Heat transfer enhancement in a heated tube using tri-partition flow splitters

Abstract

Intensification of heat transfer is one of the prime targets of many researchers around the globe considering the energy requirement and its application in the various thermal engineering sectors. The main objective of paper is to enhance the heat transfer in a heated tube carrying air using a novel tri-partition flow splitter. A numerical analysis has been performed for forced convection with a 5000 to 15,000 range of Reynolds number and constant heat input. The orientation effect using changing the angle between the splitters has been investigated. Friction factor and the Nusselt number were used for the analysis of the thermal performance, while a non-dimensional parameter thermal performance index was defined and calculated for analyzing the overall performance of the system. A finite volume based computational fluid dynamics technique has been employed for the analysis. An ANSYS Fluent software has been used to develop 3-dimensional computational model and numerical analysis. A lab scale experimental setup has been developed and results were used for the validation of the numerical model. The results of experimental setup also been validated with standard correlations found in literature. The Numerical results from the study found promising values with the experimental results. A 180° alternate orientations of splitters was found better than the conventional type of orientations (0°). The results show a novel tri-partition flow splitter helps to create turbulence in the fluid flow along with better conduction effect from splitters and enhances the heat transfer.