Manufacturing of a 3D finned tube for enhanced boiling and condensation using rolling-cutting-extruding composite forming.

3D finned tube is a highly efficient heat transfer enhanced element, and its manufacturing has always been the focus of research's attention. It is a challenging job to manufacture a 3D finned tube that can enhance both boiling and condensation since the enhanced boiling structure is completely different from the enhanced condensation structure due to their different heat transfer enhancement mechanisms. An innovative rolling-cutting-extruding composite forming method is developed to realize the manufacture of a staggered-stepped lattice finned tube (SLFT) with helical fins, two layers of staggered-stepped lattice fins, and inner helical threads, which can enhance boiling as well as condensation heat transfer. The three specially designed skewed rolling-cutting tools are uniformly distributed around the base tube, and the kinematic of rolling-cutting-extruding process is analyzed. The relative plunge depth of a rolling blade cannot exceed a certain limit value, and the feeding angle has to be equal to the helix angle of outer helical fin. According to the kinematic analysis, the parameters of the rolling-cutting tool are selected, and processing experiments of the SLFT are conducted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]