Air side thermal performance of wavy fin heat exchangers produced by selective laser melting

Abstract Wavy fins are widely used for off-road vehicle coolers, due to their dust resistance. In this study, heat exchanger elements with wavy fins were examined in an experimental study. Due to independence of tooling and degrees of freedom in design, rapid prototyping technique selective laser melting was used to produce heat exchanger elements with high dimensional accuracy. Tests were conducted for air side Reynolds number Re of 1400-7400 varying wavy amplitude and wave length at a constant water flow rate of 9.0m 3 /h inside the tubes. The effects of wavy amplitude and wave length on the air side thermal performance were studied. Experimental correlation equations for Nu and ­ were derived by regression analysis.