Abstract
The current paper presents a fundamental numerical approach to minichannel evaporator modelling under dehumidifying conditions. This numerical approach takes into account the 2D longitudinal heat conduction in any wall element, does not apply the fin theory, and captures a detailed representation of air properties. After verification with analytical solutions, a comparative study was implemented between the proposed model Fin2D, and effectiveness-NTU (ε-NTU) approach which is basically based on the assumption of adiabatic-fin-tip at half the height even at the presence of temperature difference between the tubes. This widely used assumption prevents the heat conduction between the tubes through the fins, which in turn results in a misprediction of the actual fin status and its mean temperature. The results show significant deviations in the latent and total heat transfer between the two approaches, especially in the cases of partially wet fin and high values of superheat between the neighbouring tubes.
