Heat transfer and fluid flow behaviors in a five-start spiral corrugated tube

Abstract

This paper presented a numerical investigation on turbulent periodic flow, heat transfer, pressure loss and thermal enhancement factor in a 3D five-start spiral corrugated tube. Air was used as the working fluids through the tube for Reynolds numbers of about 5000-20,000. In the current studied, the five-start spiral corrugated tube with six relative pitch ratios (p/D, PR=1.0, 1.5, 2.0, 2.5, 3.0 and 3.5) with constant depth ratio (e/D, DR=0.06). The numerical results reveal that the five-start spiral corrugated tube can generated a swirl flow, main swirl flow and five-secondary swirl flow. This behavior lead to the major change of temperature in transverse plane, reduced thermal layer thickness and enhanced heat transfer on the tube wall. The five-start spiral corrugated tube in range investigated provided the heat transfer rate and friction factor up to 2.02 and 6.12 times, respectively, over the straight circular tube. The thermal enhancement factor of the five-start spiral corrugated tube in the range of 0.89-1.16 where its maximum found as the optimum point is at PR=2.0.