Experimental research on heat transfer and flow resistance properties in spiral twisted tube heat exchanger

Abstract

An experiment was conducted to gain the heat transfer and flow resistance characteristics of a high-viscosity thermal oil and water in spiral twisted tube heat exchanger. Experimental parameters covered the oil and water mass fluxes of 1000–3000 kg·m−2·s−1, 160–1200 kg·m−2·s−1, respectively; The water and oil inlet temperature of 15℃/60℃, respectively; And shell-side Re < 2050 and tube-side 12,000 < Re < 45,000. In addition, the heat transfer and flow resistance properties of the spiral twisted tube heat exchanger was compared with that of tube-shell heat exchangers of the ordinary and spiral-groove tube. The experimental results suggested that the spiral twisted tube heat exchanger demonstrates an obvious heat transfer enhancement effect in both laminar and turbulent flows than that of two tube-shell heat exchanger. And the experimental data of the heat transfer and flow resistance properties of the spiral twisted tube were compared to the classical and references correlations. Finally, the fitting heat transfer correlation of spiral twisted tube heat exchanger was gained within a deviation of ±10%.