Effect of circuit arrangement on the performance of air-cooled condensers

An experimental study was carried out to investigate the effect of circuitry on the performance of wavy finned condensers. A total of eight arrangements were made and tested. The arrangements included six 1-circuit and two 2-circuit arrangements. For the one-circuit arrangement, the test results indicate that counter-cross flow would give better performance than other arrangements. However, heat conduction along the fins may offset the benefits of the counter-cross arrangement. This study has proposed two modifications to the counter-cross flow arrangement. For the two-circuit arrangement, a unique characteristic of `pressure gain' was observed when one circuit is completely condensed and the other is still in two-phase region.