Compound heat transfer enhancement of a dimpled tube with a twisted tape swirl generator

Friction and compound heat transfer behaviors in a dimpled tube fitted with a twisted tape swirl generator are investigated experimentally using air as working fluid. The effects of the pitch and twist ratio on the average heat transfer coefficient and the pressure loss are determined in a circular tube with the fully developed flow for the Reynolds number in the range of 12,000 to 44,000. The experiments are performed using two dimpled tubes with different pitch ratios of dimpled surfaces (PR = 0.7 and 1.0) and three twisted tapes with three different twist ratios (y/w = 3, 5, and 7). Experiments using plain tube and dimpled tube acting alone are also carried out for comparison. The experimental results reveal that both heat transfer coefficient and friction factor in the dimpled tube fitted with the twisted tape, are higher than those in the dimple tube acting alone and plain tube. It is also found that the heat transfer coefficient and friction factor in the combined devices increase as the pitch ratio (PR) and twist ratio (y/w) decrease. In addition, an empirical correlation based on the experimental results of the present study is sufficiently accurate for prediction the heat transfer (Nu) and friction factor (f) behaviors.     

Maximization of heat transfer density rate from a single row of rhombic tubes cooled by forced convection based on constructal design

The heat transfer density rate from a row of rhombic tubes cooled by forced convection is maximized based on constructal design. A row of parallel rhombic tubes are placed in a fixed volume, the horizontal axis of the tubes is kept constant while the vertical axis of the tubes and the spacing between the tubes are changed to facilitate the heat flow from the tubes to the coolant. The tubes are kept at constant temperature and the incoming free‐stream flow is induced by constant pressure drop. For steady, two‐dimensional, incompressible, and laminar forced convection, the governing equations are solved numerically by finite volume method with SIMPLE algorithm. The dimensionless pressure drop (Bejan number, Be) ranging from 10 ³ to 10 ⁵, the range of the vertical axis of the tube is 0.2 ≤ B ≤ 2, and the working fluid is air ( Pr = 0.71). The results show that the optimal spacing decreases and the maximum heat transfer density increases as the Bejan number increases for all vertical axes of the tube. Bejan number and the bluntness of the tube have a significant effect of the flow structure (separation and vortex formation) around the tubes at the optimal spacings.     

Experimental study on condensation and evaporation flow inside horizontal three dimensional enhanced tubes

Experimental investigations of tube side condensation and evaporation in two 3-D enhanced heat transfer (2EHT) tubes were compared to the performance of a smooth surface copper tube. The equivalent outer diameter of all the tubes was 12.7 mm with an inner diameter of 11.5 mm. Both the inner and outer surfaces of the 2EHT tubes are enhanced by longitudinal grooves with a background pattern made up by an array of dimples/embossments. Experimental runs were performed using R410A as the working fluid, over the quality range of 0.2–0.9. For evaporation, the heat transfer coefficient ratio (compares the heat transfer coefficient of the enhanced tube to that of a smooth tube) of the 2EHT tubes is 1.11–1.43 (with an enhanced surface area ratio of 1.03) for mass flux rate that ranges from 80 to 200 kg/m² s. For condensation, the heat transfer coefficient ratio range is 1.1–1.16 (with an enhanced surface area ratio of 1.03) for mass flux that ranges from 80 to 260 kg/m² s. Frictional pressure drop values for the 2EHT tubes are very similar to each other. Heat transfer enhancement in the 2EHT tubes is mainly due to the dimples and grooves in the inner surface that create an increased surface area and interfacial turbulence; producing higher heat flux from wall to working fluid, flow separation, and secondary flows. A comparison was performed to evaluate the enhancement effect of the 2EHT tubes using a defined performance factor and this indicates that the 2EHT tubes provides a better heat transfer coefficient under evaporation conditions.     

Study the influence of concavity shapes on augmentation of heat-transfer performance,pressure field,and fluid pattern in three-dimensional pipe

In this current study, the heat-transfer augmentation mechanism and pressure drop with flow field structures over different dimple arrays in turbulent flow of three-dimensional circular tube are investigated based on computational fluid dynamics numerical methods using the standard k − e turbulent model. The water is the working fluid over the range of Reynolds numbers from 1500 to 24,000, with three different tubes dimpling arrangements are analyzed. The numerical simulation results are validated through available experimental data, and they show good agreement results between them. The numerical analysis results showed that the flow fields are symmetric within the middle cross-sectional direction in the pipe with and without dimples. Also, the flow near or close to the dimples is chaotic and including small vortexes and eddies. The results found that the temperature difference in the dimple tube with 2 mm diameter at low flow range 0.56 L/min was higher than that of smooth pipe, dimple tube 0.75 and 1.5 mm by 26.8%, 10.57%, and 3.68%, respectively. It can be concluded that using dimples in heat-exchanger tubes can provide rates of heat transfer that is higher than that without dimpled tubes at the same operating conditions. Hence, this is an important enhancement in process industries for the energy conversion applications.     

Numerical investigation on location of protrusions and dimples during slot jet impingement on a concave surface using hybrid ANN–GA

Numerical simulations using ANSYS Fluent 17.2 are explored for a detailed discussion on jet impingement over a compound dimpled and protrusioned concave surface. Previous researchers have proved that both dimples and protrusions help in heat transfer augmentation. However, the combined effect of dimple and protrusion over a concave surface is still not studied, which may show a significant improvement in heat transfer. Therefore, the present study is devoted to the alternate location of dimple and protrusion over a concave surface for enhancement in impingement heat transfer. Simulations are performed for several arrangements of dimples and protrusions over a concave surface. It is noticed that a particular arrangement of dimples and protrusions leads to an increase in heat transfer compared with a fully protruded or fully dimpled concave surface. Furthermore, it is also noticed that protrusions/dimples at the stagnation region degrade overall impingement heat transfer. The wall shear stress profile is found to be similar to its corresponding local Nusselt number profile. Lastly, the optimal location of dimples and protrusions is predicted using an artificial neural network and a specially formulated discrete version of genetic algorithm.     

Maximization of heat transfer density from a vertical array of flat tubes in cross flow under fixed pressure drop using constructal design

The density of heat transfer rate from a vertical array of flat tubes in cross flow is maximized under fixed pressure drop using constructal design. With the constructal design, the tube arrangement is found such that the heat currents from the tubes to the coolant flow easily. The constraint in the present constructal design is the volume where the tubes are arranged inside it. The two degrees of freedom available inside the volume are the tube‐to‐tube spacing and the length of the flat part of the tubes (tube flatness). The tubes are heated with constant surface temperature. The equations of continuity, momentums, and energy for steady, two‐dimensional, and laminar forced convection are solved by means of a finite‐volume method. The ranges of the present study are Bejan number (dimensionless pressure drop) (10³ ≤ Be ≤ 10⁵) and tube flatness (dimensionless length of the tube flat part) (0 ≤ F ≤ 0.8). The coolant used is air with Prandtl number (Pr = 0.72). The results reveal that the maximum heat transfer density decreases when the tube flatness decreases at constant Bejan number. At constant tube flatness, the heat transfer density increases as the dimensionless pressure drop (Bejan number) increases. Also, the optimal tube‐to‐tube spacing is constant, irrespective of the tube flatness at constant Bejan number.     

Effect of outline curvature degree on heat transfer and flow characteristics inside dimpled tubes and spirally grooved tubes

The flow behaviors and heat transfer characteristics have been studied inside the dimpled tubes and spirally grooved tubes with different curvature degrees, which is considered for the first time within the influence factors. A three-dimensional numerical simulation by periodic boundary conditions is performed to model the fully developed flow of dimpled and grooved sections to acquire the finer mesh and more accurate results. In addition, the dimple and groove outlines with different curvature degrees are generated by polynomial functions. Effects of curvature degrees for dimpled tubes and spirally grooved tubes on flow, heat transfer, and comprehensive performances are discussed. The results indicate that the influence of curvature degrees for dimpled tubes exhibit an opposite behavior when compared with those for spirally grooved tubes. On the whole, all performance factors increase with the growing curvature degree for dimpled tubes but decrease with the increasing curvature degree for spirally grooved tubes. By comparing different curvature degrees, the maximum ranges of heat transfer enhancement are 1.50–2.22 and 2.54–2.82, respectively, for dimpled and grooved tubes with respect to Re. Thermal and hydraulic fields are considered to analyze the mechanism of heat transfer enhancement. The analysis shows that the way the dimple changes thermohydraulic properties differs from the way the groove changes the properties.     

Enhanced Boiling Heat Transfer of the Compact Staggered Tube Bundles under Sub-Atmospheric Pressures

An experimental investigation was carried out on the boiling heat transfer enhancement of water on plain tubes in compact staggered tube-bundle evaporators under atmospheric and sub-atmospheric pressures. The experiment investigated the effects of the tube spacing and positioning and the test pressure on the boiling heat transfer characteristics in restricted spaces of compact tube bundles. The experimental results indicated that for compact tube bundles, the effect of the tube spacing is very significant on the boiling heat transfer. The boiling heat transfer has a maximum enhancement when the tube spacing is so selected as to take an optimum value. The enhanced heat transfer efficiency for the compact bundles would gradually decrease as the test pressure was reduced.     

Three-Dimensional Numerical Study of Fluid and Heat Transfer Characteristics of Dimpled Fin Surfaces

In the present study, a code based on the nonorthogonal curvilinear coordinates is developed with a collocated grid system generated by the two-boundary method. After validation of the code, it is used to compare simulated results for a fin-and-tube surface with coupled and decoupled solution methods. The results of the coupled method are more agreeable with the test data. Simulation for dimpled and reference plain plate fin-and-tube surfaces are then conducted by the coupled method within a range of inlet velocity from 1.0 m/s to 5 m/s. Results show that at identical pumping power the dimpled fin can enhance heat transfer by 13.8–30.3%. The results show that relative to the reference plain plate fin-and-tube surface, heat transfer rates and pressure drops of the dimpled fin increase by 13.8%–30.3% and 31.6%–56.5% for identical flow rate constraint. For identical pumping power constraint and identical pressure drop constraint, the heat transfer rates increase by 11.0%–25.3% and 9.2%–22.0%, respectively. By analyzing the predicted flow and temperature fields it is found that the dimples in the fin surface can improve the synergy between velocity and fluid temperature gradient.     

Influences of nozzle-plate spacing on boiling heat transfer of confined planar dielectric liquid impinging jet

We have investigated the single-phase and boiling heat transfer of dielectric liquid under the Reynolds numbers (2000, 3000 and 5000) and under nozzle-plate spacing (H/W; 0.5, 1.0 and 4.0) in a submerged impinging jet system. The boiling incipience increases in proportion to the Reynolds number and in inverse proportion to the nozzle-to-surface spacing. The critical heat flux at H/W = 1.0 is lower than those of outer spacings, such as H/W = 0.5 and 4.0, due to the characteristics of the jet impingement heat transfer distribution. We suggest a correlation equation of nozzle-plate spacing (H/W) having the lowest CHF for various jet velocities.     

Experimental investigation of impingement heat transfer on a flat and dimpled plate with different crossflow schemes

A nine-by-nine jet array impinging on a flat and dimpled plate at Reynolds numbers from 15,000 to 35,000 has been studied by the transient liquid crystal method. The distance between the impingement plate and target plate is adjusted to be 3, 4 and 5 jet diameters. Three jet-induced crossflow schemes, referred as minimum, medium and maximum crossflow correspondingly, have been measured. The local air jet temperature is measured at several positions on the impingement plate to account for an appropriate reference temperature of the heat transfer coefficient. The heat transfer results of the dimpled plate are compared with those of the flat plate. The best heat transfer performance is obtained with the minimum crossflow and narrow jet-to-plate spacing no matter on a flat or dimpled plate. The presence of dimples on the target plate produce higher heat transfer coefficients than the flat plate for maximum and minimum crossflow.     

Thermo-hydraulic study of a single row heat exchanger consisting of metal foam covered round tubes

Open cell metal foam is a novel engineering material that offers an interesting combination of material properties from a heat exchanger point of view such as a high specific surface area, tortuous flow paths for flow mixing and low weight. A new heat exchanger design with metal foams is studied in this work, aimed at low airside pressure drop. It consists of a single row of aluminum tubes covered with thin layers (4–8 mm) of metal foam. Through wind tunnel testing the impact of various parameters on the thermo-hydraulic performance was considered, including the Reynolds number, the tube spacing, the foam height and the type of foam. The results indicated that providing a good metallic bonding between the foam and the tubes can be achieved, metal foam covered tubes with a small tube spacing, small foam heights and made of foam with a high specific surface area potentially offer strong benefits at higher air velocities (>4 m/s) compared to helically finned tubes. The bonding was done by conductive epoxy glue and was found to have a strong impact on the final results, showing a strong need for a cost-effective and efficient brazing process to connect metal foams to the tube surfaces.     

Performance investigation of plain and finned tube evaporatively cooled heat exchangers

The performance of two evaporatively cooled heat exchangers is investigated under similar operating conditions of air flow rates and inlet hot water temperatures. The heat exchangers are plain and plate-finned circular tube types which occupy the same volume. Spray water, which is circulated in a closed circuit, is injected onto the exposed surfaces of the tubes and fins. The contact between air and spray water results in evaporative heat transfer. The tubes are copper, 10 mm o.d. The finned configuration is constructed by introducing 0.5 mm thick copper plates between the tubes, with a total area ratio of four. A substantial increase in heat transfer takes place for the plate-finned tubes. The increase is 92–140% for air velocities from 1.66 to 3.57 m s⁻¹. A model is used to calculate the thermal performance of the plain and finned tubes assuming a constant spray water temperature in the heat exchanger. The wet-finned surfaces show low fin efficiency compared with dry surfaces. An energy index defined as the ratio of volumetric thermal conductance to air pressure drop per unit length is found to be close for the two heat exchangers. This reveals higher thermal utilisation of the occupied volume by the finned tubes with the same energy index.     

Flow boiling heat transfer characteristics of nitrogen in plain and wire coil inserted tubes

Boiling heat transfer characteristics of nitrogen were experimentally investigated in a stainless steel plain tube and wire coil inserted tubes. Wire coils having different coil pitches and wire thicknesses were inserted into a horizontally positioned plain tube, which had an inner diameter of 10.6 mm and a length of 1.65 m. The coil pitches were 18.4, 27.6, and 36.8 mm, and the wire thicknesses were 1.5, 2.0, and 2.5 mm. Tests were conducted at a saturation temperature of −191 °C, mass fluxes from 58 to 105 kg/m² s, and heat fluxes from 22.5 to 32.7 kW/m². A direct heating method was used to apply heat to the test tube. The boiling heat transfer coefficients of nitrogen significantly decreased when the dryout occurred. Enhancement performance ratio (EPR), which is the ratio of heat transfer enhancement factor to pressure drop ratio, was used to evaluate the performance of the wire coil inserts. The maximum heat transfer enhancement of the wire coil inserted tubes over the plain tube was 174% with wire 3 having a twist ratio (p/D_w) of 1.84 and a thickness ratio (t/D_w) of 0.25. Wire 3-inserted tube showed the highest EPR among the tested tubes in this study.     

Constructal design of longitudinally finned tubes cooled by forced convection

The constructal design method is used in the present study to find the configuration of longitudinally finned tubes cooled by forced convection. The finned tubes are arranged in parallel inside a fixed two‐dimensional domain. Two degrees of freedom inside the domain are considered for the design. The first degree of freedom is the tube‐to‐tube spacing, and the second is the length of the longitudinal fin. For both these degrees of freedom, a three‐fin position inside the domain is considered. The fin is placed in the front, back, and front and back of the tube in the first, second, and third positions, respectively. Maximization of the heat flow density (heat transfer/volume) from the finned tubes to the cold cross flow is the objective function of the present study. For the three fin positions, the constant pressure difference between the upstream and the downstream drives the cross flow. The dimensionless continuity, momentum, and energy equations for two dimensional, steady, and incompressible flows are solved by discretizing it according to the finite volume method. The thermal condition of the fins and the tubes is constant surface temperature. The dimensionless pressure drop known as Bejan number is varied in the range of 10³ ≤ Be ≤ 10⁵. The fin length is changed from L_f = 0 (unfinned tube) to L_f = 0.2, 0.4, and 0.4. The tubes are cooled by air (Prandtl number = 0.71). The results illustrated that for the considered Bejan numbers and fin positions, the spacing between the unfinned and the finned tubes can be adjusted to optimal spacing such that the heat flow from the tubes to the coolant is maximum.     

Condensation of R-113 on Pin-Fin Tubes: Effect of Circumferential Pin Thickness and Spacing

New experimental data are reported for condensation of R-113 at near atmospheric pressure and low velocity on five three-dimensional pin-fin tubes. The only geometric parameters varied were circumferential spacing and thickness, since these have been shown to have a strong effect on condensate retention on pin-fin tubes. Heat transfer enhancement was found to be strongly dependent on the active-area enhancement, i.e., on the parts of the tube and pin surface not covered by condensate retained by surface tension. For all the tubes, vapor-side heat transfer enhancements were found to be approximately 2.5 times the corresponding active-area enhancements, and this finding was in line with earlier data for R-113. An increase in the vapor-side heat transfer enhancement is noticed with the decreasing values of pin spacing. The best performing pin-fin tube gave a heat transfer enhancement about 14% higher than the “equivalent” two-dimensional integral-fin tube (i.e., with the same fin root diameter, longitudinal fin spacing, and thickness and fin height).     

3D numerical and experimental analysis for thermal–hydraulic characteristics of air flow inside a circular tube with different tube inserts

Numerical and experimental analyses were carried out to study thermal–hydraulic characteristics of air flow inside a circular tube with different tube inserts. Three kinds of tube inserts, including longitudinal strip inserts (both with and without holes) and twisted-tape inserts with three different twisted angles (α = 15.3°, 24.4° and 34.3°) have been investigated for different inlet frontal velocity ranging from 3 to 18 m/s. Numerical simulation was performed by a 3D turbulence analysis of the heat transfer and fluid flow. Conjugate convective heat transfer in the flow field and heat conduction in the tube inserts are considered also. The experiments were conducted in a shell and tube exchanger with overall counterflow arrangement. The working fluid in the tube side was cold air, while the hot Dowtherm fluid was on the shell side. To obtain the heat transfer characteristics of the test section from the experimental data, the ε-NTU (effectiveness-number of transfer unit) method is applied to determine the overall conductance (UA product) in the analysis.It was found that the heat transfer coefficient and the pressure drop in the tubes with the longitudinal strip inserts (without hole) were 7–16% and 100–170% greater than those of plain tubes without inserts. When the longitudinal strip inserts with holes were used, the heat transfer coefficient and the pressure drop were 13–28% and 140–220%, respectively, higher than those of plain tubes. The heat transfer coefficient and the pressure drop of the tubes with twisted-tape inserts were 13–61% and 150–370%, respectively, higher than those of plain tubes. Furthermore, it was found that the reduction ratio in the heat transfer area of the tube of approximately 18–28% may be obtained if the twisted-tape tube inserts are used.     

Enhancement of heat transfer in a tube with regularly-spaced helical tape swirl generators

Influence of helical tapes inserted in a tube on heat transfer enhancement is studied experimentally. A helical tape is inserted in the tube with a view to generating swirl flow that helps to increase the heat transfer rate of the tube. The flow rate of the tube is considered in a range of Reynolds number between 2300 and 8800. The swirling flow devices consisting of: (1) the full-length helical tape with or without a centered-rod, and (2) the regularly-spaced helical tape, are inserted in the inner tube of a concentric tube heat exchanger. Hot air is passed through the inner tube whereas cold water is flowed in the annulus. The experimental data obtained are compared with those obtained from plain tubes of published data. Experimental results confirmed that the use of helical tapes leads to a higher heat transfer rate over the plain tube. The full-length helical tape with rod provides the highest heat transfer rate about 10% better than that without rod but it increased the pressure drop. To overcome this, different free-spacing ratio (s = L_s/L_h) of 0.5, 1.0, 1.5, and 2.0 were examined. It was found that the space ratio value should be about unity for Re < 4000. The regularly-spaced helical tape inserts at s = 0.5 yields the highest Nusselt number which is about 50% above the plain tube.     

Convective heat transfer and pressure drop of annular tubes with three different internal longitudinal fins

Pressure drop and heat transfer characteristics of air in three annular tubes with different internal longitudinal fins were investigated experimentally at uniform wall heat flux. The tested tubes have a double‐pipe structure with the inner blocked tube as an insertion. Three different kinds of fins, plain rectangle fin, plain rectangle fin with periodical ridges and wave‐like fin, were located peripherally in the annulus. The friction factor and Nusselt number can be corrected by a power‐law correction in the Reynolds number range tested. It was found that the tube with periodical ridges on the plain fin or with wave‐like fin could augment heat transfer; however, the pressure drop was increased simultaneously. In order to evaluate the comprehensive heat transfer characteristics of the tested tubes, two criteria for evaluating the comprehensive thermal performance of tested tubes were adopted. They are: 1) evaluating the comprehensive heat transfer performance under three conditions: identical mass flow, identical pumping power, and identical pressure drop; 2) the second law of thermodynamics, i.e., the entropy generation. According to the two different evaluating methods, it was found that the tube with wave‐like fins provided the most excellent comprehensive heat transfer performance among the three tubes, especially when it was used under higher Reynolds number conditions. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Heat Trans Asian Res, 37(1): 29–40, 2008; Published online in Wiley InterScience ( www.interscience.wiley.com ). DOI 10.1002/htj.20186     

Experimental study of horizontal flattened tubes performance on condensation of R600a vapor

An empirical setup has been established to study heat transfer and pressure drop characteristics during condensation of R600a, a hydrocarbon refrigerant, in a horizontal plain tube and different flattened channels. Round copper tubes of 8.7 mm I.D. were deformed into flattened channels with different interior heights of 6.7 mm, 5.2 mm and 3.1 mm as test sections. The test conditions include heat flux of 17 kw/m², mass velocity in the range of 154.8–265.4 kg/m²s and vapor quality variation from approximately 10% to 80%. Results indicate that flattening the tubes causes significant enhancement of heat transfer coefficient which is also accompanied by simultaneous augmentation in flow pressure drop. Therefore, the overall performance of the flattened tubes with respect to heat transfer enhancement considering the pressure drop penalty is analyzed. It is concluded that the flattened tube with 5.2 mm inner height tube has the best overall performance. Due to the failure of pre-existing correlations for round tube condensation heat transfer, a new correlation is proposed which predicts 90% of the entire data within ± 17% error.