How To Bridge The Heat Transfer Efficiency Gap between Aluminum Tube-fin Heat Exchangers And Copper Products?

How to bridge the heat transfer efficiency gap between aluminum tube-fin heat exchangers and copper products?

The heat transfer efficiency of aluminum tube-fin heat exchangers fully meets the demands of mainstream industries such as residential air conditioning, automotive thermal management, and small-to-medium industrial heat exchange. Although aluminum has a lower thermal conductivity than copper, this gap can be effectively compensated through structural optimization:

Optimize fin design by adopting high-density fins (e.g., 2-3mm fin spacing), corrugated fins, or windowed fins to increase air-side heat transfer area and turbulence, thereby enhancing convective heat transfer coefficients;

Improving internal tube structures by incorporating internal threads or spiral fins within aluminum tubes to enhance turbulence in refrigerant or fluid flow, thereby reducing internal thermal resistance;

Optimizing material combinations, with some high-end products utilizing composite aluminum tubes (e.g., high-thermal-conductivity aluminum inner layer and corrosion-resistant aluminum outer layer) to balance thermal conductivity and corrosion resistance.

Actual test data indicates that, for identical dimensions, optimized aluminum tube-fin heat exchangers exhibit only 5%-8% lower heat transfer efficiency than copper counterparts while reducing costs by over 30%. Furthermore, by adjusting the heat transfer area (e.g., increasing fin area by approximately 10%), performance comparable to copper products can be achieved, fully meeting the requirements of mainstream industries.