The Effectiveness of Secondary Flow Produced by Vortex Generators Mounted on Both Surfaces of the Fin to Enhance Heat Transfer in a Flat Tube Bank Fin Heat Exchanger

2013 ◽  
Vol 135 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ke-Wei Song ◽  
Liang-Bi Wang
Keyword(s):  
Heat Transfer ◽  
Nusselt Number ◽  
Heat Exchanger ◽  
Convective Heat Transfer ◽  
Secondary Flow ◽  
Average Nusselt Number ◽  
Vortex Generators ◽  
Tube Bank ◽  
Flat Tube ◽  
Flow Intensity

Secondary flow is the flow in the cross section normal to the main flow. It plays an important role on the enhanced heat transfer and in the applications in other fields. Secondary flow can greatly enhance the convective heat transfer. In order to find the effectiveness of secondary flow for heat transfer enhancement, a nondimensional parameter, Se, based on the absolute vorticity flux is reported to specify the intensity of secondary flow. Its physical meaning is the ratio of inertial force to viscous force induced by secondary flow. As an example, the effectiveness of secondary flow was numerically studied for a flat tube bank fin heat exchanger with vortex generators (VGs) mounted on both surfaces of the fin. The contributions of VGs are investigated for the enhancements of secondary flow intensity, convective heat transfer, and pressure drop. The method is demonstrated using Se to find out the optimum configurations of VGs. The results reveal that close relationships exist not only between the span-average nondimensional intensity of secondary flow and the span-average Nusselt number but also between the volume average nondimensional intensity of secondary flow and the overall average Nusselt number. For the configuration studied, a ratio of Nusselt number enhancement to the friction factor enhancement increases with increasing the enhancement of secondary flow intensity. As a supplement to traditional criteria on a good performance heat transfer surface, the nondimensional intensity of secondary flow can be used clearly for an optimum value of VG parameter.

Secondary flow intensity determines Nusselt number on the fin surfaces of circle tube bank fin heat exchanger

2013 ◽  
Vol 62 ◽  
pp. 620-631 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wan-Ling Hu ◽  
Ke-Wei Song ◽  
Yong Guan ◽  
Li-Min Chang ◽  
Song Liu ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Nusselt Number ◽  
Heat Exchanger ◽  
Secondary Flow ◽  
Tube Bank ◽  
Flow Intensity ◽  
Circle Tube

Convective Heat Transfer Enhancement in a Circular Tube Using Twisted Tape

2009 ◽  
Vol 131 (8) ◽  
Author(s):  
Zhi-Min Lin ◽  
Liang-Bi Wang
Keyword(s):  
Heat Transfer ◽  
Nusselt Number ◽  
Convective Heat Transfer ◽  
Heat Transfer Enhancement ◽  
Secondary Flow ◽  
Convective Heat ◽  
Tube Wall ◽  
Twisted Tape ◽  
Transfer Enhancement ◽  
Thermal Boundary Conditions

The secondary flow has been used frequently to enhance the convective heat transfer, and at the same flow condition, the intensity of convective heat transfer closely depends on the thermal boundary conditions. Thus far, there is less reported information about the sensitivity of heat transfer enhancement to thermal boundary conditions by using secondary flow. To account for this sensitivity, the laminar convective heat transfer in a circular tube fitted with twisted tape was investigated numerically. The effects of conduction in the tape on the Nusselt number, the relationship between the absolute vorticity flux and the Nusselt number, the sensitivity of heat transfer enhancement to the thermal boundary conditions by using secondary flow, and the effects of secondary flow on the flow boundary layer were discussed. The results reveal that (1) for fully developed laminar heat convective transfer, different tube wall thermal boundaries lead to different effects of conduction in the tape on heat transfer characteristics; (2) the Nusselt number is closely dependent on the absolute vorticity flux; (3) the efficiency of heat transfer enhancement is dependent on both the tube wall thermal boundaries and the intensity of secondary flow, and the ratio of Nusselt number with twisted tape to its counterpart with straight tape decreases with increasing twist ratio while it increases with increasing Reynolds number for both uniform wall temperature (UWT) and uniform heat flux (UHF) conditions; (4) the difference in the ratio between UWT and UHF conditions is also strongly dependent on the conduction in the tape and the intensity of the secondary flow; and (5) the twist ratio ranging from 4.0 to 6.0 does not necessarily change the main flow velocity boundary layer near tube wall, while Reynolds number has effects on the shape of the main flow velocity boundary layer near tube wall only in small regions.

Experimental Investigation of Coil Curvature Effect on Heat Transfer and Pressure Drop Characteristics of Shell and Coil Heat Exchanger

2014 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
M. R. Salem ◽  
K. M. Elshazly ◽  
R. Y. Sakr ◽  
R. K. Ali
Keyword(s):  
Heat Transfer ◽  
Nusselt Number ◽  
Heat Exchanger ◽  
Friction Factor ◽  
Heat Exchangers ◽  
Average Nusselt Number ◽  
Transfer Coefficients ◽  
Nusselt Numbers ◽  
Fanning Friction Factor ◽  
Coil Heat

The present work experimentally investigates the characteristics of convective heat transfer in horizontal shell and coil heat exchangers in addition to friction factor for fully developed flow through the helically coiled tube (HCT). The majority of previous studies were performed on HCTs with isothermal and isoflux boundary conditions or shell and coil heat exchangers with small ranges of HCT configurations and fluid operating conditions. Here, five heat exchangers of counter-flow configuration were constructed with different HCT-curvature ratios (δ) and tested at different mass flow rates and inlet temperatures of the two sides of the heat exchangers. Totally, 295 test runs were performed from which the HCT-side and shell-side heat transfer coefficients were calculated. Results showed that the average Nusselt numbers of the two sides of the heat exchangers and the overall heat transfer coefficients increased by increasing coil curvature ratio. The average increase in the average Nusselt number is of 160.3–80.6% for the HCT side and of 224.3–92.6% for the shell side when δ increases from 0.0392 to 0.1194 within the investigated ranges of different parameters. Also, for the same flow rate in both heat exchanger sides, the effect of coil pitch and number of turns with the same coil torsion and tube length is remarkable on shell average Nusselt number while it is insignificant on HCT-average Nusselt number. In addition, a significant increase of 33.2–7.7% is obtained in the HCT-Fanning friction factor (fc) when δ increases from 0.0392 to 0.1194. Correlations for the average Nusselt numbers for both heat exchanger sides and the HCT Fanning friction factor as a function of the investigated parameters are obtained.

Effect of Vertical Baffle Installation on Forced Convective Heat Transfer in Channel Having a Backward Facing Step

2013 ◽  
Vol 388 ◽  
pp. 169-175 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amirhossein Heshmati ◽  
Hussein A. Mohammed ◽  
Mohammad Parsazadeh ◽  
Farshid Fathinia ◽  
Mazlan A. Wahid ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Heat Transfer ◽  
Nusselt Number ◽  
Friction Coefficient ◽  
Convective Heat Transfer ◽  
Skin Friction ◽  
Convective Heat ◽  
Average Nusselt Number ◽  
Skin Friction Coefficient ◽  
Expansion Ratio ◽  
Forced Convective Heat Transfer

In this study, forced convective heat transfer is considered in channel over a backward facing step having a baffle on the top wall. Four different geometries with different expansion ratios and different type of baffles are numerically investigated. The study clearly shows that the geometry with expansion ratio 2 and solid baffle has the highest Nusselt number compared to other geometries. Considering both Nusselt number and skin friction coefficient for all four geometries clearly illustrated an increase in average Nusselt number by increasing the expansion ratio. This study clearly shows that mounting a slotted baffle at the top wall instead of a solid baffle caused a decline in average Nusselt number. It is also found that for geometry with expansion ratio of 3 and a slotted baffle on the top of the channel, skin friction coefficient in both bottom wall and step wall has its minimal compared to other geometries.

Local and Average Characteristics of Heat/Mass Transfer Over Flat Tube Bank Fin With Four Vortex Generators per Tube

2002 ◽  
Vol 124 (3) ◽  
pp. 546-552 ◽  
Author(s):  
L. B. Wang ◽  
F. Ke ◽  
S. D. Gao ◽  
Y. G. Mei
Keyword(s):  
Heat Transfer ◽  
Mass Transfer ◽  
Nusselt Number ◽  
Pressure Drop ◽  
Heat Transfer Process ◽  
Attack Angle ◽  
Vortex Generators ◽  
Back Surface ◽  
Flat Tube ◽  
Fin Spacing

The analogy between heat and mass transfer has been used to obtain local and average heat transfer characteristics over a complete flat tube-fin element with four vortex generators (VGs) per tube. Several types of surfaces involved in heat transfer process such as fin surface mounted with VGs, its back surface (mounted without VGs) and flat tube surface are considered. The mass transfer experiments are performed using naphthalene sublimation method. The effects of the fin spacing and VG parameters such as height and attack angle on heat transfer and pressure drop are investigated. The comparisons of heat transfer enhancement with flat tube-fin element without VG enhancement under three constraints are carried out. The local Nusselt number distribution reveals that VGs can efficiently enhance the heat transfer in the region near flat tube on fin surface mounted with VGs. On its back surface the enhancement is almost the same as on the fin surface mounted with VGs but enhanced region is away from flat tube wall with some distance. Average results reveal that increasing of VG height and attack angle increases the enhancement of heat transfer and pressure drop, whereas small fin spacing causes greater increase of pressure drop. The heat transfer performance, correlations of Nusselt number and friction factor are also given.

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