96].
The results indicate that a significant increase in the heat transfer rate
which is about 47.5% and 41.4% higher than without winglets tubes.
Song et al. [99] also proposed delta winglet integration over the flat
Fig. 33. Cross-flow exchanger structure with corrugated aluminium spacer and
tubes. The effectiveness of the secondary flow produced by the delta
channels.
winglets over the flat finned tubes is studied for Reynolds number from
200 to 1800 respectively. The study revealed the increase of Nusselt
number due to the increase of secondary flow intensity Li et al. [100]
performed numerical simulation on series of multiple longitudinal
vortex generators mounted on fin surface over flat tubes as depicted in
Fig. 53.
As number of vortex generators are installed over the fin surface, the
Nusselt number increases by 20% over plain fins without vortex gen-
erators. The rectangular vortex generators are also termed as equally
effective as of delta vortex generators. The increase in the cross fluid
attack angle increases the thermal performance of the tube bank. Wais
Fig. 34. Novel cross-flow heat exchanger [71]. [101] numerically investigated the fin thickness and orientation of the
rectangular winglet on mass and thermal efficiency of the cross-flow
heat exchanger as indicated in Fig. 54. The effect of winglet orientation,
winglet length, and fin thickness on fin efficiency and heat transfer flow
to mass ratio were evaluated. The results show that the ratio of heat
transfer to that of the mass can be increased with reducing the fin
thickness.
Zhang et al. [102] performed a comparison of heat transfer with
mounted and punched vortex generators in a circular tube bank. The
arrangement of the vortex generator is indicated in Fig. 55.
The fluid flow Reynolds number ranges from 400 to 10000. The
punched vortex generators cause the redevelopment of the boundary
layer over the fin surface. For the small area ratio of the vortex gen-
erator surface to the fin surface, the punched and the mounted vortex
generators have identical heat transfer and pressure drop parameters.
As punched vortex facilitates the mass transfer across the fin surface,
Fig. 35. The layout of arrangement [72].
the higher turbulence is generates which leads to 5% higher enhance-
ment in Nusselt number over the mounted vortex generators. A new
14
Fig. 36. In-line tubes with a large fin pitch [73].

Fig. 38. Flat tube bank fin heat exchanger [76].
method was deployed by Joarder et al. [103] by mounting the vortex
generators alternately as depicted in Fig. 56 and access the thermal
performance of the heat exchanger.
The Reynolds number for the flow is in the range of
220 ≤ Re ≤ 960. The results show that the heat transfer coefficient
increases by up to 44% and 68.8% in case of single and three-row
winglet array, along with higher pressure penalty for three-row winglet
array. In order to impart the higher turbulence with the tube, re-
searchers make use of wavy fin for the vortex generators, Tian et al.
[104] performed a comparative study on air side performance of wavy
fin and tube heat exchangers with punched delta winglets in in-line and
staggered arrangements depicted in Fig. 57.
The Reynolds number for the cross fluid is in the range of 500–5000
respectively. The numerical simulations indicate that each delta wing-
lets generate the main vortex and a corner vortex at the tube down-
stream. The use of the delta winglet increases the heat transfer rate Fig. 39. Plate-fin and tube heat exchanger [77].
along with pressure drop, but the increase in the heat transfer is much
higher than that of the pressure drop. For the case of in-line and stag-
gered configuration, the Coburn factor increases by 15.4% and 13.1%,
while and friction factor increases by 10.5% and 7%, respectively were
reported. As delta winglet vortex generator increases the heat transfer
and pressure drop for the cross-flow heat exchanger, a new method
involving the use of a pair of delta winglet was also proposed by He
et al. [105]. The pair of small, large and winglet array is used with an
attack angle of 10° and 30° are shown in Fig. 58. The Reynolds number
in the range of 1400–3400 is used for the experimentation. The result
indicates that 10° array small winglet pair has heat transfer improve-
ment of 32% with the pressure drop of 20-40%, while in case of 30°
array enhancement was 25-55%, but the pressure drop is relatively
larger, of the order of 90-140%, however criteria for selection of attack
angle is not clearly understood.
As, most of the researchers prefer to use the delta winglet vortex
generator, while another vortex generator pair such as rectangular Fig. 40. Rectangular finned elliptical tube heat exchanger [78].
winglet was also used to investigate the thermal performance of cross-
flow heat exchangers. Chu et al. [106] used the rectangular winglet pair
as shown in Fig. 59 to study the three-dimensional numerical study of 1RWP case, inline-3RWP case, and inline-7RWP case, along with a bare
flow and heat transfer in fin-and-tube heat exchangers. The Reynolds cylinder is used.
number ranging from 500 to 880 with three arrangements as inline- The results showed that the air-side heat transfer coefficient was
Fig. 37. Schematic configuration of the tube bank [74].
15
maximum area reduction ratio is 14.9–25.5%, and 7.9–13.6% for in-

line and staggered arrangement. Zhao et al. [109] performed the nu-
merical simulation for heat transfer and erosion characteristics for H-
shaped finned oval tubes with longitudinal vortex generator and dim-
ples as demonstrated in Fig. 62.
The study revealed that the optimized H-type finned oval tube bank
heat exchanger has significant applications not only to improve the heat
transfer efficiency and economy but also reduce the wear loss of heat
exchanger and promote the safe operation level in coal-fired boilers.
The studies in vortex generators by numerous researchers explicitly
marked delta winglets outreach superior performance over other
shaped vortex generators. Henze et al. [110] studied the flow and heat
transfer characteristics of wing type vortex generator by using particle
image velocimetry (PIV) which consists of a high-resolution CCD
camera as depicted in Fig. 63.
The study revealed that the wing vortex generator bisects the
mainstream flow and creates the secondary flow by developing sec-
Fig. 41. The wavy fin-and-tube heat exchanger. ondary vortex at the downstream of the vortex generator. The similar
aspect of secondary flow intensity was also explored by Hu et al. [111].
They studied the Nusselt number on circular tube bank fin heat ex-
changer with mounted vortex generators as depicted in Fig. 64. They
found that the intensity of the secondary vortex produced is increased
by increasing the height of the vortex and attack angle which further
increases the heat transfer.
In a similar way, the secondary flow was also explored by Hu et al.
[112] by investigating the optimum fin spacing of the circular tube
bank fin heat exchanger with vortex generators. The effect of fin spa-
cing on the intensity of secondary flow along with heat transfer per-
formance of a circular tube bank fin heat exchanger with vortex gen-
erators at the same fluid frontal velocity is studied. The optimal fin
spacing was found to be 2 mm, which is the same as predicted by Shi
et al. [96] in the case of the flat tube bank. Apart from the conventional
delta and rectangular winglet vortex generator, a new class of the
Fig. 42. Schematic of plate fin-and-tube heat exchanger [80]. vortex generator as trapezoidal winglet was also studied by many re-
searchers and they explicitly explored their characteristics. Zhou [113]
improved by 28.1–43.9%, 71.3–87.6%, and 98.9–131% for the three explored the characteristics of curved trapezoidal winglet type vortex
enhanced configurations, with an associated pressure drop penalty in- generators depicted in Fig. 65. The performance is eventually compared
crease of 11.3–25.1%, 54.4–72%, and 88.8–121.4%, respectively. with that of the rectangular winglet, trapezoidal winglet and delta
Additionally, Kotcioglu et al. [107] performed second law analysis and winglet using Colburn and friction factors.
heat transfer in a cross-flow heat exchanger by providing rectangular The study reveals that the pair of curved trapezoidal winglet pair
winglet as depicted in Fig. 60 which develops a convergent-divergent shows better performance of heat transfer with increased Reynolds
path for fluid flow by entropy generation method. number but shows poor thermal performance due to the larger pressure
The result indicates an increase in the heat transfer enhancement of drop. In order to reduce the pressure drop with the use of the vortex
15%–30% along with an increase in the pressure-loss penalty of generators, Lu et al. [114] performed the numerical simulations over
20%–30%, in a comparison with and without vortex generators. The the plain and curved vortex generators with punched holes. The en-
study indicates that at low Reynolds number, the entropy generation hancement in the thermal performance is evaluated with the rise in the
number was dominated by the heat transfer while at the high Reynolds Nusselt number and friction factor for the cross fluid Reynolds number
number, it was more influenced by the pressure drop. Jang et al. [108] from 700 to 26500. The curved vortex generators represent the max-
performed the optimization of the span angle and location in case of imum enhancement of 8.2-15% over other configurations. Gholami
plate fin-tube heat exchanger as demonstrated in Fig. 61 with block et al. [115] studied the heat transfer enhancement along with pressure
type vortex generators. drop for fin-and-tube cross-flow heat exchanger with rectangular flat
The optimization was performed by varying span angle from 30° to and wavy vortex generators as illustrated in Fig. 66. The cross fluid
60°, and transverse location from 2 to 10 mm while Reynolds number Reynolds number is varied from 400 to 800 with a higher heat transfer
ranging from 400 to 1200 is maintained. The results indicate that the coefficient for wavy vortex generators. In case of pressure drop, the
Fig. 43. Schematic diagram of a wavy fin-and-tube heat exchanger [81].
16
Fig. 44. Schematic configuration of an H-type finned tube [84].
plain vortex generators indicate higher pressure rise over wavy rec- rectangular, and wheeler wishbone vortex generator presented in
tangular vortex generators due to the sudden shock for plain vortex Fig. 70.
generators relative to gradual entry for wavy winglets. The effects of attack angles of the winglets, width/length aspect
Wang et al. [116] numerically investigated finned tube heat ex- ratio of wheeler wishbone vortex generator on heat transfer enhance-
changer with a longitudinal vortex generator having a trapezoidal wing ment for smooth wavy fin heat exchanger were studied parametrically.
for enhancement in heat transfer as indicated in Fig. 67. The result indicates that curved angle rectangular winglets are suitable
The results of the trapezoidal wing were compared with rectangular for the small attack angle, while the best thermal performance in larger
winglet pair. The higher magnitude of the vortex is generated by tra- attack angle is for rectangular trapezoidal winglet. They reported that
pezoidal winglet over the conventional rectangular vortex. The Nusselt the best thermal performance is obtained for wheeler wishbone vortex
number and pressure drop increases by 2.7-3.8% and 4.7% respectively generator. However, fabrication and assembly of such vortex generators
for test vortex generator over rectangular vortex generator. is much complex than conventional rectangular and delta winglets.
Guan et al. [117] studied the effect of the shape of vortex generators Hence the use of such a vortex generator is very limited. By considering
on the thermal-hydrodynamic performance of circular finned tube the ease in the manufacturing facility, delta winglet is proved to be the
bank. The shape of vortex generators was delta, rectangular, and tra- most promising vortex generator, hence further advancement is the
pezoidal type as shown in Fig. 68. The Nusselt number and secondary curved rectangular. Lin et al. [120] performed a numerical investiga-
flow intensity increase with increased Reynolds number of the fluid tion of flow and heat transfer enhancement with curved delta-winglet
flow. Amongst the different shapes, delta winglets are found to be op- vortex generators. The effect of radial and circumferential locations,
timum considering heat transfer and pressure drop characteristics. The height, and length of the vortex generators were the main parameters to
magnitude of rise in Nusselt number is expressed in term of secondary investigate the heat and flow characteristics. The schematic layout of
flow intensity at the different Reynolds number. The rise in Nusselt the tube bank with vortex generators is shown in Fig. 71.
number for delta winglets were 7-14% over the rectangular and tra- It is found that the curved delta winglet helps to reduce the size of
pezoidal winglets, with additional penalty in friction factor by 17%. the wake by guiding the fluid near the trailing edge of the tube. The
Salviano et al. [118] performed the optimization study for the secondary flow is also generated along with the main stream fluid flow.
thermal performance in case of in-line and staggered cross-flow heat As compared to that of the plain fin, the curved delta vortex generators
exchanger with longitudinal vortex generators. The Colburn factor and increase the Nu by 28% along with friction factor by 15%. The length
friction factor are used for the optimization study for the Reynolds and height of the vortex generator have a limited impact of the heat and
number 250 and 650. The seven independent parameters which com- friction characteristics. Wang et al. [121] investigated numerically the
prise of vortex generator dimensions, roll angle, attack angle of the performance of circular tube bank fin heat exchanger with interrupted
cross fluid are selected as input factors for optimization. The schematic annular groove fins and compared with that of the plain fin. The length
of the vortex generator is as indicated in Fig. 69. of the radial groove and the circumferential locations are the key as-
The horseshoe vortex intensity increases for staggered tube layout pects affecting the conjugate heat transfer. The orientation of the tube
with heat transfer enhancement of 13% and 26% for Reynolds number bank with annular fins is shown in Fig. 72. The use of the annular
of 250 and 650. groove aimed at guiding the cross fluid across the tubes along with a
Further investigation in irregular vortex generator was performed reduction in the size of the wake region.
by Lotfi et al. [119] which makes use of four different vortex generators The results show that as the length of the annular groove increases,
as rectangular trapezoidal, angle rectangular winglet, curved angle friction factor increases drastically. There was an average 35% increase
Fig. 45. Schematic of wavy fin-and-tube heat exchanger- A) Herringbone wavy and B) Smooth wavy [85].
17
Fig. 46. Fins with constant and variable fin base over circular tubes.
Fig. 47. Comparison of Nusselt number and pressure drop for H-type and rec- Fig. 49. Comparison of Nusselt number and friction factor for plain and in-
tangular fins. termittent fins.
in the friction factor, with 10%–40% increase in Nusselt number for

Reynolds number ranging from 600 to 2500. The annular groove has a
better thermal performance at higher Reynolds number rather than
lower Reynolds number, as frictional forces are more significant at
lower Reynolds number. Lei et al. [122] performed three-dimensional
numerical investigations on novel longitudinal vortex generators on slit
fin-and-tube heat exchanger. The schematic of the vortex generator is as
indicated in Fig. 73.
The fin tube structure is optimized with the synergy principle. The
flow and heat transfer characteristics are compared with rectangular
winglet type vortex generators for the Reynolds number from 250 to
2500. The results show that an increment of 15% and 4.2% higher than
slit fin and rectangular winglet longitudinal vortex generators. To re-
duce the friction and pressure drop at lower Reynolds number, Gong
et al. [123] proposed curved rectangular vortex generator in a circular
tube bank. Here again, the circumferential and radial position of the
vortex generator were used to estimate the effect on the heat and
friction factor as predicted by Lin [120], and Wang [121]. The sche-
matic of the tube bank with rectangular curved vortex generator is
Fig. 48. Comparison of Nusselt number and friction factor for thin continuous
shown in Fig. 74.
and wavy fins.
The use of vortex generators alters the flow characteristics in the
case of flow across finned tube cross-flow heat exchanger. The VGs
18
Table 2
Summary of the work carried out by different types of fin geometry in the cross-flow heat exchanger.
Author and Year Nature of study Fin type Re range Tube orientation Co-relations/Evaluation criteria
Mitra [55] (1998) num Plain fin 100-500 Single row N/A
Balaji [56] (2008) exp Low height fins 70-105 kg/s N/A
1 PR
(R2 + 1) log
1 P
F=
2 P R+1 R2 + 1
(1 R)log
2 P R + 1 + R2 + 1
Sparrow [57] (1985) exp Long. fin 1000-8600 staggered Nu=0.719Pr 0.36.Sh2.5
2. p
f=
.V2max
Mangrulkar [58] (2017) exp & num Long. fin 5500-14500 staggered h.D
Nu=
k
2. p AC
f= .
.V2max AO
Ibrahim [87] (2009) exp Long. fin 4750-39600 In-line h.D
Nu=
k
2. p A
f= 2 . C
.Vmax AO
Wang [59] (2009) exp and num Crimped, plain. slit, 4200-9800 staggered Nu = c1 RecD2c
mixed
f= c3 RecD4c
Wongwises [88] (2012) exp Crimped spiral fins 3000-12000 Multi-pass parallel, and j=
Nu
counter Redo Pr0.33
f= ( )( )
Amin
Ao
m 2. p 1
G2C
(1+ 2) 1
2
1
Vicente [60] (2010) exp Helical segmented fins 6500-11000 staggered Nu = A2 Re0.784 Pr 0.33 (Sf /dV) 0.062
V
f o =6.46Reh 0.179 (S f /tf ) 0.354
Franz [61] (2011) num Serrated fins 600-2600 staggered Frequency of vortex generation
St.Uin
f=
d
Nadoosham [62] (2018) exp Perforated fins 2000-11500 Single row ε = Qfinned/Qun-finned
Xu [63] () num Rectangular fin 5000-10000 In-line PEC= (Nu/Nuo)/(f/fo)0.33
Ghazanfarian [64] num Radial fins 100-200 Single row Strouhal number
(2017)
Huisseune [65] (2010) exp Helical fins 1000-15000 Single row
( ) Xt 0.209
0.509
Nu=0.495ReC
d ext
( ) Xt 1.849
f=2.271ReC 0.325
d ext
Gross [66] (2004) num Annular fin 10000- 40000 In-line and staggered h.d
Nu=
ka
p
Eu=
.u2max
Jacobi [67] (2009) stat Louver 100-5000 N/A j=
Nu
Re.Pr0.33
Wu [68] (2007) exp and num Louver 750-2000 Two row, two pass j= St.Pr 2/3
AC 2. in . p in
f= 2
(1+ 2) 1
AO in GC out
0.33
Duan [69] (2016) num Wavy intermittent 200-1250 single JF1= (Num/Nuplain)/(f/fplain)
Liu [70] (2016) Analytical and corrugated aluminum N/A N/A NTU
exp spacer
Wu [71] (2017) num Novel plate 360-480 m3/h N/A JF=(j/jref)/(f/fref)0.33
Lee [72] (2010) exp Flat plate fins 200-1500 In-line and staggered Dh
0.4513
0.0526 0.0210
jinline =0.0066ReD h
Fo
Fp
0.2134
0.03734 Dh 0.0777N 0.0545
jstaggered =0.0008ReD h
Fo
Fp
Choi [73] (2010) exp Flat plate fins 550-800 In-line and staggered jinline =0.8692N 0.0981DF 0.0996Re 0.5971 DS0.0206
Do
jstag =1.4534N 0.0681DF 0.0652Re 0.6722 DS 0.0058
Do
Xie [74] num Plain fin 2000-6000 staggered
( ) Fp 0.165 0.0558
Pt
(2009) Nu=1.565Re0.3414 N.
Do Pl
(N. ) Fp 0.1676 0.6265

0.3439 Pt
f=20.713Re
Do Pl
Matos [75] (2004) num Plain fin 852-1065 staggered N/A

Wang [76] (2012) num Plain fin 200-1400 staggered a
0.54
Sl a
0.14
Nu=0.072Re0.695
a Pr 0.33
Tp 2Tp
f=8.35Rea 0.627 ( ) a 0.33

de
x1.65(lgRea)
2.53
Lai [77] (2014) num Plain fin 2.2–6.4 m/s staggered Nu=h.Hz/k; Hz is fin spacing
Zhao [78] num Rectangular finned 6000-24000 staggered j = St. Pr2/3
f=(2. ΔP.Ao)/(A.ρ.um2)
(continued on next page)
19
Table 2 (continued)
Author and Year Nature of study Fin type Re range Tube orientation Co-relations/Evaluation criteria
Wang [79] (1996) exp Wavy fins 400-8000 In-line and staggered j=
1.201
[ln(ReDC)]2.921
( )
16.67 A 0.096
f= . o N 0.098
[ln(ReDC)]2.64 At
He [80] (2005) num Plain fins 500-5000 staggered h.d

Nu=
k
2. p.d
f=
.u2max .L
Tao [81] (2007) num Wavy fins 500-4000 staggered h.d
Nu=
k
2. p.d
f= 2 .L
.umax
Yan [82] (2000) exp Plate, wavy. louver 300-2000 N/A j=
Nu
ReDc Pr0.33
1
fi =
[1.58.ln(Rei) 3.28]2
Kim [83] (2014) exp sine wave fins 1000-5000 staggered ho
j= Pra
a Vmax Cpa
A 2. p. in
f= C m 2
(1+ 2) in
1
AO in m .Vmax out
Jin [84] (2013) num H-shaped 400-3200 In-line Nusselt number and Euler number,
Nu and Eu = f(S1,S2,D,H,W,Fp,Ft)
Wang [85] (2002) exp Wavy fin 300-10000 staggered Multiple co-relations
Sun [89] (2002) num Plain fin V = 0.8–2.4 m/s staggered Effectiveness, = 1 exp( NTU)
Singh [86] (2017) num Plain fin 5000-13000 In-line Nusselt number and Euler Number
result in increasing the turbulence within the tube bank thereby pro-
moting higher heat transfer with increased pressure drop. The leading
edge of the winglet curved delta/rectangular winglet should be close to
the separation point of the tube, as guiding the fluid over the tube
surface will prolong the boundary layer with a reduction in the size of
the wake region.
From the above literature survey related to the use of the vortex
generators, it has been observed that the rectangular, trapezoidal and
delta winglets are the most commonly used vortex generators
[93,95,101,111,124]. These vortex generators can be mounted sepa-
rately or punched out from the fin surface itself. Fig. 75 illustrates the
comparative analysis of the rectangular, trapezoidal and delta vortex
generators for the Nusselt number and friction factor. The delta vortex
generators represent the highest magnitude of Nusselt number relative
to rectangular and trapezoidal vortex generators. This may be due to
the secondary vortex along with the main flow vortex at the down- Fig. 51. Heat exchanger module with oval tube and vortex generators [95].
stream of the winglet [110]. The delta vortex generators increases the
Nusselt number by 4-6% and 8-12% relative to the trapezoidal and rectangular and straight delta vortex generators. While the friction
rectangular vortex generators. The pressure drop is 3-4% higher than factor is maximum for the curved delta winglets and minimum for the
the rectangular winglets. In addition, the space requirement for the rectangular winglets. The pressure drop can further be reduced by
delta vortex generators is relatively less than the rectangular and tra- punching the curved rectangular and delta vortex generators. The rise
pezoidal winglets. in the friction factor is nominal and of the order of 2-4% over delta
Similarly, the further advancement is achieved by providing the vortex generators.
curved vortex generators instead of straight winglets. Fig. 76 represents The summary of some important work performed by considering the
the comparative Nusselt number and friction factor for the curved delta different orientation of winglets is presented in Table 3.
and rectangular vortex generators. The curved delta vortex generators
represent the superior Nusselt number of the order of 6-8% over the
Fig. 50. The orientation of winglet type vortex generator on the fin-tube bank: a) common flow down and b) common flow up configuration [93].
20
Fig. 52. Flat tube bank parameters and flow passages between fins and vortex generators [96].
Fig. 53. Tube bank with flat tubes and delta vortex generators.
Fig. 54. Winglet over circular finned tubes in cross flow.
3.4. Enhancement by the use of Non-Newtonian fluids
Apart from the different passive thermal enhancement methods

discussed in the above literature, the active method of thermal per- Fig. 56. Single-row and three-row array with VG [103].
formance enhancement is also preferred by numerous researchers. The
most prominent method is altering the working fluid property and thus
making it to be Non-Newtonian in fluid characteristics. The use of Ranjbarzadeh et al. [126] performed an experimental study on heat
Nano-fluid is one of the best example of this kind. The Nano-fluids are transfer and pressure drop with water/graphene Nano-fluids. Flow
most widely used in the past two decades as an active method in in- Reynolds number ranges from 3800 to 21500, with 51% increase in the
creasing the heat transfer rate. Jbeili et al. [125] evaluated the thermal Nusselt number with a 21% rise in pressure drop is reported. Fotukian
and power performance of Nano-fluids through square in-line tubes by et al. [127] experimentally investigated the forced convective heat
considering the size of nanoparticles, concentration ratio, tube pitch transfer with the use of alumina-water Nano-fluids inside circular tubes.
and flow Reynolds number. The smaller size of nanoparticles with high Similarly, Mangrulkar et al. [128] also investigated the enhancement in
concentration and flow rate results in better thermal performance. the heat transfer with the use of Al2O3 and CuO Nano-fluids with base
Fig. 55. Vortex generator - (a) locations on fin surface, (b) shape of VG, (c) location of punched VG [102].
21
Fig. 57. Wavy fin-and-tube heat exchanger with delta winglets [104].
Fig. 58. The geometry of the proposed VG array and the single pair and cross-sectional view [105].
Fig. 59. Tube bank with rectangular winglets [106].
fluid as distilled water. The use of Nano-fluids in small quantities of the energy for the electric field distribution with high DC voltage makes
range up to 3-4% by volume significantly changes the thermo-physical this process unfavorable. Owing to the above-discussed issues related to
properties of the working fluids. However certain disadvantages as the the handling and operating of other active modes of thermal en-
use of special purpose circulating pump with early sedimentation of the hancement, the passive modes of thermal enhancement is a good choice
Nano-fluids along with difficulty in separation and handling the even if it leads to the higher pressure drop.
working fluid make its use to the limited extent. In addition to this, the
production cost of the Nano-fluids is also relatively high which makes
its use very rarely over other passive methods. The external force in the 3.5. Enhancement by the use of optimization methods
form of Electro-hydrodynamic (EHD) is used as an active method for
heat transfer enhancement for the single and multi-phase applications Thermal performance enhancement is also accomplished by using
[129,130]. The Coulomb force associated with the liquid-extraction various optimizations techniques apart from the passive modes of
phenomenon provides the heat transfer augmentation. The use of the thermal augmentation. Damavandi et al. [131] performed the multi-
objective optimization of a wavy fin-and-tube heat exchanger using
22
using Non-Newtonian and different optimization techniques in cross-

flow heat exchangers. The following conclusions and recommendations
can be drawn:
4.1. Tube geometry
• The use of non-circular tubes such as elliptical, wing, cam are more
effective in cross-flow if the tubes are arranged in a staggered con-
figuration with a lower attack angle of cross fluid.
• The elliptic/oval tubes are commercially available with different
aspect ratio and hence can be the better option to replace the cir-
cular tubes. The flat tubes offer the lowest air side pressure drop due
to minimum air frontal area. The more advanced and streamline
sections of the tube surface such as cam shaped and lenticular tubes
can be used but manufacturing complexity hinders the use in the
industrial applications.
• The overall thermal performance considering heat transfer and
friction factor are superior at lower attack angle, as pressure drop
Fig. 60. Geometry and placement of the rectangular winglets [107]. increases with higher attack angle along with the heat transfer rate.
The use of too streamline tubes should be avoided as sufficient
turbulence is not generated.
Artificial Neural Network, CFD, and Genetic Algorithm with maximum
heat transfer and minimum pressure drop. The Colburn factor and
4.2. Fin orientation
frictions factors were optimized with design parameters as tube pitch
ratio, aspect ratio, the wavy angle of the fin, and the ratio of wavy fin
pitch to the semi-major axis. Mishra et al. [132] adopted the second law • The use of the fin surface increases the heat transfer by increasing
the heat transfer surface area. The helical, serrated, thin plain and
based genetic algorithm for optimization the rate of entropy generation
wavy fins are most commonly used. The thin continuous plate fin is
in crossflow plate-fin heat exchanger. Peng et al. [133] executed the
preferred in case of the large size of the tube bank, as pressure drop
optimal design approach for the plate-fin heat exchangers neural net-
of the oncoming fluid is high due to the wavy fin surface. The use of
work assisted with a genetic algorithm with aimed at minimizing the
the serrated and helical fin is subjected to an only circular cross
total weight and total operating cost. Rao et al. [134] performed the
section of the tube, while thin plain fin and wavy fin can accom-
thermodynamic optimization with particle swarm algorithm with
modate any profile of the tube surface. The mass transfer across the
minimizing total cost, volume and entropy generation units under space
fin surface can only be achieved through the slit and louver fin
restriction. The fin surface height, fin thickness, number of fin layer,
surface.
and length of fin were optimized for finned tube heat exchanger. A
similar optimization is performed by Yousefi et al. [135] to optimize • However, thin plate fin or wavy continuous fin is preferred by most
of the researchers, as these are of simplest form with ease in
seven different fin tube parameters of the cross-flow tube heat ex-
mounting on the heat exchanger and no restriction on the pitch ratio
changer to enhance the heat transfer rate with minimum pressure drop
of the tube is applicable. However, in the case of the helical and
characteristics. Wu et al. [136] adopted response surface methodology
serrated fins, the pitch ratio of the tubes is usually the constraint.
with genetic algorithm for optimization of finned tube longitudinal
vortex generators. The optimization is performed for fin pitch, long- • The smaller fin thickness is more advantageous, as both fin and
tubes are at the same temperature, which enhances the rate of heat
itudinal and transverse tube pitch ratio, and attack angle of delta
transfer, along with reduces pressure drop. The plain thin fin or
winglets for the fin-tube heat exchanger. The most of the optimizations
wavy fin facilitates the additional passive methods for heat transfer
techniques are aimed at reducing the cost, weight, and pressure drop
if required. The pressure drop increases drastically as the fin
across the tube bank with maximizing the rate of heat transfer.
thickness is increased.
4.3. Vortex generators

4. Conclusion
The present work reviewed the most recent developments on the • The vortex generators or winglets generate the additional turbu-
lence in the cross fluid path thereby promoting better heat transfer.
potential applications of different methodology including tube cross-
The delta and rectangular winglet vortex generators are most
section modification, embedding fins, integrating vortex generators and
Fig. 61. Plate-fin and tube heat exchanger with vortex generators (a) in-line, (b) staggered layout [108].
23
Fig. 62. Schematic of H-type finned oval tube heat exchanger [109].
Fig. 63. Wing type vortex generator and PIV flow field set-up [110].
Fig. 66. Finned tube heat exchanger with flat and waxy vortex generators.
it is the simplest form of vortex generator from the manufacturing

Fig. 64. Circular tube bank fin heat exchanger with vortex generators mounted aspect.
on the fin surfaces [111].
• The curved delta, rectangular winglet vortex generators provide the
feasibility of guiding the flow across the tubes along with reducing
commonly used by different researchers to enhance the thermal the size of the wake and generation of the secondary flow. The
performance of heat exchangers. The delta winglet vortex gen- higher pressure drop can be controlled/reduced by providing
erators are the most superior as they generate the secondary flow winglets on the alternate rows, rather than continuous form for the
along with the mainstream flow. The delta winglet can be ad- case of the staggered tube configuration.
ditionally mounted on the fin surface or can be punched outside, as • In the case of the in-line tubes configuration, a number of the
Fig. 65. Rectangular, trapezoidal, delta, and curved trapezoidal winglet [113].
24
winglet rows is equal to that of a number of tube rows as the flow

pattern is identical. On the other hand, for staggered configuration,
an alternate number of winglet rows is sufficient as high turbulence
is itself generated due to the staggered layout of the tube.
• The most of the work performed preferred the Colburn factor (j) and
Fanning friction factor (f) as the evaluation criteria for the thermal
performance of the heat exchanger, which in turn depends upon the
Nusselt number and Reynolds number for the fluid flow. In any case,
the staggered layout of the tube bank results in the enhanced heat
transfer rate along with a high-pressure drop over the inline tube
configuration.
5. Selection guidelines for future heat exchangers
The primary guidelines for the future design of heat exchanger are
based upon the increase in Nusselt number and pressure drop for the in-
line and staggered configurations with conventional circular tubes. The
Fig. 67. Heat exchanger with trapezoidal vortex generators.
pressure drop is the critical parameter affecting the overall thermal
performance of the tube bank. Hence the selection guidelines are based
on the low and high-pressure drop characteristics signifies lower and
higher pressure drop over the bare circular tubes.
Low-pressure drop heat exchangers: The low-pressure drop corre-
sponds to the magnitude of pressure drop lower than the conventional
circular tubes. The following are the design guidelines for the low-
pressure drop heat exchangers;
• The lower pressure drop heat exchangers are mostly comprised of

in-line tube configurations. In order to reduce the pressure drop, the
tube section is usually changed to aerodynamic tube profile as
tubular, cam, elliptical. Amongst them, elliptical and tubular sec-
tions are most commonly used by the field researchers.
• Reducing the aspect ratio of the elliptical tubes reduces the pressure
drop even further. However, reducing the aspect ratio below 0.34
for elliptic tubes is not recommended as no significant vortex for-
mation takes place [35,40]. Similar is the case for the flattened tubes
[33,39].
• The attack angle less than 30° is suitable for an elliptical tube bank
for in-line and staggered configurations, while overall thermal per-
formance is maximum at zero attack angle. Increasing the tube row
increases the pressure drop across the tube bank, hence more tubes
can be added in the transverse direction.
• In the case of finning the tubes, only longitudinal fins exhibit the
lower pressure drop than bare tubes geometry [57,58]. The use of
other types of fins increases the pressure drop characteristics.
• The use of elliptic/oval tubes are more advantageous for the low-
Fig. 68. Different configuration of vortex generators over the circular finned pressure drop heat exchanger, as separation is delayed over the tube
tube. surface due to lower Reynolds number.
Fig. 69. Finned tube heat exchanger with longitudinal vortex generators.
25
Fig. 70. The orientation of different vortex generator [119].
Fig. 73. Longitudinal vortex generator over slit-fin tube heat exchanger.
Fig. 71. View of circular bank fin heat exchanger with curved delta winglets
[120].
Fig. 74. Circular tube bank fin heat exchanger with curved rectangular vortex
generators [123].
Fig. 72. Circular bank fin heat exchanger with interrupted annular groove fins High pressure drops heat exchangers: The high-pressure drop corre-
[121]. sponds to the magnitude of pressure drop higher than the conventional
circular tubes. The key design aspects for the higher pressure drop are
26
Fig. 75. Comparison of Nusselt number and friction factor for rectangular, Fig. 76. Comparison of Nusselt number and friction factor for delta, curved
trapezoidal, and delta winglets. delta, and curved rectangular vortex generators.
as follows; researchers across the globe study the cross-flow heat exchanger, there
are still many challenges to be considered so as to further improve the
• The higher pressure drop cross flow heat exchangers comprises of performance parameters of the heat exchangers. So, by considering the
previous work performed by using different passive methods in the
more number of tubes in the longitudinal direction and the tubes are
in staggered configurations. The higher attack angle for the non- cross-flow heat exchanger the future challenges are presented in the
circular tubes will leads to higher turbulence with the improved rate subsequent discussion:
of heat transfer along with the increased pressure drop.
• In case of smaller tube pitch ratio, thin continuous wavy fins are • The major challenge remains in estimating the maximum heat
preferred, while for the wider spaced tubes helical or serrated fins transfer with minimum pumping power (pressure drop). The
are most advantageous for thermal performance enhancement pumping losses are the inherent part of the cross-flow heat ex-
[84,137]. changer, which can be minimized to a certain extent but cannot be
• The higher pressure drop cross-flow heat exchanger comprises of use eliminated completely. Further with large array size, and staggered
layout of the tube bank pumping power increases even further.
of fins and vortex generators. The rectangular and delta winglets are
most commonly used vortex generators with minimum economic • The modern heat exchanger aimed at reducing the size of the heat
aspects [93,95]. exchanger, so making it more compact. Hence the heat transfer by
• The curved delta and rectangular vortex generators delay the se- volume ratio is very critical, as the high value of the ratio indicated
better thermal performance with the reduced size of the heat ex-
paration of the fluid from the wall surface resulting into higher heat
transfer rate. changer. Also with reduced volume convective losses from the walls
are too reduced.
6. Future challenges • The manufacturing constraint in the production of the streamline
section of the tubes with different aspect ratios. The elliptic tubes
The literature review suggests that, though the number of are though commercially available but are not in different sizes,
27
Table 3
Summary of the work performed by using different types of vortex generators over the fin surface in case of cross-flow heat exchangers.
Author and year Nature of Winglet type Re range Tube orientation Co-relations/Evaluation criteria
study
Biswas [90] num Delta winglet pair 500 staggered G = Nusap/Nusa

(1994)
Liou [91] (2000) exp with Duct flow 12000 N/A Nu/Nuo f/fo
LDV
Lo [92] (2002) exp Multiple configuration 500 staggered Visualization by dye injection
Torii [93] (2002) exp Delta winglet 350-2400 Inline and Colburn factor, j = Nu/Re.Pr0.33
staggered
Jain [94] (2003) num Delta winglet 1000 staggered
Tiwari [95] num Delta winglet 1000 staggered Contour plots
(2003)
Shi [96] (2006) exp Delta winglets 200-3000 staggered j/jR
JF = 0.33
(f/fR)0.33.(Tp/TPR)
Wang [97] (2002) exp Delta winglets 200-4000 staggered Sc=2.28(T/298.10) 0.1526
f=2. p.D/(L u2max)

Chang [98] num Delta winglets 200-1700 staggered f= 2. p.D/(L u2max )
(2009)
Song [99] (2013) num Delta winglets 200-1600 staggered Sem =0.0941Re1.3427
Num =0.21344Re0.57855
f=8.4127Re 0.5570
Wais [101] num Rectangular winglet on 18000-20000 Single row Nu = h.D/k and fin efficiency
circumferential fin
Zhang [102] exp Delta winglet punch and 100-8000 Inline and
(2008) mounted staggered
in-line
Nu=0.0821Re0.6004 ( )
tp 0.4691
H
f=0.6334Re 0.2454
( )
tp 0.2696
H
Staggered
Nu=0.1699Re0.4992 ( )
tp 0.7950
H
f=1.8836Re 0.3907
( )
tp 0.6079
H
Joardar [103] exp Delta winglet 220-960 In-line Colburn factor,
(2008) j=
h
.Pr 2/3
.Vmax .Cp
Tian [104] (2009) num Delta winglet wavy fin 500-5000 Inline and h
j= .Pr 2/3
staggered .Vmax .Cp
2. p A c
f= .
.V2max A o
He [105] (2010) exp V-shaped delta winglets 1400-3400 In-line (j / f 0.33 )
suffix o indicates baseline configuration.
(j / f 0.33 ) O
Chu [106] (2009) Num Rectangular winglet 500-880 In-line h
j= .Pr 2/3
.Vmax .Cp
2. p A c
f= .
.V2max A o
Kotcioglu [107] exp Rectangular winglet Mass flow = 12–22 kg/s Plate-type 0.477( T )2 R V
Entropy generation asNs = . f G 4
(2010) 0.8 Cp Re opt
St 0.4 . V 0.4 . Gopt
Jang [108] (2013) exp Rectangular block type 400-1200 Inline and Considering temperature difference and pumping power
staggered h . A / href . Aref j / jref
as 0.33 2/3
= 0.33
/ ref A / Aref f / fref
Zhao [109] num Dimples+long VG 22500-40500 In-line Performance criteria

Nu/Nuo
PEC =
(f/fo)0.33
Henze [110] exp Delta wing 150000 -550000 Single delta wing Flow visualization using PIV
(2011)
Hu [112] (2013) Num Delta winglet 1 m/s to 7.8 m/s staggered j= h.Pr 2/3 /( .Cp .ufront )
Zhou [113] exp Curved trapezoidal winglet 1000 -27000 Plate surface (j/jo )
R=
(2012) (f/fo)
Gholami [115] num Wavy rectangular 400-800 In-line Nu = h.D/k f=(2.ΔP)/(ρ.Um2)

Wang [116] num Trapezoidal vortex 500-2500 staggered Nu = h.D/k f=(2.ΔP.Amin)/(ρ.Um2.A)
Guan [117] num Rectangular, trapezoidal, 200-1600 staggered Nu = 0.14099Se0.55404
and delta JF = (Nu/Nuplain)/(f/fplain)0.33
Salviano [118] num Trapezoidal 250 and 650 In-line and JF=(j/jo)/(f/fo)
staggered
Lotfi [119] (2014) num Multiple winglets 500-3000 staggered h
j= .Pr 2/3
umax Cp
2. p A c
f= .
u2max At
Lin [120] (2014) num Curved delta winglet 5000-22000 staggered Nu=0.6204Se0.416
f=11.5452Se 0.2396
Lin [121] (2014) num Annular groove fins 250-2500 staggered (Nu/Nuref )
(f/fref )0.33
Gong [123] num Curved rectangular 750-3000 staggered Num =0.6475Se0.4128
m
(2015)
f=12.2044Sem0.2371
28
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Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 113 (2019) 109220

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews

Recent advancement in heat transfer and fluid flow characteristics in cross T

ARTICLE INFO ABSTRACT

1. Introduction are relatively modular in design with low maintenance. However, an

Nomenclature PIV Particle image velocimetry

Fig. 1. General classification of the cross-flow heat exchanger.

3.1. Enhancement by modifying tube cross-section

Fig. 4. Flat tube banks: in-line and staggered layout [33].

Fig. 6. Elliptic tubes in the air tunnel [40].

comparative analysis of Nusselt number for the elliptic tubes at various

3.2. Enhancement by providing the fins over the tube surface

The extended surface heat transfer is the most conventional method

Fig. 10. Elliptical cylinder array with progressive inclination [44].

Fig. 11. Elliptic section and a lenticular

Fig. 12. Variation in the flattened and elliptical tubes [45].

Fig. 13. Twisted oval tubes.

Fig. 17. Staggered tube bank with metal foam.

Buyruk [28] (2002) num cir 400 tandem N/A

Toolthaisong [39] (2013) exp tubular 4000-10500 staggered Nua =

Kim [51] (2013) num cir 5000-30000 In-line Nu

Fig. 19. Finned tube heat exchanger [55].

Wang et al. [79] performed extensive experiments on the wavy fin-

Fig. 22. Schematic of tube bank with a splitter plate [58].

He et al. [80] performed three-dimensional numerical studies for

Fig. 23. Different types of fin configurations [59].

Fig. 25. Serrated fin with and without twisting [61].

reduce the weight of the heat exchangers. The constant fin-base

Fig. 26. Circular finned tubes: a) unperforated, and b) perforated.

different shapes of vortex generators to escalate the convective heat

Fig. 31. Fin configuration-a) Louver fin and b) wavy fin.

Fig. 32. Finned flat tube with wavy fins.

respectively. The extension of the winglet flow configuration work is

Fig. 36. In-line tubes with a large fin pitch [73].

Fig. 37. Schematic configuration of the tube bank [74].

maximum area reduction ratio is 14.9–25.5%, and 7.9–13.6% for in-

Fig. 43. Schematic diagram of a wavy fin-and-tube heat exchanger [81].

Fig. 44. Schematic configuration of an H-type finned tube [84].

in the friction factor, with 10%–40% increase in Nusselt number for

(N. ) Fp 0.1676 0.6265

Matos [75] (2004) num Plain fin 852-1065 staggered N/A

f=8.35Rea 0.627 ( ) a 0.33

(continued on next page)

He [80] (2005) num Plain fins 500-5000 staggered h.d

Fig. 54. Winglet over circular finned tubes in cross flow.

3.4. Enhancement by the use of Non-Newtonian fluids

Apart from the different passive thermal enhancement methods

Fig. 59. Tube bank with rectangular winglets [106].

using Non-Newtonian and different optimization techniques in cross-

4.1. Tube geometry

4.3. Vortex generators

it is the simplest form of vortex generator from the manufacturing

winglet rows is equal to that of a number of tube rows as the flow

5. Selection guidelines for future heat exchangers

• The lower pressure drop heat exchangers are mostly comprised of

Fig. 70. The orientation of different vortex generator [119].

Biswas [90] num Delta winglet pair 500 staggered G = Nusap/Nusa

f=2. p.D/(L u2max)

Zhao [109] num Dimples+long VG 22500-40500 In-line Performance criteria

Gholami [115] num Wavy rectangular 400-800 In-line Nu = h.D/k f=(2.ΔP)/(ρ.Um2)

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