Augmentation of highly viscous laminar heat transfer inside tubes with constant wall

temperature

W.J. Marner ,
Heat Transfer Research, Inc., Alhambra, California, USA
A.E. Bergles
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa, USA
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0894-1777(89)90015-0, How to Cite or Link Using DOI
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Abstract
An experimental investigation of enhanced tubeside flow and heat transfer under laminar
flow conditions is reported. The three test sections in this study included a plain tube, an
internally finned tube, and a tube with a twisted-tape insert, all with a nominal diameter of
25.4 mm and a length of 2.44 m. A highly viscous Newtonian liquid, Polybutene 20, was
used as the test fluid. The heat transfer results were obtained in a horizontal test section
with nearly constant wall temperature. Isothermal pressure drop, nonisothermal pressure
drop, and heat transfer data were obtained over a wide range of the parameters: Reynolds
number, 15.1575; Prandtl number, 12608130; Graetz number, 8686570; and bulk-towall viscosity ratio, 0.0046442.8. The effects of free, or natural, convection were negligible
in this study. All parameters are evaluated at the arithmetic mean bulk temperature and
are based on the inside envelope diameter. Isothermal friction factors for the internally
finned tube and the tube with the twisted-tape insert are 1.7 and 3.4 times those of the
plain tube for the range of Reynolds numbers tested, with the nonisothermal friction
factors showing similar increases. Augmented heat transfer coefficients were above the
plain tube values for both heating and cooling. The greatest improvement for heating was
for the internally finned tube where Nusselt numbers ranged from 3 to 4 times the plain
tube values at corresponding Graetz numbers. For cooling, the twisted-tape Nusselt
numbers were 1.52.25 times the corresponding plain tube values. Tabulated values and
empirical correlations are presented for all of the data obtained.
Keywords

laminar flow;
forced convection;
augmentation;
heat exchangers;
measurement techniques

Heat transfer enhancement in circular tubes using helical swirl generator insert at
the entrance

H. Gla, ,
D. Evinb, ,
a Frat University, Vocational High School, 23119, Elaz, Turkey
b Frat University, Mechanical Engineering Faculty, 23119 Elaz, Turkey
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijthermalsci.2006.12.010, How to Cite or Link Using DOI
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Abstract
This paper presents an experimental study of heat transfer and friction characteristics in
decaying turbulent swirl flow generated by a short helical tape placed at the entrance of the
test section. In the experiments, total mass flux was varied from 160 kgm2s1 to 1628
kgm2s1 and the momentum ratio (M h / M T ) was varied from 0 to 8.6. The experiments
were conducted for water flow rates in the range of
. Three different
helical tapes with helical angels of 30, 45 and 60 were used. Experimental results
confirm that, the use of a helical tape inserted to the tube leads to a higher heat transfer
rate than the non-swirling flow. The local heat transfer coefficients were found to be
increasing to very high values along the downstream of the helical tape, and then
decreasing with the distance (x / L ). The augmentation of heat transfer was found to be the
function of the momentum ratio, M h / M T and Reynolds number. No pronounced effect of
the number of the helical channels (N h ), and helical angle () on heat transfer was
observed. It is found that using the helical tape can help to increase the heat transfer rate
up to 20% depending on M h / M T and Re at constant pumping power. Enhancement
efficiency increases with increasing momentum ratio and decreases with increasing
Reynolds number.

Modeling of Heat Transfer Augmentation in a Circular Tube

Fitted with Right-Left Helical Inserts in Laminar Flow Using
CFD
Palani Sivashanmugam
National Institute of Technology, Tiruchirappalli-620015, India

Publication History:
Published Online:
2008-05-26
Computational heat transfer flow modeling is one of the great challenges in the classical sciences. As
with most problems in Engineering, the interest in the heat transfer augmentation is due to its extreme
importance in various industrial applications. CFD simulation for the heat transfer augmentation in a
circular tube fitted with right-left helical tape inserts in laminar flow conditions has been explained in this

paper using Fluent version 6.2.16. The data obtained by simulation are matching with the literature value
for plain tube with the discrepancy of less than plus or minus 5% for Nusselt number and friction factor.
Enhanced heat transfer with decreasing twist ratio was observed. Heat flux is more uniform all along the
tube and decreases uniformly towards the center. Right-left movement of the flow as per direction twist
was also observed from the velocity contour.

Keywords: heat transfer augmentation; right-left helical twist insert; twist ratio;CFD simulation; fluent

Keywords

Heat transfer enhancement;

Circular tubes;
Swirl flow;
Helical tape
Heat transfer correlation for thermally developing laminar flow in a smooth tube
with a twisted-tape insert
J.P. Du Plessis, ,
D.G. Krger
Department of Applied Mathematics, University of Stellenbosch, Stellenbosch, South Africa
Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Stellenbosch, Stellenbosch, South
Africa
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0017-9310(87)90265-1, How to Cite or Link Using DOI
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Abstract
A new method of correlating heat transfer characteristics is presented for the case of
thermally developing laminar flow in a smooth tube with a twisted-tape insert. The tube is
considered to be at a constant temperature axially and peripherally and the tape is fully
adiabatic. The correlating method is based on numerical results for the case on an infinitely
thin tape and the finite tape thickness is incorporated through the definition of effective
flow parameters. A complete step-by-step procedure for the implementation of the final
correlative equation is presented.