Pressure drop and stability of flow in Archimedean spiral tube with transverse corrugations

Abstract

Isothermal pressure drop experiments were carried out for the steady Newtonian fluid flow in Archimedean spiral tube with transverse corrugations. Pressure drop correlations and stability criteria for distinguishing the flow regimes have been obtained in a continuous Reynolds number range from 150 to 15 000. The characterizing geometrical groups which take into account all the geometrical parameters of Archimedean spiral and corrugated pipe has been acquired. Before performing experiments over the Archimedean spiral, the corrugated straight pipe having high relative roughness e/d = 0.129 of approximately sinusoidal type was tested in order to obtain correlations for the Darcy friction factor. Insight into the magnitude of pressure loss in the proposed geometry of spiral solar receiver for different flow rates is important because of its effect upon the efficiency of the receiver. Although flow in spiral and corrugated geometries has the advantages of compactness and high heat transfer rates, the disadvantage of greater pressure drops makes hydrodynamic studies relevant.