Smith Eiamsa-ard

Influence of Double-sided Delta-wing Tape Insert with Alternate-axes on Flow and Heat Transfer Characteristics in a Heat Exchanger Tube

Abstract The convective heat transfer and friction behaviors of turbulent tube flow through a straight tape with double-sided delta wings (T-W) have been studied experimentally. In the current work, the T-W formed on the tape was used as vortex generators for enhancing the heat transfer coefficient by breakdown of thermal boundary layer and by mixing of fluid flow in tubes. The T-W characteristics are (1) T-W with forward/backward-wing arrangement, (2) T-W with alternate axis (T-WA), (3) three wing-width ratios and (4) wing-pitch ratios. The experimental result reveals that for using the T-W, the increases in the mean Nusselt number ( Nu ) and friction factor are, respectively, up to 165% and 14.8 times of the plain tube and the maximum thermal performance factor is 1.19. It is also obvious that the T-W with forward-wing gives higher heat transfer rate than one with backward-wing around 7%. The present investigation also shows that the heat transfer rate and friction factor obtained from the T-WA is higher than that from the T-W. In addition, the flow pattern and temperature fields in the T-W tube with both backward and forward wings were also examined numerically.

Thermohydraulics of Turbulent Flow Through Heat Exchanger Tubes Fitted with Circular-rings and Twisted Tapes

Abstract The influences of circular-ring turbulators (CRT) and twisted tape (TT) swirl generators on the heat transfer enhancement, pressure drop and thermal performance factor characteristics in a round tube are reported. The circular-ring turbulators were individually employed and together with the twisted tape swirl generators in the heated section of the tube. Three different pitch ratios ( l/D = 1.0, 1.5, and 2.0) of the CRT and three different twist ratios ( y/W = 3, 4, and 5) of the TT were introduced. The experiments were conducted using air as the working fluid under a uniform wall heat flux condition, for the Reynolds number between 6000 and 20000. The experimental results reveal that the heat transfer rate, friction factor and thermal performance factor of the combined CRT and TT are considerably higher than those of CRT alone. For the range examined, the increases of mean Nusselt number, friction factor and thermal performance, in the tube equipped with combined devices, respectively, are 25.8%, 82.8% and 6.3% over those in the tube with the CRT alone. The highest thermal performance factor of 1.42 is found for the combined device consisting of the CRT with l/D = 1.0 and TT with y/W = 3. The correlations of the Nusselt number, friction factor and thermal performance factor of the tubes with combined devices are also developed in terms of Reynolds number, Prandtl number, twist ratio and pitch ratio.

Thermal Performance Evaluation of Heat Exchanger Tubes Equipped with Coupling Twisted Tapes

The present work has been conducted to investigate the effect of coupling twisted tapes on heat transfer enhancement in a heat exchanger. The effects of (1) twisted tape orientation (co-coupling twisted tapes or counter-coupling twisted tapes), (2) width ratio, and (3) twist ratio were also examined. Results of coupling twisted tapes were also compared to those of a typical twisted tape. Experimental results showed that the use of counter-coupling twisted tapes resulted in higher heat transfer, friction loss, and thermal performance factor than that of co-coupling twisted tapes and typical twisted tapes. Thermal performance factor increased as twist ratio and Reynolds number decreased while width ratio increased.

Thermohydraulic Performance of Heat Exchanger Tube Equipped with Single-, Double-, and Triple-Helical Twisted Tapes

Heat transfer augmentation by dual-helical twisted tapes (D-HTTs) and triple-helical twisted tapes (T-HTTs) is presented in comparison with that by single-helical twisted tape (S-HTT). The effects of tape width ratio (w/D = 0.1, 0.15, and 0.2) on heat transfer, friction factor, and thermal performance are also reported. The experiments were performed using air as a working fluid for Reynolds number between 6000 and 20,000. At similar conditions, the use of D-HTTs and T-HTTs leads to the increase of Nusselt number by respectively 15.6% to 17.6% and 19.5% to 23.4%, the increase of friction factor by respectively 83% to 206% and 143% to 335%, and the decrease of thermal performance factor by 3.9% to 20.3% and 8.3% to 26.2% compared to those obtained from the use of S-HTT/promoter. As the width ratio increases, both Nusselt number and friction factor are considerably increased. However, due to the poorer trade-off between the increases of Nusselt number and friction factor, lower thermal performance factor is consistently obtained at the conditions possessing higher Nusselt number. At similar conditions, S-HTTs consistently give a higher thermal performance factor than D-HTTs and T-HTTs; the maximum thermal performance factors given by S-HTTs with w/D of 0.1, 0.15, and 0.2 are 1.34, 1.31, and 1.29, respectively (at Reynolds number of 6000).

Effect of Twin Delta-Winged Twisted-Tape on Thermal Performance of Heat Exchanger Tube

This work aims at studying the effect of twin delta-winged twisted-tape insertion on heat transfer, pressure drop, and thermal performance characteristics of a heat exchanger tube. All twisted tapes used in this work were made of aluminum sheets twisted at a single twist ratio of 3.0. The twin delta wings were formed by extrusion of the tape at the center area at every twist length interval. For comparison, three different arrangements of the twin delta wings were: (1) the wing tips pointing upstream of the flow (TTW-up, twin delta-winged twisted tape in counterflow arrangement), (2) the wing tips pointing downstream of the flow (TTW-down, twin delta-winged twisted tape in co-flow arrangement), and (3) the wing tips pointing opposite direction (TTW-o, opposite winged twisted tape). The wing declination was arranged at an angle of 15° with respect to the tape surface. Effects of three different wing-tip angles of 20°, 40°, and 60° for a constant wing base were examined. The experiments were conducted using water as the test fluid in a uniform-heat-flux tube for Reynolds number between 5000 and 15,000. The results demonstrate that the TTW-up consistently provides greater heat transfer rate, friction factor, and thermal performance factor than the TTW-down and the TTW-o, at a similar condition. In addition, the heat transfer rate increases as the wing-tip angle decreases. Over the range investigated, the TTW-up with wing-tip angle of 20° gives the highest thermal performance factor of 1.26 along with a Nusselt number and friction factor of 2.57 and 8.55 times those of the plain tube.

Numerical Investigation of Flow Friction and Heat Transfer in a Channel with Various Shaped Ribs Mounted on Two Opposite Ribbed Walls

Heat transfer and fluid flow characteristics through a channel with two - dimensional transverse ribs are numerically investigated. The effects of different shaped ribs (rectangular rib, triangular rib, cylindrical rib, concave-concave rib, convex-concave rib, long convex-short concave rib and long concave-short concave rib) are examined. The investigation is performed for the ribs mounted on top and bottom walls with rib pitch to height ratio (P/e) of 6.67, in Reynolds number between 3000 and 7000, under constant wall temperature condition. For the present case, the data predicted by SST k-omega turbulence model show better agreement with the experimental data, than those predicted by RNG k-epsilon turbulence model. The mean heat transfer, flow friction, temperature fields and the local heat transfer coefficients as well as the flow structure behaviors are reported. For the ribs considered, the channel with triangular-ribs yields the highest Nusselt number, the one with concave-concave rib provides the highest friction and the one with cylindrical rib show the best thermal enhancement. At the similar condition, the triangular rib gives higher Nusselt number than that provided by the cylindrical one by around 29.3 percent, while the cylindrical rib offers the highest thermal enhancement factor of 1.4 which is higher than that of the cylindrical one by around 1.33 percent while the cylindrical rib offers the highest thermal enhancement factor of 1.33 which is higher than that of the triangular one by around 9.6 percent. In addition, in spite of their high heat transfer, the concave-concave rib and long concave-concave rib yield low thermal performance factors, due to the prominent effect of high friction factor.

Application of ANN and GA for the Prediction and Optimization of Thermal and Flow Characteristics in a Rectangular Channel Fitted with Twisted Tape Vortex Generators

This study reports an application of the hybrid model, including back propagation network and genetic algorithm, for predicting the thermal and flow characteristics in a rectangular channel fitted with multiple twisted tape vortex generators (MT-VG). Dimensionless geometric parameters and Reynolds number were considered as network inputs, and Nusselt number and friction factor were the output variables. The performance of the developed neural networks was found to be superior in comparison with the empirical correlations. In addition, the proposed networks have been considered as two objective functions in order to obtain optimal operation conditions. Since mentioned objectives are conflicting, the multi-objective optimization using genetic algorithm was used for the optimization.

INFLUENCE OF NONUNIFORM TWISTED TAPE ON HEAT TRANSFER ENHANCEMENT CHARACTERISTICS

An experimental study of heat transfer and friction factor characteristics in a circular tube fitted by twisted tapes with nonuniform twist ratios is reported. The twisted tapes are used as swirl generators playing roles as heat transfer enhancers. The nonuniform twisted tapes examined in the present work have (1) sequentially increasing twist ratios (SL), (2) sequentially decreasing twist ratios (LS), (3) repeatedly increasing-decreasing twist ratios (SL/SL), (4) repeatedly decreasing-increasing twist ratios (LS/LS), (5) intermittently increasing-decreasing twist ratios (SL→LS), and (6) intermittently decreasing-increasing twist ratios (LS→SL). In addition, three different typical twisted tapes with twist ratios of 3.0, 4.0, and 5.0 (TT) were also evaluated. Apparently, LS yields monotonically increasing swirling intensity and SL decreasing swirling intensity, resulting in lower heat transfer rate and friction factor than the other four nonuniform twisted tapes, which possess extra fluid fluctuation. However, among the tapes tested, the SL/SL offers the maximum thermal performance factor of around 1.03, which corresponds to Nusselt number of around 36% and friction factor of 3.57 times over those of the plain tube.

Thermal Performance Assessment of Turbulent Tube Flow Through Wire Coil Turbulators

This paper presents characteristics of turbulent convective heat transfer in a tube fitted with wire coil turbulators. Two different wire coils are introduced: (1) with typical/uniform coil pitch ratio (CR) and (2) with periodically varying three-coil pitch ratio. Various uniform coil pitch ratios (CR = 4, 6, and 8) and two periodically varying coil pitch ratios, the D-coil (decreasing three-coil pitch ratio arrangement) and DI-coil (decreasing/increasing three-coil pitch ratio arrangement), are experimentally investigated in a uniform heat flux tube. The experiments are performed for turbulent flows with Reynolds numbers ranging between 4500 and 20,000. All of the experimental results are compared with those obtained from using the plain tube, while the thermal performance factor is evaluated under an equal pumping power constraint. The experimental results show that the use of the tube fitted with all wire coils leads to an advantage on the basis of heat transfer enhancement over the plain tube with no insert. It is also observed that the uniform-pitch wire coil with higher coil pitch ratio (CR = 8) gives a higher thermal performance factor compared to ones with lower coil pitch ratios (CR = 4 and 6). In addition, for two periodically varying coil pitch ratios, the DI-coil performs with better heat transfer rate than the uniform-pitch ratio (CR = 6) and the D-coil for all Reynolds number ranges studied. The empirical correlations developed in terms of coil pitch ratios (CR), varying coil pitch ratios (D-coil and DI-coil), and Reynolds number are fitting the experimental data within plus or minus 3% and 5% for Nusselt number (Nu) and friction factor (f), respectively. The results of the thermal performance factor for various CR, D-coil, and DI-coil values are also determined.

3D Numerical study on the flow topology and heat transfer characteristics of turbulent forced convection in spirally corrugated tube

ABSTRACT This paper presents a numerical analysis on flow configurations and heat transfer characteristics of turbulent forced convection in spirally corrugated tubes. The influences of corrugation depth (DR = 0.02–0.16), pitch ratio (PR = 0.10–1.00), and Reynolds number (Re = 5,000–20,000) on flow structure and heat transfer characteristics are described. Comparisons between the full length and periodic domains are also reported. The results show that spirally corrugated tubes induced vortex flows which helped to increase heat transfer due to enhanced fluid mixing. The maximum thermal enhancement factor of 1.16 was obtained by using the spirally corrugated tube with DR = 0.06, PR = 0.25 at Re = 5,000.