Coiled flow inverter as a heat exchanger

Abstract

In the present work attempts are made to investigate the hydrodynamics and heat-transfer characteristics of a coiled flow inverter (CFI) as heat exchanger at the pilot plant scale. The experiments are carried out in counter-current mode operation with hot fluid in the tube side and cold fluid in the shell side. Experimental study is made over a range of Reynolds numbers from 1000 to 16,000 using water in the tube side of the heat exchanger. The shell side fluids used are either cooling water or ambient air. The coiled flow inverter is made up of coils and 90 ∘ bends and inserted in a closed shell. The shell side is fitted with three types of baffles to provide high turbulence and avoid channeling in the shell side. The bulk mean temperatures at various downstream positions are reported for different flow rate on tube side, as well as the heat transfer efficiency of the heat exchanger is also reported. Pressure drop and overall heat-transfer coefficient is calculated at various tube and shell side process conditions. The outer and inner heat-transfer coefficients are determined using Wilson plot technique. The results show that at low Reynolds numbers, heat-transfer is 25% higher as compared to coiled tubes. At high Reynolds numbers, the configuration has less influence on heat transfer. New empirical correlations are developed for hydrodynamic and heat-transfer predictions in the coiled flow inverter.