Influence of fluid flow characteristics and heat transfer in a tube heat exchanger using H-shape inserts with circular ring

Abstract

The heat transfer and fluid flow characteristics in a tube heat exchanger using H-shape inserts with circular ring (CRWHS) has been done by computationally and experimentally. In this investigation parameters like ratio of the diameters and pitches are considered. The value of diameter and pitch ratios are (DR=0.8, 0.9), (PR=3, 4) respectively. The main section in which investigation was done is 1.5m long and the hydraulic diameter of the tube is 68.1mm. 1000 W/m2 heat flux was provided in the main section. Heat flux was constant throughout the investigation. Air is used as a working medium in which 6000 to 21000 Reynolds number was used for the investigation. The observation revealed that the increment in heat transfer rate is 4.56 times as compare to smooth tube for the circular ring with H-shape inserts. In case of DR=0.8 and PR=3, maximum thermal performance factor was obtain which is 3.24. In GIT the deviation in Nusselt number & friction factor is limited to ±0.4% & ±0.1% respectively. CFD analysis result comparisons with experimental one are presented in which the maximum deviations for thermal performance factor are limited to ±3.6%.