Single-phase Convective Heat Transfer Research Articles

Bubby behavior and heat transfer characteristics of bionic microchannels in the subcooled flow boiling process

Microstructures on the sidewall or bottom wall, have shown excellent heat transfer performance in the single-phase convective heat transfer of microchannel heat sinks. For increasing the heat flux, phase-change heat transfer was highlighted as an effective approach. However, more complicated mechanisms of boiling heat transfer make less study focused on the microchannel with microstructure. In this work, a bionic microchannel with concave cavities and bionic ribs was proposed to enhance the boiling heat transfer. Numerical simulations, along with the volume of fluid (VOF) analysis combined with a phase-change model, were used to investigate the effect of the microstructure on the behavior of bubbles in the subcooled flow boiling. The results showed that the microstructure promotes bubble nucleation and the occurrence of more small bubbles around big bubbles. Thus, it enhances boiling heat transfer. Meanwhile, the microstructure was found to be beneficial in maintaining a stable liquid film evaporation under annular flow and suppressing boiling instability. Ultimately, compared with rectangular microchannels, the reported wall temperature and inlet pressure are more stable in the proposed bionic microchannel, the heat transfer coefficient and critical heat flux of the bionic microchannel were found to be 1.45 times higher, with mass flux G of 498 kg/(m2·s) and heat flux q w of 600 kW/m2.

Practical Challenges in Nanofluid Convective Heat Transfer Inside Silicon Microchannels

Despite numerous studies on nanofluids in microchannel heat sinks (MCHSs), they are not yet commercialized due to long-term stability issues and high maintenance costs. Therefore, this study explores the impact of nanofluids and nanoparticle clustering on single-phase convective heat transfer inside microchannels under laminar conditions. Water and commercially available water-based nanosuspensions, including Al2O3-water (30–60 nm), TiO2-water (5–30 nm), and polystyrene-water (50 nm), are circulated through silicon MCHS having rectangular channels integrated into a closed flow loop. To assess the in situ and real-time nanoparticle clustering during heat transfer experiments, Light Extinction Spectroscopy (LES) is applied as a non-intrusive measurement technique on nanofluids without any fluid sampling. Our findings reveal the appearance of nanofluid discoloration with no measurable increase in heat transfer coefficient. This unexpected change is attributed to the interplay of abrasion, erosion, and corrosion phenomena, likely triggered by the clustering of nanoparticles within the silicon microchannels—a novel insight into the complex dynamics of nanofluid behavior (an increase in the De Brouckere mean diameter from 11 nm to 107.3 nm over a 2.5 h period for TiO2 nanoparticles). The resulting material loss could not be mitigated by altering the nanoparticle material, which may impede heat transfer enhancement under tested conditions.

Correlation of single-phase convective heat transfer on spray cooled plain surfaces with high Prandtl number liquids

Spray cooling with transmission oils is an innovative cooling concept for electrical machines, whereby the coolant wets the end windings directly. The thermal design process of such machines requires reliable correlations of the heat transfer coefficients obtainable. Thereby, the majority of the literature only focuses on low Prandtl number coolants at ideal nozzle distances. The transferability of the existing heat transfer models to highly viscous coolants above and below the optimal nozzle distance has yet to be investigated. Therefore, the heat transfer coefficients of spray cooling on plain surfaces with aqueous glycerol solutions (model fluid) and a transmission oil of type ATF VI was investigated. The model fluid serves the purpose of covering the entire range of material properties of commercial transmission oils with only one liquid. Prandtl numbers ranging from 80 to 340 were investigated. Various cases of spray coverage were researched by varying the nozzle distance (2mm−100mm), the spray angle (20∘−80∘) and the size of the spray cooled surface (6.35×6.35mm2;12.7×12.7mm2). Regarding the case of the optimal nozzle distance, where the spray impact area just inscribes the cooled surface, the experimental data was validated with models from the literature. Large deviations of up to 450% resulted at nozzle distances above and below the optimum. Therefore, a dimensionless correlation of the heat transfer coefficient is proposed which includes all cases of spray coverage investigated, exceeding the applicability range of the existing models. The model describes the experimental data with a mean absolute percentage error of 15%.

Numerical study on subcooled flow boiling in narrow rectangular channel based on OpenFOAM

A wall nucleation model for sub-cooled boiling flow in narrow rectangular channels has been developed utilizing newly-reported experimental data. The model was then implemented into a two-phase Eulerian-Eulerian CFD model through use of the OpenFOAM platform, and then verified successfully by its application to five different channel cases, which differ mainly in the mass flow rate varying from 388 to 608 kg/(m2·s) with a heat loading of 56 kW/m2 and the inlet temperature ranging from 364.75 to 369.95 K. Meanwhile, on this basis, we studied the impact of inlet subcooling, inlet mass flow rate and wall heating power on the heat transfer mechanism of wall boiling, and found that with the increase of inlet subcooling and inlet mass flow rate, the ratio of single-phase convective heat flux gradually rose, in contrast to that of evaporative heat flux and quenching heat flux. The reason behind this was the increase of the above two factors reduced wall superheat, as well as bubble diameter and bubble influence area. However, the impact of heat flux for wall heating was more complicated. With the increase of wall heat flux, the convective heat flux increased first and then decreased, while the evaporative heat flux and quenching heat flux gradually rose, as do the wall-fluid heat-transfer temperature difference and the bubble influence area, which respectively facilitated single-phase convective heat transfer and restricted the proportion of single-phase heat transfer. The competition of these two led to the increase and the resulting decrease of convective heat flux.

Experiments and Correlations for Single-Phase Convective Heat Transfer in Brazed Plate Heat Exchangers

This study presents the single-phase heat transfer and pressure drop characteristics of R1233zd(e) in a Brazed Plate Heat Exchanger (BPHE). Experiments on single-phase, water-to-water, were initially conducted and a correlation for the convective heat transfer coefficient of the hot water side was derived by applying the modified Wilson plot method. The experiments covered a range of Reynolds number from 80 to 1600 and Prandtl number from 2.8 to 7.0. Subsequent experiments were conducted with water-to-R1233zd(e) covering a refrigerant range of Reynolds number from 700 to 1450 and Prandtl number from 4.5 to 4.9. The results were used to assess existing correlations in the literature predicting the Nusselt number and Fanning friction factor in BPHEs. Finally, new correlations for both the hot (water) and cold (refrigerant) sides are proposed for single-phase heat transfer for this geometry covering the conditions above. The proposed refrigerant heat transfer correlation predicted 97% of all data within the ± 10% error bands at a mean absolute error value of 5.7%.

Hybrid or mono nanofluids for convective heat transfer applications. A critical review of experimental research

Research on nanofluids has increased markedly in the last two decades. Initial attention has focused on conventional or mono nanofluids, dispersions of one type of solid nano-sized particles in a base fluid. Despite various challenges such as dispersion stability or increased pumping power, nanofluids have become improved working fluids for various energy applications. Among them, convective heat transfer has been the main research topic since the very beginning. Hybrid nanofluids, dispersions of two or more different nanoadditives in mixture or composite form, have received attention more recently. Research on hybrid nanofluids aims to further enhance the individual benefits of each single dispersion through potential synergistic effects between nanomaterials. Multiple experimental studies have been conducted independently analysing the convective heat transfer performance of mono or hybrid nanofluids for single-phase and two-phase convective heat transfer applications. However, there are still no general conclusions about which nanofluids, mono or hybrid, present better prospects. This review summarizes the experimental studies that jointly analyse both hybrid and mono nanofluids for these applications and the results are classified according to the heat transfer device used. Based on this criterion, three large groups of devices were noticed for single-phase convective heat transfer (tubular heat exchangers, plate heat exchangers and minichannel heat exchangers/heat sinks), while one group was identified for two-phase convective heat transfer (heat pipes). The main outcomes of these studies are summarized and critically analysed to draw general conclusions from an application point of view.

Heat transfer analysis of submerged combustion vaporizer under subcritical pressure and comparison with supercritical pressure

The boiling heat transfer under subcritical pressure is used in the vaporization process of submerged combustion vaporizer (SCV). In this paper, the SCV heat transfer calculation model is established by using the method of enthalpy segmentation. Based on this model, the temperature field, heat transfer characteristics and influencing factors of SCV under subcritical pressure are analyzed. The results show that the heat transfer inside tube under subcritical pressure is mainly single-phase convective heat transfer, the boiling heat transfer takes up a small proportion of tube length, but the enhancement degree is higher. In terms of the influence of operating load, 0.3 times standard load is the load threshold value of the SCV in calculation, on both sides of the threshold value, the flow boiling heat transfer coefficient shows an opposite correlation with the operating load. Due to the dominant role of nuclear boiling, the average heat transfer coefficient under subcritical pressure is higher than that under supercritical pressure, but the corresponding fuel gas consumption increase as well. Therefore, the SCV units operating under subcritical conditions can get better heat transfer performance by increasing the pressure to near critical level.

Heat Transfer Enhancement in Subchannel Geometry of Pressurized Water Reactor Using Water-Based Yttrium Oxide Nanofluid

Simulation of Computational Fluid Dynamic is applied to present the thermal performance of water-based Yttrium oxide nanofluid in subchannel of pressurized water reactor (PWR) system. Thermal hydraulic aspect such as pressure drop and heat transfer are estimated in typical conditions of pressurized water with flow rates ranged (20×103≤Re≤80×103) using fresh water (0 %vol.) and different volume fraction of water-Yttrium oxide nanofluid (2 and 4% vol.) as coolant fluid. Results were obtained and compared with correlations of single-phase pressure drop and convective heat transfer for the case of fully developed turbulent flow. The addition of Yttrium oxide nanoparticles to the coolant fluid in pressurized water reactor led to increase in convective heat transfer coefficient and pressure drop. Increasing the nanoparticle volume fraction of (2 and 4% vol.) causing an increase in the average Nu by 3.46% and 7.61%, respectively. The CFD model established in ANSYS software was validated by comparing the pressure drop of CFD results with Blasius correlation and Nu with Ma¨ıga et al. correlation and gave a good agreement.

Experimental study on single-phase convective heat transfer of interlocking double-layer counterflow mini-channel heat sink

This study proposes an interlocking double-layer mini-channel heat sink that can realize counterflow in which the flow direction is opposite in the adjacent channel. The heat sink consists of two-channel layers and a header/plenum structure serving as a pre-flow path for counterflow into the channels. The novelty and significance of the current study are that the counterflow multi-channel heat sink was first experimentally implemented through the design of a new internal flow distribution structure. The test data are obtained from the experimental evaluation of the single-phase flow cooling performance of the heat sink. The heat transfer characteristics of the heat sink are analyzed by separating the change in the single channel heat transfer coefficient increased by the counterflow channel effect. The thermal resistance representing the overall cooling performance of the proposed heat sink shows a significantly small value of 10-4 K-m2/W order, which indicates the heat transfer performance advantage of the new heat sink. The beneficial effect of counterflow is verified by comparing the heat transfer coefficient obtained from the proposed heat sink and the prediction using the previous correlation for unidirectional single-phase flow heat transfer coefficient. The measured heat transfer coefficients are much larger than the predicted values by all kinds of past correlations. The difference between the measured value and the predicted value is much greater at low flow conditions where the temperature gradient increases more significantly with the flow direction. It can be concluded that this indirectly implies the fact that temperature gradient mitigation by counterflow results in an additional heat transfer improvement that is unpredictable in the previous unidirectional flow correlations. A new correlation is proposed to predict the heat transfer coefficient affected by the counterflow. This study is the first to experimentally implement a counterflow heat sink, confirming the distinct advantage of improved cooling performance over conventional heatsinks. In addition, this study is meaningful in that it presents a performance prediction model that can be used in design for the practical application of counterflow heat sinks.

Correlations for heat transfer characteristics of the onset of nucleate boiling in submerged jet impingement

The submerged jet impingement boiling is one of the most effective heat transfer methods in dissipating both transient and steady concentrated heat loads. However, studies on the submerged jet impingement boiling still lack experimental data, especially for the heat transfer characteristics of the onset of nucleate boiling (ONB). Therefore, an experimental study of a submerged circular jet impinging on a polished copper surface is conducted in the subcooled water. The experiments investigate the steady-state heat transfer characteristics at the stagnation point from single phase convection to partial nucleate boiling. The effects of jet Reynolds number, liquid subcooling, and nozzle diameter on the onset of nucleate boiling are systematically studied. The experimental results show that the single phase convective heat transfer can be enhanced by increasing jet velocity at a fixed nozzle diameter or decreasing nozzle diameter under the same jet Reynolds number. The liquid subcooling seems to have negligible effect on the single phase heat transfer coefficient. For the ONB point, it is found that the ONB wall superheat is not influenced by liquid subcooling or jet parameters. The ONB heat flux, on the other hand, is found to depend on the experimental parameters. Increasing the jet Reynolds number and liquid subcooling, or decreasing the nozzle diameter could broaden the single phase convective regime and delay the onset of nucleate boiling, in terms of heat flux. Empirical correlations are proposed for predicting the stagnation point heat transfer coefficient, heat flux, and wall superheat at the ONB point. The comparison between the predicted values and the experimental data indicates that the empirical correlations are able to predict the heat transfer characteristics of the onset of nucleate boiling within an acceptable accuracy under the applicable range.

Numerical analysis of the flow and heat transfer characteristics in serpentine microchannel with variable bend amplitude

PurposeThis study aims to propose the increase of heat dissipation requirements of modern electronic equipment and the fast development of micro-scale manufacturing technologies. The heat transfer mechanism is studied in-depth, especially for its pattern of secondary flow caused by the repeated inversion of centrifugal force. Effects of η on the frictional pressure drop and average Nusselt number are studied and the performance of such microchannel heat sink with various bend amplitudes is comprehensively evaluated. These results can provide important insight into the optimal design of this novel design configuration for microelectronics cooling.Design/methodology/approachA three-dimensional model based on the finite volume approach and SIMPLEC algorithm is performed to test an innovative serpentine microchannel, which behaves differently from conventional serpentine microchannel due to the significant effect of centrifugal force inversion.FindingsThe effect of centrifugal force significantly influences the flow and thermal fields which are responsible for the enhancement in heat transfer coefficient. The number, size and intensity of vortices increase with increasing Re, and the vortices are reformed at every change of the geometry in a periodic fashion. The serpentine microchannel studies more effectively at larger bend amplitude. Pressure fluctuations and temperature variation are greater with increasing bend amplitude.Practical implicationsSeveral techniques have been developed to augment single-phase convective heat transfer in channels. One technique is to use a serpentine channel that enhances the heat transfer due to flow mixing and periodic interruption of thermal boundary layers. This technique has been applied to micro-heat exchangers, thermal regenerators and mini/microreactors.Social implicationsThe optimal design of this novel design configuration for microelectronics cooling can be attained. It will become an effective cooling technology for solving the increasing of heat dissipation requirements of modern electronic equipment.Originality/valueThe flow and heat transfer characteristics are first presented for the circular serpentine microchannel made up of alternate U-bends without interposed straight segments. The present study first examines the effect of such centrifugal force inversion on velocity contour, pressure distribution and temperature distribution. The patterns of secondary flow along the flow passage caused by the repeated inversion of centrifugal force are further studied in depth. The effect of bend amplitude on the flow and heat transfer is explored and the performance of such microchannel heat sink has been comprehensively evaluated.

Investigation on the thermal properties, heat transfer and flow performance of a highly self-dispersion TiO2 nanofluid in a multiport mini channel

The present study experimentally investigated the single-phase convective heat transfer and pressure drop characteristics of a highly self-dispersion TiO2 nanofluid inside a multiport mini channel with 1.22 mm hydraulic diameter. Nanofluids with volume concentrations of 0.5% and 1% were used. Thermal properties for the nanofluid were measured and compared with correlations. Results indicate that the adding of nanoparticles not only enlarges the thermal conductivity by 4.2% averagely but also significantly increases the viscosity by 14.9% for the 1% nanofluid. Besides the viscosity, the thermal conductivity and density can be predicted well by correlations. Compared with water flow, the nanofluid flow presents an earlier laminar-turbulent transition. Before the transition, the nanofluid has roughly the same performance but slightly smaller Nusselt numbers with water. After the transition, it shows better heat transfer performance and greater friction factors. Moreover, the thermal performance factor is greater than 1 for Reynolds number of 1500–2200 and the maximum of 1.57 occurs at the Reynolds of 1800. Outside this range, its value is close to 1 or even slightly smaller than 1. Finally, the exiting correlations for Nusselt number were evaluated. The present study provides a practical candidate and experimental data for the selection and design of nanofluid based heat exchanger.

Condensation heat transfer characteristics of moist air outside a three-dimensional finned tube

The condensation heat transfer of moist air is a common phenomenon in industry processes, and improving the efficiency of condensation heat transfer is a common focus of research. Many studies have shown that extending the surface of the heat exchanger can effectively enhance the condensation heat transfer efficiency. Therefore, this study focused on a three-dimensional (3-D) finned tube heat exchange element with an extra-large extended surface, and experiments were conducted to study the condensation heat transfer characteristics of moist air outside the 3-D finned tube. The effects of different steam mole fractions, moist air velocities, cooling water inlet temperatures, and moist air temperatures on the condensation heat transfer characteristics of the moist air outside the 3-D finned tube were studied under atmospheric pressure. A smooth tube was also tested under the same conditions for comparison. The experimental results showed that the 3-D finned tube can achieve a higher heat transfer coefficient compared with the smooth tube under all tested conditions. Moreover, for both the 3-D finned tube and the smooth tube, the heat transfer coefficient increased with an increase in the steam mole fraction and moist air velocity, and decreased with an increase of moist air temperature or cooling water inlet temperature. Furthermore, in a single-phase convective heat transfer case, the 3-D finned tube could achieve 3.1 times the heat transfer coefficient of the smooth tube. In a moist air condensation heat transfer case, the 3-D finned tube could achieve 1.7 times the heat transfer coefficient of the smooth tube when the steam mole fraction was 0.05. Although the 3-D finned tube had a more serious condensate retention phenomenon compared with that of the smooth tube, the 3-D fins could still increase the heat transfer area and effectively break the flowing boundary layer outside the tube wall. In addition, the 3-D finned tube had a higher heat transfer coefficient compared with the smooth tube.

A New Thermodynamic and Heat Transfer Model for Nanolubricants and Refrigerant Heat Transfer Processes in Smooth Copper Tubes

Abstract In air conditioning systems, lubricating oil leaves the compressor and circulates through the other system components. This lubricant acts as a contaminant affecting heat transfer in heat exchangers. The literature indicated that mixtures of refrigerants and nanolubricants, that is, nanoparticles dispersed in the lubricant oils, have potentials to augment heat transfer exchange effectiveness. However, the nanoparticle mechanisms leading to such heat transfer changes are still unclear and not well included in the models. In this work, an existing single-phase forced flow convective heat transfer model, originally developed for water-based nanofluids, was modified to include the effects of diffusion and mass balance of different shape nanoparticles within the laminar sublayer and turbulent layer of the flow. A new physics-based superposition heat transfer model for saturated two-phase flow boiling of refrigerant and nanolubricants was also developed by integrating the modified forced flow convective heat transfer model and a semi-empirical pool boiling model for nanolubricants. The new model included the several physical effects that influenced heat transfer, such as slip mechanisms at the nanoparticles and base fluid interface and its influence on the laminar sublayer thickness, momentum transfer from the nanoparticles to the growing bubbles, and formation of lubricant excess concentration at the tube surface and its influence on bubble growth and tube wetting. The new model was validated for single-phase convective heat transfer and two-phase flow boiling of refrigerant R410A with two nanolubricants, having nonspherical ZnO nanoparticles and spherical Al2O3 nanoparticles.

Progress Toward Simulating Departure from Nucleate Boiling at High-Pressure Applications with Selected Wall Boiling Closures

Recently, a Eulerian-based two-fluid computational fluid dynamics (CFD) framework with a wall heat flux partitioning approach has been intensively investigated for departure from nucleate boiling (DNB) simulation under the U.S. Department of Energy–funded Consortium for Advanced Simulation of Light Water Reactors (CASL) program. Understanding of the DNB characteristics over a range of pressurized water reactor–like operating conditions and accurate prediction of boiling crisis in the nuclear power system have been grand challenges because of the large impact of DNB on reactor safety and operational economics. The ultimate goal of this task in the CASL program is to introduce a robust multiphase CFD–based DNB modeling framework that is capable of characterizing an entire boiling history in which the wall boiling mode experiences the following through multiple stages of heat transfer mode: (1) single-phase convective heat transfer, (2) nucleate boiling heat transfer, and (3) identification of the departure of nucleate boiling. To validate the CASL boiling model, we have benchmarked simulated DNB over three different flow channel configurations (pipe flow, 5 × 5 fuel bundle with mixing vane tests, and 5 × 5 fuel bundle without mixing vane tests) against experimental measurements, and the validation result with open literature is reported. The DNB detection criteria in the simulation are checked by monitoring the peak wall temperature, wall dryout factor, and net energy balance. In addition to the DNB performance test, some preliminary sensitivity results on closure model selection are reported to address the prediction capability of local void profile against measurements. The boiling simulation tested in this study exhibits a maximum deviation of 24% from the measured DNB value in a high-pressure (i.e., 138 bars) subcooled pipe flow test. The ranges of operating conditions are as follows: 1650 to 2650 kg/m2·s for mass flux and 8.5 to 96 K for subcooled inlet temperature. The deviation is even reduced to 7% when the subcooled temperature is less than 40 K. Besides accuracy, base practice guidelines for DNB detection criteria are tested by monitoring three simulation variables: (1) maximum wall temperature, (2) wall dryout factor (i.e., K-value), and (3) energy balance. Numerical robustness of DNB simulation is largely achieved in most of the validation test except for a few high subcooled test cases.

Experimental study of single-phase flow and heat transfer in rectangular channels under uniform and non-uniform heating

Characteristics of single-phase convective heat transfer in a rectangular channel are reported for heated and non-heated conditions. Results indicated that the friction factors were basically the same in the laminar region. However, in the transition and quasi-turbulent region, the heated friction factor was slightly lower than the non-heated values, and the value of non-uniform heating was slightly higher than that of uniform heating. The transition started critical Reynolds number increased from 2700 without heating to about 3000 with heating only due to the viscosity decreased with increasing temperatures. Due to the transition started and ended Reynolds number increased simultaneously under heating, the width of flow transition was almost the same as that without heating. The transverse power distribution influenced the average Nusselt number of the channel, although measured differences were small for uniform and non-uniform heating conditions. For the heat transfer data under uniform heating conditions obtained in this study, 15 correlations were evaluated. It is found that the existing correlations underestimated the experimental data for Re < 3000 and overestimated the data for 3000 < Re < 6000. A large database of heat transfer in rectangular channels including the experimental data obtained from this study and other researchers' work was established, and new heat transfer correlations for laminar (Re < 3000) and transition (3000 < Re < 10000) flows were developed. The Dittus-Boelter correlation was confirmed to provide a good prediction for the heat transfer for Re > 10000, with almost all data being within ±20% errors.

Unified formula for the field synergy principle

The field synergy principle has three criteria to qualitatively describe the essence of single-phase convective heat transfer enhancement. However, in practice these criteria are difficult to be applied to convective heat transfer analysis, because there are no corresponding indicators available to quantitatively describe them. Therefore, a unified formula for the field synergy principle was developed based on these three criteria using probabilistic techniques in this study to overcome these defects. The formula is applicable to incompressible flows with constant properties in both laminar and turbulent flow regimes. The formula contains three categories of non-dimensional indicators corresponding to the three criteria of the field synergy principle, respectively, including domain-averaged cosine of synergy angle, the Pearson linear correlation coefficients between the scalar functions contained in the energy governing equation of convective heat transfer, and the variation coefficients of these functions. The physical meanings of these indicators for the field synergy principle and their connections with the known heat transfer enhancing mechanisms were then discussed. Based on this formula, an improved analytical system for the field synergy principle was proposed. It allows an efficient and quantitative analysis of all single-phase constant-property convective heat transfer phenomena. This new system overcomes the limitation of the conventional field synergy analytical system that mainly analyzes convective heat transfer mechanism from the perspective of synergy angle.

Effect of wing-pitch ratio of double-sided delta-wing tape insert on the improvement of convective heat transfer

After publishing an article in which the impact of wing-width ratio of double-sided delta-wing tape (T-W) inserts on thermal-hydraulic performance [Wijayanta et al., Appl. Therm. Eng. 145 (2018) 27–37] were investigated, we have extended our work to modified enhanced heat transfer area design for wing-pitch ratio (P/W) acting on the geometric features of delta-wing tape inserts. There are a limited number of studies in this area regarding the wing-pitch ratio. In the current study, T-W inserts with P/W of 1.18, 1.47, and 1.65 were manufactured and evaluated to improve single-phase convective heat transfer, under the conditions of a Reynolds number between 5,300 and 14,500, with water used as the working fluid. T-W inserts with a P/W of 1.18 offer the highest average Nusselt number, with an increase of approximately 177% compared to a plain tube. However, the friction factor is 11.6 times greater compared to a plain tube, showing that the friction loss is more significant with T-W inserts. In addition, T-W inserts with a P/W of 1.18 produce the greatest thermal performance factor of 1.15. Generally, Nusselt number, friction factor, and thermal performance factor of the heat exchanger increase following the decrease of P/W of the T-W inserts. In this study, the empirical correlations have been modeled using the obtained experimental data.

New analytical method for single-phase convective heat transfer and unified mechanism analyses on buoyancy-induced supercritical convective heat transfer deterioration

Single-phase convective heat transfer process can be regarded as a combination of two simultaneous processes, inner heat flux diffusion and absorption/release by equivalent inner heat sources, based on the analogy of convective heat transfer to conductive heat transfer. Inspired by this idea, a new analytical method for sing-phase convective heat transfer was developed from the perspective of synergy between equivalent inner heat source efficiency field (h′ field) and effective thermal conductivity field (λeff field). This new method employs hc and w′ to quantize the effects of h′ field and λeff field on convective heat transfer, making a quantitative and comprehensive analysis for most single-phase convective heat transfer phenomena possible. Subsequently, the buoyancy-induced convective heat transfer deterioration (HTD) of supercritical water under heating boundary conditions were analyzed using this new method. It was found that the supercritical HTD for upward flow is caused by the decline of both the λeff and h′ fields, especially in the near-wall regions. While, the supercritical HTD at the top part of the wall for horizontal flow is due to the fact that the high-value part of the h′ field is moved downward by a pair of vortices induced by buoyancy. Thus, the inner heat fluxes released from the top part of the wall have to be diffused through a much longer distance, leading to the HTD.

Thermal-Hydraulic Studies on the Shell-and-Tube Heat Exchanger with Minijets

In this paper a patented design of a heat exchanger with minijets, with a cylindrical construction is presented. It is followed by the results of its systematic experimental investigations in the single-phase convection heat transfer mode. Based on these results, validation of selected correlations (coming from the literature) describing the Nusselt number was carried out. An assessment of the heat exchange intensification level in the described heat exchanger was done through the comparison with a shell-and-tube exchanger of a classical design. The thermal-hydraulic characteristics of both units were the subjects of comparison. They were constructed for the identical thermal conditions, i.e., volumetric flow rates of the working media and the media temperatures at the inlets to the heat exchanger. The experimental studies of both heat exchangers were conducted on the same test facility. An increase in the heat transfer coefficients values for the minijets heat exchanger was observed in comparison with the reference one, whereas the generated minijets caused greater hydraulic resistance. Experimentally confirmed intensification of heat transfer on the air side, makes the proposed minijets heat exchanger application more attractive, for the waste heat utilization systems from gas sources.