Experimental and numerical investigation of the cylindrical blade tube inserts effect on the heat transfer enhancement in the horizontal pipe exchangers

Abstract

In this experimental and numerical study an attempt to enhance the heat transfer rate by cylindrical blade that form turbulence flow inside the exchanger pipe is carried out. The effects of the blade geometry are also examined to investigate heat transfer rate in experimented tube inserts. Experiments are performed in different blade spacing (Sy1,2,3 = 101–216–340 mm) and various blade angles (α1,2,3 = 0°–45°–90°). The water flow rate inside the tube is adjusted in three different ranges to approach intended Reynolds numbers (Re1,2,3 = 6000–11,000–17,000). Nusselt number, Reynolds number and effect of friction factor are investigated separately. For all experiments, the increase in Nu number due to used tube inserts is recorded and compared to each other and plain tube in the related profiles. It is concluded that installed tube inserts in the heat exchanger tube, led to a significant increase in Nu number and energy saving. Among different experimented cases, using mean value in various Re numbers, the highest Nusselt number was obtained at Sy1 = 101 mm which was 24% more than that of plain tube. This value was 18.7 and 8.3% for Sy2 = 216 and Sy3 = 340 mm respectively. By this way, according results for friction factor were 0.30, 0.19 and 0.14. The presented study has been simulated by ANSYS Fluent 16 software to analyze flow behavior and heat transfer characteristics.