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.