Review on Comparative Study between Helical Coil and Straight Tube Heat Exchanger

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to determine the relative advantage of using a helically coiled heat exchanger against a straight tube heat exchanger. It is found that the heat transfer in helical circular tubes is higher as compared to Straight tube due to their shape. Helical coils offer advantageous over straight tubes due to their compactness and increased heat transfer coefficient. The increased heat transfer coefficients are a consequence of the curvature of the coil, which induces centrifugal forces to act on the moving fluid, resulting in the development of secondary flow. The curvature of the coil governs the centrifugal force while the pitch (or helix angle) influences the torsion to which the fluid is subjected to. The centrifugal force results in the development of secondary flow. Due to the curvature effect, the fluid streams in the outer side of the pipe moves faster than the fluid streams in the inner side of the pipe. The difference in velocity sets-in secondary flows, whose pattern changes with the Dean number of the flow. In current work the fluid to fluid heat exchange is taken into consideration, Most of the investigations on heat transfer coefficients are for constant wall temperature or constant heat flux. The effectiveness, overall heat transfer coefficient, effect of coldwater flow rate on effectiveness of heat exchanger when hot water mass flow rate is kept constant and effect of hot water flow rate on effectiveness when cold water flow rate kept constant studied and compared for parallel flow, counter flow arrangement of Helical coil and Straight tube heat exchangers. The inner heat transfer coefficient calculated from Wilson plot method. Then Nusselt no and correlation obtained on the basis of inner heat transfer coefficient. All readings were taken at steady state condition of heat exchanger. The result shows that the heat transfer coefficient is affected by the geometry of the heat exchanger. Helical coil heat exchanger are superior in all aspect studied here.