Effect of coil-wire insert on heat transfer enhancement and pressure drop of the horizontal concentric tubes

In the present study, the heat transfer characteristics and the pressure drop of the horizontal double pipe with coil-wire insert are investigated. The inner and outer diameters of the inner tube are 8.92 and 9.52 mm, respectively. The coiled wire is fabricated by bending a 1 mm diameter of the iron wire into a coil with a coil diameter of 7.80 mm. Cold and hot water are used as working fluids in the shell side and tube side, respectively. The test runs are performed at the cold and hot water mass flow rates ranging between 0.01 and 0.07 kg/s, and between 0.04 and 0.08 kg/s, respectively. The inlet cold and hot water temperatures are between 15 and 20 °C, and between 40 and 45 °C, respectively. The effect of the coil pitch and relevant parameters on heat transfer characteristics and pressure drop are considered. Coil-wire insert has significant effect on the enhancement of heat transfer especially on laminar flow region. Non-isothermal correlations for the heat transfer coefficient and friction factor are proposed. There is reasonable agreement between the measured data and predicted results.     

Heat transfer and pressure drop in the horizontal double pipes with and without twisted tape insert

The heat transfer characteristics and the pressure drop in the horizontal double pipes with twisted tape insert are investigated. Two test sections with different relative pitches are tested. The inner and outer diameters of the inner tube are 8.10 and 9.54 mm, respectively. The twisted tape is made from the aluminium strip with thickness of 1 mm and the length of 2000 mm. Cold and hot water are used as working fluids in shell side and tube side, respectively. The test runs are done at the cold and hot water mass flow rates ranging between 0.01 and 0.07 kg/s, and between 0.04 and 0.08 kg/s, respectively. The inlet cold and hot water temperatures are between 15 and 20 °C, and between 40 and 45 °C, respectively. The results obtained from the tube with twisted insert are compared with those without twisted tape. Non-isothermal correlations based on the data gathered during this work for predicting the heat transfer coefficient and friction factor of the horizontal pipe with twisted taped insert are proposed. The majority of the data falls within ± 15%, ± 10% of the proposed correlations for heat transfer coefficient and friction factor, respectively.     

Thermal performance and pressure drop of the helical-coil heat exchangers with and without helically crimped fins

In the present study, the thermal performance and pressure drop of the helical-coil heat exchanger with and without helical crimped fins are studied. The heat exchanger consists of a shell and helically coiled tube unit with two different coil diameters. Each coil is fabricated by bending a 9.50 mm diameter straight copper tube into a helical-coil tube of thirteen turns. Cold and hot water are used as working fluids in shell side and tube side, respectively. The experiments are done at the cold and hot water mass flow rates ranging between 0.10 and 0.22 kg/s, and between 0.02 and 0.12 kg/s, respectively. The inlet temperatures of cold and hot water are between 15 and 25 °C, and between 35 and 45 °C, respectively. The cold water entering the heat exchanger at the outer channel flows across the helical tube and flows out at the inner channel. The hot water enters the heat exchanger at the inner helical-coil tube and flows along the helical tube. The effects of the inlet conditions of both working fluids flowing through the test section on the heat transfer characteristics are discussed.     

Heat transfer coefficients under dry- and wet-surface conditions for a spirally coiled finned tube heat exchanger

In the present study, the average tube-side and air-side heat transfer coefficients in a spirally coiled finned tube heat exchanger under dry- and wet-surface conditions are experimentally investigated. The test section is a spiral-coil heat exchanger, which consists of six layers of concentric spirally coiled tube. Each tube is fabricated by bending a 9.6-mm outside diameter straight copper tube into a spiral coil of four turns. Aluminium fins with thickness 0.6 mm and outside diameter 28.4 mm are placed helically around the tube. The chilled water and the hot air are used as working fluids. The test runs are done at the air and water mass flow rates ranging between 0.02 and 0.2 kg/s and between 0.04 and 0.25 kg/s, respectively. The inlet-air and -water temperatures are between 35 and 60 °C and between 10 and 35 °C, respectively. The effects of the inlet conditions of both working fluids flowing through the heat exchanger on the heat transfer coefficients are discussed. New correlations based on the data gathered during this work for predicting the tube-side and air-side heat transfer coefficients for the spirally coiled finned tube heat exchanger are proposed.     

Study on the exergy loss of the horizontal concentric micro-fin tube heat exchanger

Experimental and theoretical investigations on the entropy generation, exergy loss of a horizontal concentric micro-fin tube heat exchanger are presented. The experiments setup are designed and constructed for the measured data by using hot water and cold water as working fluids. The micro-fin tube is fabricated from the copper tube with an inner diameter of 8.92 mm. The experiments are performed for the hot and cold water mass flow rates in the range of 0.02-0.10 kg/s. The inlet hot water and inlet cold water temperatures are between 40 and 50 °C, and between 15 and 20 °C, respectively. The effects of relevant parameters on the entropy generation, and exergy loss are discussed. A central finite difference method is employed to solve the model for obtaining temperature distribution, entropy generation, and exergy loss of the micro-fin tube heat exchanger. The predicted results obtained from the model are verified by comparing with the present measured data. Reasonable agreement is obtained from the comparison between predicted results and those from the measured data.     

The Effect of the Electrohydrodynamic on the Two-Phase Flow Pressure Drop of R-134a during Evaporation inside Horizontal Smooth and Micro-Fin Tubes

This article concerns the pressure drop caused by using the electrohydrodynamic (EHD) technique during evaporation of pure R-134a inside smooth and micro-fin tubes. The test section is a counter-flow concentric tube-in-tube heat exchanger where R-134a flows inside the inner tube and hot water flows in the annulus. A smooth tube and micro-fin tube having an inner diameter of 8.12 mm and 8.92 mm, respectively, are used as an inner tube. The length of the inner tube is 2.50 m. The outer tube is a smooth copper tube having an inner diameter of 21.2 mm. The electrode, which is a cylindrical stainless steel wire having diameter of 1.47 mm, is placed in the center of the inner tube. The electrical field is established by connecting a DC high voltage power supply of 2.5 kV to the electrode while the inner tube is grounded. Experiments are conducted at saturation temperatures of 10–20°C, mass fluxes of 200–600 kg/m²s, and heat fluxes of 10–20 kW/m². The experimental results indicate that the application of EHD introduces a small pressure drop penalty. New correlations for the pressure drop are proposed for practical applications.     

Heat transfer enhancement and pressure drop of the horizontal concentric tube with twisted wires brush inserts

In the present study, the heat transfer characteristics and the pressure drop of the horizontal concentric tube with twisted wires brush inserts are investigated. The inner diameters of the inner and outer tubes are 15.78 and 25.40 mm, respectively. The twisted wire brushes are fabricated by winding a 0.2 mm diameter of the copper wires over a 2 mm diameter of two twisted iron core-rod with three different twisted wires densities of 100, 200, 300 wires per centimeter. The plain tube with full-length twisted wires brush and regularly spaced twisted wires brush with 30 cm spacer length inserts are tested. Cold and hot water are used as working fluids in shell side and tube-side, respectively. The test runs are performed at the hot water Reynolds number ranging between 6000 and 20000. The inlet cold and hot water temperatures are 15, 20 °C, and between 40 and 50 °C, respectively. Effect of twisted wires density, inlet fluid temperature, and relevant parameters on heat transfer characteristics and pressure drop are considered. Twisted wire brushes insert have a large effect on the enhancement of heat transfer, however, the pressure drops also increase.     

In-tube passive heat transfer enhancement in the process industry

Enhanced heat transfer surfaces are used in heat exchangers to improve performance and to decrease system volume and cost. In-tube heat transfer enhancement usually takes the form of either micro-fin tubes (of the helical micro-fin or herringbone varieties), or of helical wire inserts. Despite a substantial increase in heat transfer, these devices also cause non-negligible pressure drops.By making use of well-proven flow pattern maps for smooth tubes and the new ones for smooth and enhanced tubes, it is shown from the refrigerant condensation data that flow patterns have a strong influence on heat transfer and pressure drop. This is done for data obtained from in-tube condensation experiments for mass fluxes ranging from 300 to 800 kg/m² s at a saturation temperature of 40 °C, for refrigerants R-22, R-134a, and R-407C. The flow regimes, pressure drops, heat transfer coefficients, and the overall performance of three different tubes, namely a smooth-, 18° helical micro-fin-, and a herringbone micro-fin tube (each having a nominal diameter of 9.51 mm), are presented and compared to the performance of smooth tubes with helical wire inserts (with pitches of 5 mm, 7.77 mm and 11 mm corresponding to helical angles of 78.2°, 72°, and 65.3°, respectively).     

Mathematical Model for Predicting the Heat Transfer Characteristics of a Helical-Coiled,Crimped, Spiral,Finned-Tube Heat Exchanger

This paper is a continuation of the authors’ previous work. Theoretical and experimental studies of the heat transfer characteristics of a helical-coiled, crimped, spiral, finned-tube heat exchanger in dry surface conditions are presented. The test section is a helical-coiled, finned-tube heat exchanger. The coil unit is composed of four concentric helical-coiled tubes of different diameters. All tubes are constructed by bending straight copper tube into seven layers of helical coil. Aluminum crimped spiral fins, with an outer diameter of 28.25 mm and a thickness of 0.5 mm, are connected around the tube. Hot water is used as a working fluid for the tube side, while ambient air is used for the shell side. The test runs are done at air mass flow rates ranging between 0.04 and 0.13 kg/s. The water mass flow rates are between 0.2 and 0.4 kg/s. The water temperatures are between 40 and 50°C. A mathematical model is developed and the simulation results show reasonable agreement with the experimental data.     

Second law analysis on the heat transfer of the horizontal concentric tube heat exchanger

In the present study, the theoretical and experimental results of the second law analysis on the heat transfer and flow of a horizontal concentric tube heat exchanger are presented. The experiments setup are designed and constructed for the measured data. Hot water and cold water are used as working fluids. The test runs are done at the hot and cold water mass flow rates ranging between 0.02 and 0.20 kg/s and between 0.02 and 0.20 kg/s, respectively. The inlet hot water and inlet cold water temperatures are between 40 and 50 °C, and between 15 and 20 °C, respectively. The effects of the inlet conditions of both working fluids flowing through the heat exchanger on the heat transfer characteristics, entropy generation, and exergy loss are discussed. The mathematical model based on the conservation equations of energy is developed and solved by the central finite difference method to obtain temperature distribution, entropy generation, and exergy loss. The predicted results obtained from the model are validated by comparing with the present measured data. There is reasonable agreement from the comparison between predicted results and those from the measured data.     

Development and validation of helical‐coil‐in‐fluted‐tube gas cooler for CO2 heat pump water heaters

A segmented approach [1] for the CO₂ helical‐coil‐in‐fluted‐tube gas cooler is developed. The CO₂ helical‐coil‐in‐fluted‐tube gas cooler consists of helically coiled tube and fluted tube. It is fabricated by twisting a straight copper tube to form helically coiled tube and embedded in the groove of the fluted tube. The available heat transfer and pressure drop correlations for the supercritical CO₂‐side and water‐side are provided to simulate the gas cooler. The simulation is compared with a detailed set of experimental data, for given the inlet conditions. The predicted data matches well with the experimental data with absolute average deviations of 1.15, 4.6 and 4.7% for the CO₂ pressure drop, gas cooler exit temperature and hot water temperature, respectively. Based on the good matches between measured data and predicted data, the detailed thermodynamic processes of gas cooler parameters are predicted and analyzed. Furthermore, different arrangements of the gas cooler within the original package dimensions are simulated and better performance of the gas cooler is obtained under the structural parameters of the 3‐row fluted tube with the inner diameter 12 mm. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Heat transfer and pressure drop characteristics of forced convective evaporation in horizontal tubes with coiled wire inserts

Heat transfer enhancement and pressure drop increasing during evaporation of R-134a due to the presence of coiled wire insert inside a horizontal evaporator was studied experimentally. The test evaporator was an electrically heated copper tube of 1200 mm length and 7.5 mm inside diameter. Helically wire coils with different wire diameters of 0.5, 0.7, 1.0 and 1.5 mm and different coil pitches of 5, 8, 10 and 13 mm were made and used in full length of the test evaporator. For each inserted tube and also the plain tube, several test runs were carried out with different mass velocities and heat fluxes. From analysis of acquired data, it was found that the coiled wire inserts enhance the heat transfer coefficient but with a higher penalty due to the increasing of pressure drop, in comparison to that for the plain flow. An empirical correlation has been developed to predict the heat transfer coefficient during evaporation inside a horizontal tube in the presence of a coiled wire insert.     

Correlation of Evaporation Heat Transfer Inside 8.8 mm and 7.14 mm Horizontal Round Micro-Fin Tubes

Experimental investigations of evaporation heat transfer of R22 and R410A inside a horizontal micro-fin copper tube have been conducted and are reported here. Six micro-fin tubes with inner diameter of 7.14 mm and three micro-fin tubes with inner diameter of 8.8 mm but with different geometric parameters, such as the apex angle, the helical angle, fin height, fin pitch, and starts were tested. The evaporation experiments were taken at a constant temperature of 6°C. Moreover, working conditions of the experiments varied with the mass flux ranging from 100 kg/(m².s) to 400 kg/(m².s). For the evaporation experiments of Tube 1 – Tube 6 with R22, the inlet and outlet vapor quality is set as 0.1 and 0.9, respectively. For the evaporation experiments of Tube 7 – Tube 9 with R410A, the inlet and outlet vapor quality is set as 0.2 and 0.9, respectively. The heat transfer coefficients and the changing trend of the heat transfer coefficients vary among these tubes. The influence of each geometric parameter on the heat transfer performance of the micro-fin tube has been analyzed and is reported. Besides, correlations of evaporation heat transfer inside 8.8 mm or less horizontal round micro-fin tubes were developed.     

Heat Transfer Enhancement during Condensation in Smooth Tubes with Helical Wire Inserts

This study investigates the heat transfer characteristics of a horizontal tube-in-tube heat exchanger with a helical wire inserted in the inner tube. The influence of the pitch (or helix angle) of the wire on the heat transfer performance and pressure drop during condensation (having all other geometric parameters the same) was investigated experimentally. Tests were conducted for condensing refrigerants R22, R134a, and R407C at an average saturation temperature of 40°C, with mass fluxes ranging from 300–800 kg/m²s and with vapor qualities ranging from 0.85–0.95 at condenser inlet to 0.05–0.15 at condenser outlet. Measurements were made for three helical wire-inserted tubes with different pitches of 5, 7.77, and 11 mm. The local and average heat transfer coefficients were compared not only with the measured data of a smooth tube, but also with the results of micro-fin tubes. The tube with a helical wire pitch of 5 mm inserts was found to have the highest enhancement factor, which can be elucidated by the extension of the annular flow regime. Heat transfer coefficient correlations for helical wire inserts were deduced, and they predicted the experimental data to within 20%.     

Development of cold‐hot water dispenser with thermoelectric module systems

In the present study, the results of a cold‐hot water dispenser with a thermoelectric module system (TMS) are presented. The cold‐hot water dispenser with thermoelectric module system consists of a cold water loop, a hot water loop, a coolant loop, and a thermoelectric module. The thermoelectric cooling and heating modules consist of four and two water blocks, nine and three thermoelectric plates, respectively. The cooling and heating capacities obtained from the cold‐hot water dispenser with TMS are compared with those from a conventional cold‐hot water dispenser with a compression refrigeration system (CRS). As compared with the conventional cold‐hot water dispenser with CRS, the cold‐hot water dispenser with TMS can be operated at the minimum cold water temperature of 10 to 13°C and the maximum hot water temperature of 65°C. The obtained results are expected provide guidelines to design cold‐hot water dispensers with TMS.     

Experimental Investigation on Flow Boiling Heat Transfer and Pressure Drop of HFC-134a inside a Vertical Helically Coiled Tube

An investigation on flow boiling heat transfer and pressure drop of HFC-134a inside a vertical helically coiled concentric tube-in-tube heat exchanger has been experimentally carried out. The test section is a six-turn helically coiled tube with 5.786-m length, in which refrigerant HFC-134a flowing inside the inner tube is heated by the water flowing in the annulus. The diameter and the pitch of the coil are 305 mm and 45 mm, respectively. The outer diameter of the inner tube and its thickness are respectively 9.52 and 0.62 mm. The inner diameter of the outer tube is 29 mm. The average vapor qualities in test section were varied from 0.1 to 0.8. The tests were conducted with three different mass velocities of 112, 132, and 152 kg/m²-s. Analysis of obtained data showed that increasing of both the vapor qualities and the mass fluxes leads to higher heat transfer coefficients and pressure drops. Also, it was observed that the heat transfer coefficient is enhanced and also the pressure drop is increased when a helically coiled tube is used instead of a straight tube. Based on the present experimental results, a correlation was developed to predict the flow boiling heat transfer coefficient in vertical helically coiled tubes.     

Influence of Spiral Angle on Heat Transfer during Condensation inside Spiralled Micro-Fin Tubes

This paper reports the influence of the spiral angle on the heat transfer performance during condensation inside spiraled micro-fin tubes having constant geometric parameters such as fin height, pitch, shape (apex angle), and fin number, as various papers previously published in this field had not clearly established this influence. Tests were conducted for condensation of R-22, R-134a, and R-407C inside a smooth tube (9.52 mm outer diameter) and three micro-fin tubes with approximately the same diameter and spiral angles of 10°, 18°, and 37°, respectively. Experimental results indicated a heat transfer augmentation with spiral angle increase. A new semi-empirical predictive correlation was developed for the practical design of spiraled micro-fin tubes. The proposed new correlation predicted the majority of experimental results of the present study within a deviation zone of ±20 percent.     

Numerical and experimental study of a shell and tube heat exchanger for different baffles

In the present work, the shell and tube heat exchanger (STHX) is designed based on The Tubular Exchanger Manufacturers Association standards with hot fluid (water) flowing on the shell side and cold fluid on the tube side. A comparison is made between the Nusselt number and friction factor obtained from numerical and experimental results of segmental baffles (SBs) and helical baffles (HB) with different baffle inclinations. The results show that SB provided a higher Colburn factor (j_s) when compared with HBs STHXs (20°, 30°, 40°, and 50°), but shell side pressure drop is lower for 40° HBs STHXs for the same shell side fluid flow rates.     

Heat transfer improvement in a tube by inserting perforated conical ring and wire coil as turbulators

In the present study, two various passive methods for heat transfer enhancement, including conical ring and wire coil are placed in a tube as turbulators. Four conical rings with four side holes are utilized with the same distance. The wire coil is employed at the center of the tube. The considered Reynolds numbers are between 4000 and 10,000. The studied geometrical parameters contain the pitch and diameter of a wire coil. Four different pitches of wire coil, including 10, 12, 14, and 16 mm, are evaluated. Furthermore, four values of wire coil diameter such as 2, 4, 6, and 8 mm are certain. The obtained numerical results displayed that by declining the pitch of a wire coil (37.5%), the average Nusselt number increases by about 143%. Also, augmentation in wire coil diameter by 300% leads to a growth in average Nusselt number by about 131%. Moreover, owing to utilizing two various turbulators, the pressure drop is significantly high in comparison with the bare tube. At Re = 10,000, growth in the inner diameter of the wire coil by 300% leads to an increase in thermal performance by about 36.12%. Moreover, as the pitch of the wire coil rises by 60%, the thermal performance declines by about 35.71%.     

Evaporation heat transfer and pressure drop of HFC-134a in a helically coiled concentric tube-in-tube heat exchanger

The two-phase heat transfer coefficient and pressure drop of HFC-134a during evaporation inside a smooth helically coiled concentric tube-in-tube heat exchanger are experimentally investigated. The test section is a 5.786-m long helically coiled tube with refrigerant flowing in the inner tube and heating water flowing in the annulus. The inner tube is made from copper tubing of 9.52 mm outer diameter and 7.2 mm inner diameter. The heat exchanger is fabricated by bending a straight copper tube into a spiral coil. The diameter of coil is 305 mm. The test run are done at average saturated evaporating temperatures ranging between 10 and 20 °C. The mass fluxes are between 400 and 800 kg m⁻² s⁻¹ and the heat fluxes are between 5 and 10 kW m⁻². The inlet quality of the refrigerant in the test section is calculated using the temperature and pressure obtained from the experiment. The pressure drop across the test section is directly measured by a differential pressure transducer. The effects of heat flux, mass flux and, evaporation temperature on the heat transfer coefficients and pressure drop are also discussed. The results from the present experiment are compared with those obtained from the straight tube reported in the literature. New correlations for the convection heat transfer coefficient and pressure drop are proposed for practical applications.