scholarly journals Numerical Analysis of Heat Transfer and Pressure Drop in Helically Micro-Finned Tubes

Processes ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (5) ◽  
pp. 754
Author(s):  
Muhammad Ammar Ali ◽  
Muhammad Sajid ◽  
Emad Uddin ◽  
Niaz Bahadur ◽  
Zaib Ali

In this study, the pressure drop and heat transfer characteristics of smooth tube and internal helically micro-finned tubes with two different fin-to-fin height ratios i.e., equal fin height and alternating fin height, are computationally analysed. The tube with alternating fin height is analysed for proof of concept of pressure drop reduction. A single phase steady turbulent flow model is used with a Reynolds number ranging from 12,000 to 54,000. Water is used as working fluid with inlet temperature of 55 °C and constant wall temperature of 20 °C is applied. Friction factor, heat transfer coefficient, Nusselt number, and Thermal Performance Index are evaluated and analysed. The numerical results are validated by comparison with the experimental and numerical data from literature. The results showed that the thermal performance is enhanced due to helically finned tube for a range of Reynolds numbers, but at the expense of increased pressure drop as compared to a smooth tube. The helically finned tube with alternating fin heights showed a 5% decrease in friction factor and <1% decrease in heat transfer coefficient when compared with the equal fin heights tube, making it a suitable choice for heat transfer applications.

1979 ◽  
Vol 101 (3) ◽  
pp. 447-452 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. R. Kubanek ◽  
D. L. Miletti

Heat transfer and pressure drop measurements were performed on three integral spiralled inner-fin tubes (12.7–15.9 mm OD, 30–32 fins, fin height 0.5–0.6 mm) with two-phase flow of refrigerant 22 under evaporating conditions. The data were compared with the performance of smooth tubes with and without a star-shaped insert. Based on the same length of heated test section (0.80 and 2.44 m), change in refrigerant quality (0.2 and 0.7) and mass velocity range (65,000 to 270,000 g/s · m2): (1) The enhancements in heat transfer coefficient for the internally-finned tubes over those for the smooth tubes ranged from 30 to 760 percent, and typically increased with mass velocity. Tighter fin spiralling significantly increased heat transfer. (2) The enhancements in heat transfer coefficient for the smooth tube with the star-shaped insert ranged from 40 to 370 percent, but decreased with mass velocity. (3) The increases in pressure drop for the internally-finned tubes over those for the smooth tubes ranged from 10 to 290 percent, while those for the smooth tube with the star-shaped insert were 300 to over 2000 percent. The factors enhancing the performance of the internally-finned tubes include the low fins which result in only a small reduction in cross-sectional flow area, and the tight spiral which increases the corner length per unit length of tube available for nucleation of vapor bubbles.


1970 ◽  
Vol 40 (1) ◽  
pp. 54-62 ◽  
Author(s):  
Asharful Islam ◽  
A. K. Mozumder

Heat transfer performance of T-section internal fins in a circular tube has been experimentally investigated. The T-finned tube was heated by electricity and was cooled by fully developed turbulent air. Inside wall temperatures and pressure drop along the axial distance of the test section at steady state condition were measured for different flows having Reynolds number ranging from 2x104 to 5x104 for both smooth and finned tubes. From the measured data, heat transfer coefficient, Nusselt number and friction factor were calculated. From the measured and calculated values, heat transfer characteristics and fluid flow characteristics of the finned tube are explained; the performance of the finned tube is also evaluated. For finned tube, friction factor on an average was 5 times higher and heat transfer coefficient was 2 times higher than those for smooth tube for similar flow conditions. The finned tube, however, produces significant heat transfer enhancement. Key Words: Heat Transfer, Internal Fin, Reynolds Number, Nusselt Number, Pressure Drop. doi: 10.3329/jme.v40i1.3473 Journal of Mechanical Engineering, Vol. ME40, No. 1, June 2009 54-62


2013 ◽  
Vol 832 ◽  
pp. 160-165 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohammad Alam Khairul ◽  
Rahman Saidur ◽  
Altab Hossain ◽  
Mohammad Abdul Alim ◽  
Islam Mohammed Mahbubul

Helically coiled heat exchangers are globally used in various industrial applications for their high heat transfer performance and compact size. Nanofluids can provide excellent thermal performance of this type of heat exchangers. In the present study, the effect of different nanofluids on the heat transfer performance in a helically coiled heat exchanger is examined. Four different types of nanofluids CuO/water, Al2O3/water, SiO2/water, and ZnO/water with volume fractions 1 vol.% to 4 vol.% was used throughout this analysis and volume flow rate was remained constant at 3 LPM. Results show that the heat transfer coefficient is high for higher particle volume concentration of CuO/water, Al2O3/water and ZnO/water nanofluids, while the values of the friction factor and pressure drop significantly increase with the increase of nanoparticle volume concentration. On the contrary, low heat transfer coefficient was found in higher concentration of SiO2/water nanofluids. The highest enhancement of heat transfer coefficient and lowest friction factor occurred for CuO/water nanofluids among the four nanofluids. However, highest friction factor and lowest heat transfer coefficient were found for SiO2/water nanofluids. The results reveal that, CuO/water nanofluids indicate significant heat transfer performance for helically coiled heat exchanger systems though this nanofluids exhibits higher pressure drop.


Energies ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (10) ◽  
pp. 2428 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charalampos Alexopoulos ◽  
Osama Aljolani ◽  
Florian Heberle ◽  
Tryfon C. Roumpedakis ◽  
Dieter Brüggemann ◽  
...  

Towards the introduction of environmentally friendlier refrigerants, CO2 cycles have gained significant attention in cooling and air conditioning systems in recent years. In this context, a design procedure for an air finned-tube CO2 gas cooler is developed. The analysis aims to evaluate the gas cooler design incorporated into a CO2 air conditioning system for residential applications. Therefore, a simulation model of the gas cooler is developed and validated experimentally by comparing its overall heat transfer coefficient. Based on the model, the evaluation of different numbers of rows, lengths, and diameters of tubes, as well as different ambient temperatures, are conducted, identifying the most suitable design in terms of pressure losses and required heat exchange area for selected operational conditions. The comparison between the model and the experimental results showed a satisfactory convergence for fan frequencies from 50 to 80 Hz. The absolute average deviations of the overall heat transfer coefficient for fan frequencies from 60 to 80 Hz were approximately 10%. With respect to the gas cooler design, a compromise between the bundle area and the refrigerant pressure drop was necessary, resulting in a 2.11 m2 bundle area and 0.23 bar refrigerant pressure drop. In addition, the analysis of the gas cooler’s performance in different ambient temperatures showed that the defined heat exchanger operates properly, compared to other potential gas cooler designs.


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.


2015 ◽  
Vol 23 (01) ◽  
pp. 1550007 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ryoji Katsuki ◽  
Tsutomu Shioyama ◽  
Chikako Iwaki ◽  
Tadamichi Yanazawa

We have been developing a free convection air cooled heat exchanger without power supply to improve economic efficiency and mechanical reliability. However, this heat exchanger requires a larger installation area than the forced draft type air cooled heat exchanger since a large heating surface is needed to compensate for the small heat transfer by natural convection. Therefore, we have been investigating a heat exchanger consisting of an array of finned tubes and chimney to increase the heat transfer coefficient. Since the heat transfer characteristics of finned tube arrays have not been clarified, we conducted experiments with a finned tube array to determine the relation between the configuration of finned tubes and the heat transfer coefficient of a tube array. The results showed that the average heat transfer coefficient increased with pitch in the vertical direction, and became constant when the pitch was over five times the fin diameter. The average heat transfer coefficient was about 1.4 times higher than that of a single finned tube in free space. The ratio of the average heat transfer coefficient of the finned tube array with chimney to that of a single finned tube was found to be independent of the difference in temperature between the tube surface and air.


Author(s):  
S. Huang ◽  
Y. Y. Yan ◽  
J. D. Maltson ◽  
E. Utriainen

Experiments have been conducted to investigate the overall thermal performance of a rectangular channel implemented with an elongated pedestal array. The staggered pedestals were elongated in the spanwise direction in order that the jet flow from between the pedestals impinges at the centre of the pedestals in the downstream row. The average heat transfer coefficient of the pedestal and the local heat transfer coefficient distribution of the bottom channel wall were investigated for different geometrical arrangements. The pressure drop across the pedestal bank was measured. The transient liquid crystal method was used to obtain the local heat transfer coefficient distribution on the bottom channel wall and the lumped capacitance method was used to measure the average heat transfer coefficient of the pedestals in the last two rows of the bank. Five pressure taps were arranged on the centerline of each gap between two pedestal rows to measure the pressure drop. The heat transfer coefficients were measured over the Reynolds number range from 10,000 to 30,000. The minimum flow area to the channel cross-section flow area ratio ranged from 0.149 to 0.333. The effects of pedestal geometry and array distribution were investigated in detail showing the relationship between the pedestal array geometry, heat transfer enhancement and pressure drop. Conclusions were drawn on the effects of geometry and flow conditions on overall thermal performance of the respective channels.


2017 ◽  
Vol 64 (4) ◽  
pp. 519-531 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amir Arya ◽  
Saeed Shahmiry ◽  
Vahid Nikkhah ◽  
Mohamad Mohsen Sarafraz

Abstract Experimental investigation was conducted on the thermal performance and pressure drop of a convective cooling loop working with ZnO aqueous nanofluids. The loop was used to cool a flat heater connected to an AC autotransformer. Influence of different operating parameters, such as fluid flow rate and mass concentration of nanofluid on surface temperature of heater, pressure drop, friction factor and overall heat transfer coefficient was investigated and briefly discussed. Results of this study showed that, despite a penalty for pressure drop, ZnO/water nanofluid was a promising coolant for cooling the micro-electronic devices and chipsets. It was also found that there is an optimum for concentration of nanofluid so that the heat transfer coefficient is maximum, which was wt. % = 0.3 for ZnO/water used in this research. In addition, presence of nanoparticles enhanced the friction factor and pressure drop as well; however, it is not very significant in comparison with those of registered for the base fluid.


Author(s):  
Suriyan Laohalertdecha ◽  
Somchai Wongwises

The effects of pitch and depth on the condensation heat transfer of R-134a flowing inside corrugated tubes are experimentally investigated. The test section is a horizontal tube-in-tube heat exchanger. The refrigerant flows in the inner tube and the water flows in the annulus. The length of heat exchanger is 2 m. A smooth tube and corrugated tubes having inner diameters of 8.7 mm are used as an inner tube. The corrugation pitches used in this study are 5.08, 6.35, and 8.46 mm. Similarly, the corrugation depths are 1, 1.25, and 1.5 mm. The effects of corrugation pitch and depth on tube wall temperature, heat transfer coefficient and frictional pressure drop are discussed. The results illustrate that the maximum heat transfer coefficient and frictional pressure drop obtained from the corrugated tube are up to 50% and 70% higher than those obtained from the smooth tube, respectively.


Author(s):  
Shui Ji ◽  
Wenjing Du ◽  
Lin Cheng

Since its appearance in the 80’s of the 20th century, the heat exchanger with helical baffles (HEHBs) has attracted lots of attention. Benefiting from its relatively simple manufacture procedure and low cost, the heat exchanger with overlapped helical baffles receives much concern. However, there are few reports on the influence of the specific overlap size of helical baffles on the shell-side heat transfer performance and fluid friction property. In this paper, numerical investigation on this open issue is carried out by means of numerical method. The emphasis is laid on the relationship between the overlap size of helical baffles and the shell-side performance. Baffles with the shape of a quarter-ellipse are simulated and the heat-transfer oil is selected as the working fluid. Results show that in the condition of same helix angles and same flow rates, 10% increase of the specific overlap size brings an increase of 23–42% on the pressure drop and an increase of 2–8% on the convection heat transfer coefficient; hence the corresponding heat transfer coefficient pre unit pressure drop is decreased by 11–22%. Compared with the continuously overlap configuration, the axially staggered overlap helical baffles can improve the comprehensive performance of HEHBs on the condition of an identical helical pitch, and hence it is favorable for the situation with strict constrain on pressure drop.


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