Investigation of combined heat and mass transfer from a wet heat exchanger. Part 1. Formulation of a heat/mass transfer model

An approximate analytical model is described that may be used to calculate the rates of heat transfer and evaporation from the surface of a wet finned heat exchanger. The model is analogous to the conventional expression for convective heat transfer. However, the driving potential is an enthalpy difference instead of a temperature difference. The overall heat-transfer coefficient can be computed in the usual manner using a simple transformation of variables. The value of the model is that wet heat-exchanger performance can be estimated accurately using dry performance data.