Numerical Simulation of Heat Transfer and Pressure Drop Characteristics of Internal Microfin Tubes

Author(s):  
Jingzhi Zhang ◽  
Jinpin Lin ◽  
Wei Li

Heat transfer and pressure drop characteristics of mini smooth and microfin tubes were studied numerically using water as working fluid at Reynolds number ranging from 7500 to 17500. Seven microfin tubes were used with the same inner diameters of 4.6 mm and 18° helix angle and with number of fins ranging from 30 to 50, fin apex angle ranging from 10° to 40°, and fin height ranging from 0.1 to 0.15 mm. The numerical results fit well with the empirical correlations for heat transfer coefficients and pressure drops. The results indicate that the j-factor of the microfin tubes is approximately 1.2∼1.4 times of that in smooth tubes at the same Re. The j-factor increases with increasing number of microfin and the microfin height and with decreasing fin apex angle. The f-factor of the microfin tubes is approximately 1.05∼1.25 times of that in the smooth tube at the same Re, and the difference between the factors increases with the Re rising. The performance evaluation criterions (PEC) of the seven microfin tubes ranges from 1.15 to 1.35, indicating that microfin tubes exhibit better comprehensive performance compared with smooth tubes. The fluid at the center has a strong tendency to move towards the heated wall along the radial direction due to the directing effect of the microfins. The distinctive flow pattern in the radial direction can sufficiently enhance the turbulent flow near the wall and strengthen the mixing between the cold fluid at the center and hot water at the wall, leading to the enhancement of heat transfer in the near-wall region.

Author(s):  
Josua P. Meyer ◽  
Leon Liebenberg ◽  
Jonathan A. Olivier

Heat exchangers are usually designed in such a way that they do not operate in the transition region. This is usually due to a lack of information in this region. However, due to design constraints, energy efficiency requirements or change of operating conditions, heat exchangers are often forced to operate in this region. It is also well known that entrance disturbances influence where transition occurs. The purpose of this paper is to present experimental heat transfer and pressure drop data in the transition region for fully developed and developing flows inside smooth tubes using water as the working fluid. The use of different inlet disturbances were used to investigate its effect on transition. A tube-in-tube heat exchanger was used to perform the experiments, which ranged in Reynolds numbers from 1 000 to 20 000, with Prandtl numbers being between 4 and 6 while Grashof numbers were in the order of 105. Results showed that the type of inlet disturbance could delay transition to a Reynolds number as high as 7 000, while other inlets expedited it, confirming results of others. For heat transfer, though, it was found that transition was independent of the inlet disturbance and all commenced at the same Reynolds number, 2 000–3 000, which was attributed to secondary flow effects.


1990 ◽  
Vol 112 (4) ◽  
pp. 1041-1047 ◽  
Author(s):  
L. M. Schlager ◽  
M. B. Pate ◽  
A. E. Bergles

Using R-22 as the working fluid, a series of tests was performed to determine the evaporation and condensation performance of three 12.7-mm o.d. tubes having many small, spiral inner fins. The tubes, referred to as microfin tubes, had a 11.7-mm maximum i.d., 60 or 70 fins with heights ranging from 0.15 to 0.30 mm, and spiral angles from 15 to 25 deg. A smooth tube was also tested to establish a basis of comparison. The test apparatus had a straight, horizontal test section with a length of 3.67 m and was heated or cooled by water circulated in a surrounding annulus. Nominal evaporation conditions were 0 to 5°C (0.5 to 0.6 MPa) with inlet and outlet qualities of 15 and 85 percent, respectively; condensation conditions were 39 to 42°C (1.5 to 1.6 MPa) with inlet and outlet qualities of 85 and 10 percent, respectively. Mass flux varied from 75 to 400 kg/m2·s. The average heat transfer coefficients in the microfin tubes, based on a nominal equivalent smooth tube area, were 1.6 to 2.2 times larger for evaporation and 1.5 to 2.0 times larger for condensation than those in the smooth tube. The pressure drop increased, but by a smaller factor than the heat transfer coefficient.


Author(s):  
Ignacio Carvajal-Mariscal ◽  
Florencio Sanchez-Silva ◽  
Georgiy Polupan

In this work the heat transfer and pressure drop experimental results obtained in a two step finned tube bank with conical fins are presented. The tube bank had an equilateral triangle array composed of nine finned tubes with conical fins inclined 45 degrees in respect with the tube axis. The heat exchange external area of a single tube is approximately 0.07 m2. All necessary thermal parameters, inlet/outlet temperatures, mass flows, for the heat balance in the tube bank were determined for different air velocities, Re = 3400–18400, and one constant thermal charge provided by a hot water flow with a temperature of 80 °C. As a result, the correlations for the heat transfer and pressure drop calculation were obtained. The experimental results were compared against the analytical results for a tube bank with annular fins with the same heat exchange area. It was found that the proposed tube bank using finned tubes with conical fins shows an increment of heat transfer up to 58%.


In this investigation of multi heat pipe induced in heat exchanger shows the developments in heat transfer is to improve the efficiency of heat exchangers. Water is used as a heat transfer fluid and acetone is used as a working fluid. Rotameter is set to measure the flow rate of cold water and hot water. To maintain the parameter as experimental setup. Then set the mass flow rate of hot water as 40 LPH, 60LPH, 80 LPH, 100LPH, 120 LPH and mass flow rate of cold water as 20 LPH, 30 LPH, 40 LPH, 50 LPH, and 60 LPH. Then 40 C, 45 ºC, 50 ºC, 55 C, 60 ºC are the temperatures of hot water at inlet are maintained. To find some various physical parameters of Qc , hc , Re ,, Pr , Rth. The maximum effectiveness of the investigation obtained from condition of Thi 60 C, Tci 32 C and 100 LPH mhi, 60 LPH mci the maximum effectiveness attained as 57.25. Then the mhi as 100 LPH, mci as 60 LPH and Thi at 40 C as 37.6%. It shows the effectiveness get increased about 34.3 to the maximum conditions.


2015 ◽  
Vol 1105 ◽  
pp. 253-258 ◽  
Author(s):  
Weerapun Duangthongsuk ◽  
Somchai Wongwises

This research presents an experimental investigation on the heat transfer performance and pressure drop characteristics of a heat sink with miniature square pin fin structure using nanofluids as coolant. ZnO-water nanofluids with particle concentrations of 0.2, 0.4 and 0.6 vol.% are used as working fluid and then compared with the data for water-cooled heat sink. Heat sink made from aluminum material with dimension around 28 x 33 x 25 mm (width x length x thickness). The heat transfer area and hydraulic diameter of the each flow channel is designed at 1,565 mm2and 1.2 mm respectively. Uniform heat flux at the bottom of heat sink is achieved using an electric heater. The experimental data illustrate that the thermal performance of heat sink using nanofluids as coolant is average 14% higher than that of the water-cooled heat sink. For pressure drop, the data show that the pressure drop of nanofluids is a few percent larger than that of the water-cooled heat sink.


Author(s):  
Ece Özkaya ◽  
Selin Aradag ◽  
Sadik Kakac

In this study, three-dimensional computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analyses are performed to assess the thermal-hydraulic characteristics of a commercial Gasketed Plate Heat Exchangers (GPHEx) with 30 degrees of chevron angle (Plate1). The results of CFD analyses are compared with a computer program (ETU HEX) previously developed based on experimental results. Heat transfer plate is scanned using photogrammetric scan method to model GPHEx. CFD model is created as two separate flow zones, one for each of hot and cold domains with a virtual plate. Mass flow inlet and pressure outlet boundary conditions are applied. The working fluid is water. Temperature and pressure distributions are obtained for a Reynolds number range of 700–3400 and total temperature difference and pressure drop values are compared with ETU HEX. A new plate (Plate2) with corrugation pattern using smaller amplitude is designed and analyzed. The thermal properties are in good agreement with experimental data for the commercial plate. For the new plate, the decrease of the amplitude leads to a smaller enlargement factor which causes a low heat transfer rate while the pressure drop remains almost constant.


2018 ◽  
Vol 140 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Chirag R. Kharangate ◽  
Ki Wook Jung ◽  
Sangwoo Jung ◽  
Daeyoung Kong ◽  
Joseph Schaadt ◽  
...  

Three-dimensional (3D) stacked integrated circuit (IC) chips offer significant performance improvement, but offer important challenges for thermal management including, for the case of microfluidic cooling, constraints on channel dimensions, and pressure drop. Here, we investigate heat transfer and pressure drop characteristics of a microfluidic cooling device with staggered pin-fin array arrangement with dimensions as follows: diameter D = 46.5 μm; spacing, S ∼ 100 μm; and height, H ∼ 110 μm. Deionized single-phase water with mass flow rates of m˙ = 15.1–64.1 g/min was used as the working fluid, corresponding to values of Re (based on pin fin diameter) from 23 to 135, where heat fluxes up to 141 W/cm2 are removed. The measurements yield local Nusselt numbers that vary little along the heated channel length and values for both the Nu and the friction factor do not agree well with most data for pin fin geometries in the literature. Two new correlations for the average Nusselt number (∼Re1.04) and Fanning friction factor (∼Re−0.52) are proposed that capture the heat transfer and pressure drop behavior for the geometric and operating conditions tested in this study with mean absolute error (MAE) of 4.9% and 1.7%, respectively. The work shows that a more comprehensive investigation is required on thermofluidic characterization of pin fin arrays with channel heights Hf < 150 μm and fin spacing S = 50–500 μm, respectively, with the Reynolds number, Re < 300.


Author(s):  
Ayman Megahed ◽  
Ibrahim Hassan ◽  
Tariq Ahmad

The present study focuses on the experimental investigation of boiling heat transfer characteristics and pressure drop in a silicon microchannel heat sink. The microchannel heat sink consists of a rectangular silicon chip in which 45 rectangular microchannels were chemically etched with a depth of 295 μm, width of 254 μm, and a length of 16 mm. Un-encapsulated Thermochromic liquid Crystals (TLC) are used in the present work to enable nonintrusive and high spatial resolution temperature measurements. This measuring technique is used to provide accurate full and local surface-temperature and heat transfer coefficient measurements. Experiments are carried out for mass velocities ranging between 290 to 457 kg/m2.s and heat fluxes from 6.04 to 13.06 W/cm2 using FC-72 as the working fluid. Experimental results show that the pressure drop increases as the exit quality and the flow rate increase. High values of heat transfer coefficient can be obtained at low exit quality (xe < 0.2). However, the heat transfer coefficient decreases sharply and remains almost constant as the quality increases for an exit quality higher than 0.2.


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