Abstract
A simplified numerical method to estimate the airside heat transfer performance for slit fin-and-tube heat exchangers is established in the present study. Compared with the conventionally experimental study or numerical analyses, this approach provides an efficiently analytical method with an acceptable accuracy in engineering designs to calculate the Colburn j factor and the friction factor of the slit fin-and-tube heat exchangers. In order to achieve the objective, the heat exchangers for the problem of interest are reviewed as an integration of components including plates, vertical walls, cylinders and flat ducts. The well-known laminar or turbulent correlations of Nusselt number and skin-friction coefficients for these components are applied to compute the airside performance of the heat exchangers. The effectiveness and accuracy of the present method are verified by comparing the results obtained here with the experimental ones published previously.