Heat Transfer Enhancement by Turbulence Generator inside Heat Receiver

Abstract

Tubular heat exchanger (THEX), that has been in numerous engineering applications, represents an apparatus that makes heat to be exchanged between two fluids having different changing in temperatures and kept separated by means of a solid wall. In order to enhance the efficiency of the THEX, the rate of heat transfer at the tube side should be improved. Inserting a twisted tape inside the heat exchanger’s tube is one of the passive techniques that has been widely used to improve the heat transfer especially in air conditioning and cooling, processes of power recovery, processes for food and dairy, and plants for chemical processing. The heat exchanger enhancement is achieved by means of using a twisted tape inserted with twisting ratios (TR) equal to 3.2, 4.4, and 5.5, independently. The influences of 2-D parameters such as Nusselt number and frictional coefficient on the THEX’s effectiveness were investigated. The aim of the study is inserting a twisted tape inside the testing pipe to produced turbulent flow and, therefore, creating large turbulence rate inside the pipe that plays an significant role in improving the transferred heat and increasing the drop in the pressure. In this work, the inserted tape has a width and length equal to 21.5 mm and 1000 mm, respectively. The inner and outer diameters of the used pipes were 23 mm and 22 mm, respectively. The tested sectional length of the THEX was equal to 2000 mm. Reynolds number was changed from 500 to 7000. Results obtained from using twisted inserting tapes with varying TR were compared with result from plain tubes. These results were displayed in the contours show the distribution of the temperature and the trajectory of the flow trajectory by axial velocity for testing the low values of Reynolds number applicability in heat exchanger applications