Experimental study of heat transfer and flow friction characteristics of automotive evaporators

An experimental study on two brazed aluminum serpentine evaporators was carried out in a forced-circulation wind tunnel These two heat exchangers were made of flat tubes with internal membranes and with louver fins on the air side. Although these serpentine evaporators have been widely used in the automotive industry, few performance data are available in the open literature. In the present investigation, the performance characteristics of the coils in the dimensionless Colburn j factor and the friction factor (f) are presented.