Heat transfer enhancement studies in double pipe heat exchanger using variant plain tape inserts

Abstract

Heat exchangers are important devices that are generally used in various manufacturing process such as petroleum refining, chemicals, oil, paper industries and power plants. The demand for high efficiency heat exchangers has been driven by energy and material saving requirements as well as environmental challenges in the industry. To improve the efficiency of heat exchanger one must think of heat transfer enhancement of the system. In addition, heat transfer improvement also reduces the size of the heat exchanger. To make a heat exchanger compact, it should be designed with high heat transfer rate and accommodate minimum space. newlineThere are different types of flow patterns available for a heat exchanger. Common types include parallel flow, counter flow and cross flow. The most effective flow method of the three is the counter flow for a heat exchanger. Also, Counter flow heat exchanger is considered as the most efficient type. newlineThe present research reports the use of variant cut tapes equipped in a double pipe heat exchanger to improve fluid mixing and results in increased rate of heat transfer compared to the plain tape. Heat transfer, friction factor, and thermal enhancement factor characteristics in a double pipe heat exchanger equipped with plain and variant cut tapes are investigated using water as working fluid. Experimental investigation is performed for both laminar and turbulent flow Reynolds number ranges. The experimental results were validation for plain tube and plain tapes using the standard correlations obtainable from the literature. newline