Heat Transfer and Friction Factor Studies in a Circular Tube Fitted with Twisted Tape Consisting of Wire-nails

Abstract

This paper deals with the experimental investigation on Nusselt number, friction factor and thermal enhancement factor of a double pipe heat exchanger equipped with twisted tape consisting wire nails (WN-TT) and plain twisted tapes (P-TT) with three different twist ratios of y = 2.0, 4.4 and 6.0. Test runs are conducted using the water as the working fluid with Reynolds number range between 2000 and 12000 for WN-TT and P-TT. It is found that Nusselt number, friction factor and thermal enhancement factor in the tube equipped with WN-TT appreciably higher than those in the tube fitted with P-TT and plain tube. Over the range considered Nusselt number, friction factor and thermal enhancement factor in a tube with WN-TT are respectively, 1.08 to 1.31, 1.1 to 1.75 and 1.05 to 1.13 times of those in tube with P-TT. The better performance of WN-TT is due to combined effects of the following factors: (1) common swirling flow generated by P-TT, (2) additional turbulence offered by the wire nails. Empirical correlations for Nusselt number, friction factor and thermal enhancement factor are also formulated from the experimental results of WN-TT and P-TT.