Abstract
The paper investigates the heat transfer characteristics of the heat exchanger under two different configurations namely taper helical tube and spiral tube type heat exchanger. The working fluid is water which flows in tubes kept horizontally and the mass flow rate ranges from 0.04 kg/s to 0.16 kg/s. The effect of tube configuration parameters and Reynolds number on heat transfer coefficient and Nusselt number were studied. Regression equations have been developed for both the configurations under horizontal orientation using various process parameters and regression tools available in Minitab Software. A comparison has been made between the theoretical results and the results obtained from simulation gives an error of 15% which is well within the permissible limit. The result indicates that the highest value of Nusselt number is greater by 21% than taper helical tube heat exchanger which is attributed to better heat transfer characteristics of spiral tube heat exchanger and hence the former is thermally superior over the latter. In this study, temperature and velocity contour have been developed for both the configurations which clearly indicates that, when heat transfer is considered, spiral configuration should be preferred over taper helical configuration.
Highlights
Heat transfer between different fluids is one common physical process that occurs daily
The same dimensions were considered for both taper helical and spiral tubes and the co-relation equations were generated for both tubes for further analysis
The grid independence test and validation test were performed for the simple horizontal tube, afterwards, the comparative analysis of simulated results for both taper helical and spiral tube configurations were carried out
Summary
Heat transfer between different fluids is one common physical process that occurs daily. This physics is used by engineers for various applications using heat exchanger devices. Various type of Heat exchanger is utilized in various kind of application, as in processing food, automobile radiators, condenser, air pre-heater, cooling towers, etc. The motivation behind developing a heat exchanger is to provide an effective way to transfer the heat from one to another fluid, by the method of direct or indirect contact. Three principles are used to transfer heat via conduction, convection, and radiation. Transfer of heat by radiation is considered to be negligible concerning conduction and convection in the heat exchanger.
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