Introduction

It has been proved through various numerical and experimental techniques that helical coiled
pipes offer more heat transfer rate as compared to conventional straight pipe heat exchangers.
They also provide a higher heat transfer coefficient and compact geometry. They are used
extensively in mechanical, chemical, petroleum and other industries and found various industrial
applications such as refrigeration, heat recovery, power generation and nuclear industry. In
islanded nuclear systems helical coils may be used to move residual heat from the system.
Desalination plants which desalinate the sea water and employs nuclear energy for such
purpose also use helical coil heat exchangers.

Literature Review
Liu et. al studied the pressure reduction in helical pipes with constant circular cross-section in
laminar flow region with finite pitch. Experiments showed that Dean number contributes a lot in
determining the fluid flow characteristics. They also determined the correlation between Dean
number and Reynolds number.
Yildiz et al. calculated the differences in pressure drop and heat transfer rates between
stationary and rotating helical pipes. They proved that with very low pumping power, rotating
helical coils can increase the rate of heat transfer. This is because of the fact that increasing
centrifugal forces increases secondary fluid flow which in turn increases heat transfer.
Tang et al. studied the fluid flow characteristics and pressure loss mechanism in helical pipes
for larger Dean numbers. Certain parameters like coil pitch and radius of curvature of the helical
pipe was also varied and its effects on velocity and pressure distribution were studied. They
analyzed that secondary flow is the major factor for flow loss.
Tang et al. in another study showed that the random streamline profile of the secondary vortices
and greater deflection angles of the secondary vortices are a big contributing factor in lowering
the pressure of the fluid flow.
Borse et. al reviewed the heat transfer efficiency through a helical coil heat exchanger and
opined that due to secondary flow characteristics in a helical flow pipe the friction factor
increases as the liquid passes through the coil and thus the heat transfer increases.
Dravid et al. opined that helical coli tubes have centrifugal forces which generate secondary flow
which leads to increase in the friction factor and heat transfer. The secondary flow developed is
a function of diameter of tube and coil diameter.
Jaicin et. al experimentally proved that effectiveness of helical coil heat exchanger is higher
than that of straight tube heat exchanger.
Chinna et al. researched on different ways to increase the heat transfer effectiveness for coiled
heat exchangers. They also worked on the number of coils and flow rate of the helical coil heat
exchanger and its effect on the heat transfer rate.

Problem Statement
We studied the fluid flow characteristics through a helical coiled pipe. The fluid velocity is set to
be _____, also the density and dynamic viscosity are ______ & ______ so that the operating
Reynolds number is in laminar flow with the value of _________.

Design and Simulation

Physical Model/Geometry
The first step regarding the simulation was constructing a 3D model of the helical pipe. This
purpose was accomplished using Solid works 2019 in which we developed a physical model of
helical pipe with appropriate dimensions as mentioned in ______. The fluid enters the pipe from
the bottom and leaves the pipe from the top, with inner dia. of the helical pipe is greater than the
outer dia. The outer and inner dia. of the pipe is also inclined at an angle with the horizonal.
When the coil is given N number of turns then distance from one end of the coil, passing from
the center to the other opposite end is called coil diameter. The coil diameter is also referred to
as pitch circle diameter (PCD). Curvature ratio (δ) is defined as the ratio of the pipe diameter to
coil diameter. Non-dimensional pitch (λ) is defined as the ratio of pitch to the length of one turn
of the helical coil.
do = outer dia. of the pipe.
di = inner dia. of the pipe.
De = Coil diameter.
N = number of turns of the coil.
p = pitch of the coil.
H = height of the coil.
Table 1 dimensions of Helical coil geometry

Parameter De do di N p H
Dimension (mm) 254 40 24.24 7 50 375

Mathematical Model
In order to simulate the fluid flow and heat transfer through the helical coiled pipe a
mathematical model is needed & the process of obtaining mathematical model is as under.
Boundary conditions
Different boundary conditions corresponding to different geometry parts of the helical coiled pipe
is given in ______. The fluid enters the helical pipe from below so this opening is named as inlet
while it leaves the pipe from the top hole of the pipe so it is named as outlet. The fluid flow and
heat flux are concentrated within the pipe and doesn’t leaves the pipe so the outer boundary of
the pipe is given wall boundary condition. The boundary condition for inlet is set to velocity-inlet
and value for inlet velocity is set to 12m/s. the outer boundary of the pipe is given wall boundary
condition.
Governing Equations
To predict the fluid flow characteristics the water fluid is allowed to enter the helical coil pipe and
after entering the pipe it takes some time to form a steady flow in the pipes. The velocity of fluid
throughout the pipe is constant. Law of conservation of mass, momentum and energy is applied
on the system as these equations are given as under;

u  0 ()

 u 
f  u u   P   f   2u 
 t  ()

Tf
 u Tf   f   2Tf 
t ()

Ts
  s   2Ts 
t ()

Where;

Ts = Temperature of the helical coiled pipe.

Tf = Temperature of the heat transfer fluid.

 f = Density of the heat transfer fluid.

 s = Thermal diffusivity of the heat transfer fluid.
 f = dynamic viscosity of the heat transfer fluid
u = velocity of the heat transfer fluid.
Numerical Solution
Geometry and Mesh generation
For preparation of the a 3d model of the helical coil first geometry was prepared using
SOLIDWORKS-19. The geometry was made with proper dimensions as shown in figure. The
size and shape of the geometry was also double checked before importing this structure to the
ANSYS-19 for meshing. According to the role and function which each structure has to play they
were given appropriate names which assisted in numerical solution such as outlet, inlet and
wall. Proper sizing and edge sizing of each component was performed to optimize and form a
very well refined mesh before moving onto the numerical solution.

Computational Scheme
After setting the boundary conditions for different components, we also set the fluid to water and
check the corresponding properties related to density. The convergence criterion for the
residuals is set to be 10-3. In order to solve the Navier-stokes equation SIMPLE (Semi-Implicit
Method for Pressure Linked Equations) algorithm has been used. After that using hybrid
initialization we initialize the calculations and then run the calculations to get the results.

Results and discussions

It has also been proved that with the increase in diameter of the coiled pipes the streamlines of
the vortices become more random/turbulent
As the fluid progresses in the coiled pipes or curved pipes secondary flow is observed which
does not occur in straight pipes. In order to measure the secondary flow, there is another
dimensionless number called the Dean number (De). It is defined as the

When the fluid flow passes through the helical coil velocity profile formed is different as
compared to the straight pipes. Along with the primary flow, secondary flow of fluid arises. Also,
as the fluid moves along the coil centrifugal forces are in action along with friction forces. There
is variation in the degrees of the centrifugal force from the curved wall to the center of the pipe.
The fluid around the axis of the duct experiences higher centrifugal force as compared to the
slow-moving fluid in the neighborhood of the duct wall.
When the centrifugal forces and viscous forces interact with each other in curved portion of the
pipe, we observe vortices began to form, this characteristic flow is termed as secondary flow.
Secondary flow shifts the maximum velocity from the axis towards the wall of the pipe which
means that slowly the fluid in the central region moves towards the outer edges of the helical
pipe and similarly fluid at the outer edges of the pipe move towards the central region. This
phenomenon gives rise to pressure drop and as the fluid moves towards the outlet this pressure
drop is even low because of the cross section of the pipe.
Conclusions
From the above discussions and results it is inferred that as the fluid moves towards the outlet,
we observed an increase in velocity and decrease in pressure of the fluid flow. The pressure
drops and higher heat transfer rate is due to the fact that as the fluid flows it develops
secondary flow and vortices. These vortices can also increase turbulence due to which higher
heat transfer occurs and that is the reason helical coil heat exchangers are preferred as
compared to straight pipe heat exchangers.

Dimensions in millimeters