A new evaporative condenser with an annular elliptic finned tube heat exchanger (AEFTHE) was designed and theoretically analyzed in this study. The cooling water flowed inside the round inner tube

while the spray water and cooling air passed outside the elliptical outer tube. The refrigerant flowing between the inner and outer tube was simultaneously condensed by the cooling water

spray water and cooling air. The theoretical heat transfer analysis of the annular elliptic finned tube evaporative condenser was based on the in-situ measurement about the round finned tube evaporative condenser (RFTEC) in Futong Metro Station of Line 14 in Beijing. The simulation results were compared with the actual operating data of the traditional RFTEC. The result showed that the pressure drop in the AEFTHE was 11.18% to 14.65% lower than that of the round finned tube heat exchanger (RFTHE) when the inlet air temperature was 27 ℃ and air velocity was in the range 3–4 m/s. The outlet refrigerant temperature of the AEFTHE was 2.66 ℃ to 10.21 ℃ lower than the simulation value of the RFTHE when the temperature of spray water was in the range 27.5–33.5 ℃. The outlet refrigerant temperature of the AEFTHE was 1.9 ℃ to 4.3 ℃ lower than the measured value of the RFTHE under the same conditions when the inlet refrigerant temperature was greater than 44 ℃. The total heat transfer coefficient of the AEFTHE was 47.42% higher than that of the RFTHE under the same conditions.