Abstract
A heat exchanger is a device that transfers unneeded heat from one region to another, and transferred heat may be fully reused, thus improving energy efficiency. To augment this positive process, many studies and investigations on automation technologies have been performed. Inserts are widely used in pipe flow for heat transfer enhancement, since they can break the boundary layer and promote the heat exchange. Segmented twisted tape, which is applicable in 3D printing, is a novel insert and has potential in heat transfer enhancement. To clarify its advantages and disadvantages, this research presents a numerical investigation of vortex flow and heat enhancement in pipes containing one segmented twisted element. Flow state and heat transfer behaviour are obtained by simulation under constant wall temperature with different Reynolds numbers, ranging from 10,000 to 35,000. The effects of geometric parameters, including twist ratio (P/D = 2.0, 3.3 and 4.6) and length ratio (L/P = 0.3, 0.5 and 0.7), on the Nusselt number (Nu) and friction factor (f) are investigated. Streamline and temperature distribution are presented. Meanwhile, local and overall heat transfer performance is compared with those of a smooth tube, and the overall performance is evaluated by performance evaluation factor (η). The results indicate that the twist ratio (P/D) plays a dominant role in heat transfer enhancement while the length ratio (L/P) also has considerable influence. It is shown that a segmented tape insert can increase the overall heat transfer rate by 23.5% and the friction factor by 235%, while local improvement along the tube can be 2.8 times more than the plain tube.
Highlights
With the purpose of cooling or heating, transferred heat or excess heat from one region may be reused and contribute positively to the energy efficiency of a system; heat exchangers are widely utilised
Friction factor (f), Nusselt number (Nu) and performance evaluation factor (η) are three main range of 3% when increasing the grid numbers, so the meshing technology corresponding to the parameters of interest to describe the characteristics of frictional loss, heat transfer and overall moderate mesh number is chosen
Friction factor (f ), Nusselt number (Nu) and performance evaluation factor (η) are three main parameters of interest to describe the characteristics of frictional loss, heat transfer and overall performance enhancement
Summary
With the purpose of cooling or heating, transferred heat or excess heat from one region may be reused and contribute positively to the energy efficiency of a system; heat exchangers are widely utilised. Similar research can be found in [29], and the correlation was proposed for practical application Even though they provided direct evidence of its capacity in heat exchange augmentation and low pressure loss for this arrangement, they could not exclude the influence of the central rod used to connect single design freedom may be limited by manufacturing technology in the above-mentioned research. It is hard or even impossible for traditional manufacturing to fix one single insert inside a tube at the location as desired without a rod connection, and the gap between insert and walls is uncontrollable. The tube in this research is 1000 mm long, and the segmented twisted tape is inserted 100 mm away from the inlet port, which can guarantee a fully developed flow
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