International Communications in Heat and Mass Transfer
International Communications in Heat and Mass Transfer
International Communications in Heat and Mass Transfer
a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t
Available online 1 June 2012 Turbulent convective heat transfer characteristics in a helical-ribbed tube tted with twin twisted tapes have
been investigated experimentally. The experiment was carried out in a double tube heat exchanger using the
Keywords: helical-ribbed tube having a single rib-height to tube-diameter ratio, e/DH = 0.06 and rib-pitch to diameter
Compound heat transfer ratio, P/DH = 0.27 as the tested section. The insertion of the double twisted tapes with twist ratio, Y, in the
Friction factor range of 2.17 to 9.39 is to create vortex ows inside the tube. The inserted ribbed tube is arranged in similar
Helical-ribbed tube
directions of the helical swirl of the twisted tape and the helical rib motion of the tube (called co-swirl).
Twisted tape
Swirl ow
Effects of the co-swirl motion of the ribbed tube and the double twisted tapes with various twist ratios on
heat transfer and friction characteristics are examined. The results obtained from the ribbed tube and the
twin twisted tape insert are compared with those from the smooth tube and the ribbed tube acting alone.
The experimental results reveal that the co-swirling inserted tube performs much better than the ribbed/
smooth tube alone at a similar operating condition. The co-swirl tube at Y 8 yields the highest thermal
performance at lower Reynolds number (Re). In addition, the correlations of Nusselt number and friction
factor as functions of Re, Pr and Y are also proposed.
2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
1. Introduction tube, and micron tube [1930]. In general, a twisted tape acts as the
swirl generator, promoting the ow turbulence and extending
Heat transfer enhancement techniques have been extensively devel- residence time of uid ow in the tube, and thus leading to efcient
oped to improve the thermal performance of heat exchanger systems disruption of thermal boundary layer. The tube with modied surfaces
with a view to reducing the size and cost of the systems. Swirl/vortex is usually used as the turbulence promoter (turbulator) near the tube
ow is the one of the enhancement techniques widely applied to wall for improvement of mixing the uid in thermal sub-layer and
heating/cooling systems in many engineering applications. The vortex redeveloped the velocity/thermal boundary layer. The research works
ows can be classied into two types: continuous swirl and decaying on the performance of compound enhancement devices consisting of
swirl ows. The former represents the swirling motion that persists the modied tube and the twisted tape have been extensively reported
over the entire length of the duct for example helical/twisted tape as discussed below.
[15] and coiled wires inserts [6,7] while the latter means the swirl Liao and Xin [17] investigated the heat transfer characteristics in
created at the duct entrance and then decays along the ow path [8] tubes with three-dimensional internal extended surfaces combined
such as the tangential injection, the rib/bafe and the winglet vortex with copper continuous or segmented twisted-tape inserts using
generators [913]. various working uids (water, ethylene glycol, and ISO VG46 tur-
Several compound heat transfer enhancement techniques have bine). The average Stanton number and the friction factor of laminar
been explored for better performance than the individual technique ow of the VG46 turbine oil in a tube with 3D internal extended
[1418]. Among them, a combination of the modied tube and twisted surfaces and twisted-tape inserts by a factor of 5.8 and 6.5 above
tapes has been recommended for its high heat transfer enhancement. that of the smooth tube were reported, respectively. Promvonge and
The reason behind the efcient heat transfer is the synergy of the Eiamsa-ard [18] experimentally studied the heat transfer in a tube
swirl ow acted by twisted tape and further disturbance of the ow with both conical-rings and twisted tape and the heat transfer en-
induced by various modied tubes such as three-dimensional internal hanced by the compound devices was as high as 3.7-fold over the
extended surfaces, a convergingdiverging tube, ducts with internal plain tube. Mengna et al. [19] reported the effect of a converging
transverse rib, dimpled tube, single start spirally corrugated/ribbed diverging tube inserted with evenly spaced twisted-tapes on thermal
behaviors, and the compound devices offered the thermal perfor-
Communicated by W.J. Minkowycz.
mance up to 1.21. Pramanik and Saha [20] investigated the heat
Corresponding author. transfer characteristics of laminar oil ow through rectangular and
E-mail address: [email protected] (P. Promvonge). square ducts with internal transverse ribs on two opposite walls
0735-1933/$ see front matter 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.icheatmasstransfer.2012.05.015
954 P. Promvonge et al. / International Communications in Heat and Mass Transfer 39 (2012) 953959
two digital pressure gages. The inlet and outlet temperatures of the where m_ c is the mass ow rate of cold water, cp,w is the specic heat
water were taken using the RTD-type thermocouples, located at the of water, and Tc,in and Tc,out are the inlet and outlet cold water tem-
hot water inlet and the outlet, respectively. Experiments were carried peratures, respectively. The heat supplied from the hot water, Qh
out for the Reynolds number (Re) of about 6000 to 60,000, based on can be written as
the tube diameter.
_ h cp;w T h;out T h;in
Qh m 2
3. Data processing
The average Nusselt number (Nu) and the friction factor (f) are where m _ h is the hot water mass ow rate, and Th,in and Th,out are the
based on the inner diameter of the test tube. Heat absorbed by the inlet and outlet hot water temperatures, respectively. The heat sup-
cold water in the annulus, Qc can be expressed as plied by the hot uid into the test tube is found to be 2% to 5% higher
than the heat absorbed by the cold uid for thermal equilibrium due
to convection and radiation heat losses from the test section to sur-
_ c cp;w T c;out T c;in
Qc m 1
roundings. Thus, the average value of heat transfer rate, supplied
Table 1
Details on twisted tape geometry and tested conditions.
Helical-ribbed tube
Material Copper
Inner tube diameter (D) 23 mm
Outer tube diameter 26 mm
Mean inner ribbed tube diameter 24.5 mm
(DH)
rib-height and -pitch to diameter 0.06 and 0.27
ratio (e/DH, P/DH)
Twisted tape
Material Aluminum sheet
Tape thickness () and width (W) 1 mm and 11.5 mm
Twist length (y) 25, 33, 40, 48, 55, 63, 70, 78, 85, 93, 100 and
108 mm
Twist ratio (Y = y/W) 2.17, 2.87, 3.48, 4.17, 4.78, 5.48, 6.09, 6.78,
7.39, 8.09 and 9.39
Tape arrangement Co-swirl with helical rib motion
Test conditions
Working uid Water
Reynolds number 6000 to 60,000
Inlet temperature of the hot tube 70 C
Fig. 2. Details of (a) double twisted tapes and (b) helical-ribbed tube with double
Inlet temperature of the cold tube 25 C
twisted tape insert.
956 P. Promvonge et al. / International Communications in Heat and Mass Transfer 39 (2012) 953959
and absorbed by both uids, is taken for internal convective heat 4. Results and discussion
transfer coefcient calculation.
In this section, the effects of the compound devices consisting of
Qc Qh the helical-ribbed tube with double twisted tape insert in co-swirl
Q ave 3
2 arrangements on the heat transfer (in the form of Nu), f and TEF are
presented. The experimental results of the compound devices are
For uid ows in a concentric tube heat exchanger, the heat trans- reported along with those of the ribbed tube and smooth tube acting
fer coefcient (hi) is calculated from alone, over the Re mentioned earlier.
where Firstly, the present results from the smooth tube and the experi-
mental facility are validated by comparing the heat transfer rate and
Ai Di L 5 pressure drop behaviors in terms of Nu and f with those from the
published correlations including the Dittus-Boelter correlation for
In the experiments, the tube-wall temperature was not measured Nu and Petukhov correlation for f [37] as depicted in Fig. 3a and b, re-
directly. Heat transfer coefcient (hi) is determined from the overall spectively. Apparently, the present data for the smooth tube agree
heat transfer coefcient as shown below well with those from the correlations within 4% for Nu and 8%
for f. Therefore, the Nusselt number (Nu0) and friction factor (f0) of
1=U 1=hi Ai lnDo Di =2kL Ai =Ao ho Rf 6 the smooth tube will be used to normalize Nu and f obtained from
the ribbed tube with/without twin twisted tape insert.
When the last three terms on the right-hand side of Eq. (6) were kept
constant and set to C1, then Eq. (6) can be re-written as 4.2. Effect of ribbed tube and twisted tape
1=U 1=hi C 1 7
The effect of the helical-ribbed tubes tted with twin twisted
tapes on the heat transfer rate in the form of Nu and Nu/Nu0 ratio is
the heat transfer coefcient is related to Re as
displayed in Fig. 4a and b, respectively and the result is compared
m with that from the ribbed tube/smooth tube acting alone. It can be ob-
hi CRe 8
served in the gure that the Nu increases with the rise in Re while the
Nu/Nu0 shows an opposite trend for all cases. At a similar operating
where C and m stand for constant and power index values
Substituting Eq. (8) into Eq. (7) yields
m m
1=U 1=C Re C 1 aRe C1 9
Eq. (9) implies that the plot between 1/U and Re m is a straight
line with its slope of a and intercept at C1 in Y-axis (1/U). Rearranging
Eq. (9) yields
hi 1=1=UC 1 10
Nu hi DH =k 11
D =
Re U 12
H
1=3
TEF Nu=Nu0 =f =f 0 14 Fig. 3. Verication of (a) Nu and (b) f for smooth tube.
P. Promvonge et al. / International Communications in Heat and Mass Transfer 39 (2012) 953959 957
condition, the ribbed tube in common with the twin twisted tape
yields higher heat transfer rate than the ribbed tube acting alone or
the smooth tube. Depending on the Re and Y values, the Nu obtained
from the inserted ribbed-tube is, respectively, larger than that from
the ribbed tube alone and the smooth tube at about 4% to 75% and
150% to 320%. The better performance of the inserted ribbed-tube
can be attributed to the consequence of combined actions including
a swirl ow created by the twisted tape and an additional ow distur-
bance by the modied surface of the ribbed tube, leading to a more
effectiveness in disruption of the boundary layer compared to those
caused by the individual device.
The variations of the f and the f/f0 ratio of the inserted ribbed tube
including those of the ribbed tube alone and the smooth tube with Re
are depicted in Fig. 5a and b, respectively. It is visible that both the f
and f/f0 tend to decrease with the increase of Re, for all cases. Similar
to the Nu trends, the f from the inserted ribbed-tube is considerably
higher than that from the ribbed tube alone or smooth tube at a
given Re. The f of the inserted ribbed-tube is found to be approxi-
mately 1.73.6 times over the ribbed tube alone and to be about
6.019.2 times the smooth tube, depending on the Re and Y values.
However, the f of the ribbed tube alone is around 77% to 207%
above that of the smooth tube.
The TEF calculated from Eq. (14) against the Re is portrayed in
Fig. 6. In the gure, the TEF tends to decrease with the increase in
Re. The maximum and minimum TEF values of the co-swirling
inserted tube are, respectively, found to be about 2.6 and 1.9 at the
lowest and highest Re values, respectively. The TEF of the ribbed
tube alone is around 1.6 to 2.2, depending on Re. This indicates that
the use of the inserted ribbed-tube is advantageous in view point of
energy saving at lower Re. It is also seen that the TEF values are all
Fig. 5. Effect of ribbed tube and twisted tape on (a) f and (b) f/f0.
The effect of twelve twist ratios (Y = 2.17, 2.87, 3.48, 4.17, 4.78,
5.48, 6.09, 6.78, 7.39, 8.09 and 9.39) on the Nu/Nu0 and f/f0 in the
inserted ribbed-tube is displayed in Fig. 7a and b, respectively. It is
seen that the Nu/Nu0 of the co-swirl inserted tube increases with in-
creasing the twist ratio until Y = 8.09 and then tends to decrease
abruptly. The co-swirl inserted tube provides the highest Nusselt
Fig. 4. Effects of ribbed tube and twisted tape on (a) Nu and (b) Nu/Nu0. Fig. 6. Effect of ribbed tube and twisted tape on TEF.
958 P. Promvonge et al. / International Communications in Heat and Mass Transfer 39 (2012) 953959
consistently with the increment of the twist ratio till Y = 8 and then
reduces rapidly for larger Y values. Also, it should be noted that the
TEF is more sensitive to both the Re and Y values.
The tted values of the Nu, and f are correlated to become the em-
pirical correlations as shown below in Eqs. (15) and (16), respective-
ly. The tted values from the Nu and f correlations are found to be
within 10% and 11% with the measured data, respectively.
The empirical correlations developed for the co-swirl ribbed-tube
with double twisted tapes are
0:4 0:458
f 31:675 Re Y 16
5. Conclusions
[9] P. Promvonge, C. Thianpong, Thermal performance assessment of turbulent channel [23] P. Bharadwaj, A.D. Khondge, A.W. Date, Heat transfer and pressure drop in a spirally
ows over different shaped ribs, International Communications in Heat and Mass grooved tube with twisted tape insert, International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer
Transfer 35 (2008) 13271334. 52 (78) (2009) 19381944.
[10] S. Sripattanapipat, P. Promvonge, Numerical analysis of laminar heat transfer in a [24] S. Al-Fahed, L.M. Chamra, W. Chakroun, Pressure drop and heat transfer comparison
channel with diamond-shaped bafes, International Communications in Heat and for both micron tube and twisted-tape inserts in laminar ow, Experimental
Mass Transfer 36 (2009) 3238. Thermal and Fluid Science 18 (1998) 323333.
[11] T. Chompookham, C. Thianpong, S. Kwankaomeng, P. Promvonge, Heat transfer [25] C. Thianpong, P. Eiamsa-ard, K. Wongcharee, S. Eiamsa-ard, Compound heat
augmentation in a wedge-ribbed channel using winglet vortex generators, Inter- transfer enhancement of a dimpled tube with a twisted tape swirl generator,
national Communications in Heat and Mass Transfer 37 (2010) 163169. International Communications in Heat and Mass Transfer 36 (2009) 698704.
[12] P. Promvonge, T. Chompookham, S. Kwankaomeng, C. Thianpong, Enhanced heat [26] P. Promvonge, Thermal augmentation in circular tube with twisted tape and wire
transfer in a triangular ribbed channel with longitudinal vortex generators, Energy coil turbulators, Energy Conversion and Management 49 (2008) 29492955.
Conversion and Management 51 (6) (2010) 12421249. [27] S. Eiamsa-ard, P. Nivesrangsan, S. Chokphoemphun, P. Promvonge, Inuence of
[13] S. Eiamsa-ard, P. Promvonge, Inuence of double-sided delta-wing tape insert combined non-uniform wire coil and twisted tape inserts on thermal perfor-
with alternate-axes on ow and heat transfer characteristics in a heat exchanger mance characteristics, International Communications in Heat and Mass Transfer
tube, Chinese Journal of Chemical Engineering 19 (3) (2011) 410423. 34 (2007) 849859.
[14] M. Rahimi, S.R. Shabanian, A.A. Alsaira, Experimental and CFD studies on heat [28] P. Naphon, P. Sriromruln, Single-phase heat transfer and pressure drop in the
transfer and friction factor characteristics of a tube equipped with modied twisted micro-n tubes with coiled wire insert, International Communications in Heat
tape inserts, Chemical Engineering and Processing: Process Intensication 48 (2009) and Mass Transfer 33 (2006) 176183.
762770. [29] P. Naphon, M. Nuchjapo, J. Kurujareon, Tube side heat transfer coefcient and fric-
[15] P. Sivashanmugam, S. Suresh, Experimental studies on heat transfer and friction tion factor characteristics of horizontal tubes with helical rib, Energy Conversion
factor characteristics of turbulent ow through a circular tube tted with helical and Management 47 (2006) 30313044.
screw-tape inserts, Chemical Engineering and Processing: Process Intensication [30] L. Wang, D.W. Sun, P. Liang, L. Zhuang, Y. Tan, Heat transfer characteristics of car-
46 (2007) 12921298. bon steel spirally uted tube for high pressure preheaters, Energy Conversion and
[16] S. Eiamsa-ard, P. Seemawute, K. Wongcharee, Inuences of peripherally-cut Management 41 (2000) 9931005.
twisted tape insert on heat transfer and thermal performance characteristics in [31] S. Pethkool, S. Eiamsa-ard, S. Kwankaomeng, P. Promvonge, Turbulent heat trans-
laminar and turbulent tube ows, Experimental Thermal and Fluid Science 34 fer enhancement in a heat exchanger using helically corrugated tube, Interna-
(2010) 711719. tional Communications in Heat and Mass Transfer 38 (2011) 340347.
[17] Q. Liao, M.D. Xin, Augmentation of convective heat transfer inside tubes with [32] S. Eiamsa-ard, C. Thianpong, P. Eiamsa-ard, P. Promvonge, Thermal characteristics
three-dimensional internal extended surfaces and twisted-tape inserts, Chemical in a heat exchanger tube tted with dual twisted tape elements in tandem, Inter-
Engineering Journal 78 (2000) 95105. national Communications in Heat and Mass Transfer 37 (2010) 3946.
[18] P. Promvonge, S. Eiamsa-ard, Heat transfer behaviors in a tube with combined [33] S. Jaisankar, T.K. Radhakrishnan, K.N. Sheeba, S. Suresh, Experimental investiga-
conical-ring and twisted-tape insert, International Communications in Heat and tion of heat transfer and friction factor characteristics of thermosyphon solar
Mass Transfer 34 (2007) 849859. water heater system tted with spacer at the trailing edge of left-right twisted
[19] H. Mengna, D. Xianhe, H. Kuo, L. Zhiwu, Compound heat transfer enhancement of tapes, Energy Conversion and Management 50 (2009) 26382649.
a convergingdiverging tube with evenly spaced twisted-tapes, Chinese Journal [34] S. Eiamsa-ard, K. Wongcharee, S. Sripattanapipat, 3-D Numerical simulation of
of Chemical Engineering 15 (2007) 814820. swirling ow and convective heat transfer in a circular tube induced by means
[20] D. Pramanik, S.K. Saha, Thermohydraulics of laminar ow through rectangular of loose-t twisted tapes, International Communications in Heat and Mass Trans-
and square ducts with transverse ribs and twisted tapes, Journal of Heat Transfer, fer 36 (2009) 947955.
Transactions of ASME 128 (2006) 10701080. [35] S. Eiamsa-ard, C. Thianpong, P. Eiamsa-ard, Turbulent heat transfer enhancement by
[21] V. Zimparov, Enhancement of heat transfer by a combination of three-start spirally counter/co-swirling ow in a tube tted with twin twisted tapes, Experimental
corrugated tubes with a twisted tape, International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer Thermal and Fluid Science 34 (1) (2010) 5362.
44 (2001) 551574. [36] S. Eiamsa-ard, P. Promvonge, Thermal characteristics in round tube tted with
[22] V. Zimparov, Enhancement of heat transfer by a combination of a single-start serrated twisted tape, Applied Thermal Engineering 30 (2010) 16731682.
spirally corrugated tubes with a twisted tape, Experimental Thermal and Fluid [37] F.P. Incropera, P.D. Witt, T.L. Bergman, A.S. Lavine, Fundamentals of Heat and
Science 25 (2002) 535546. Mass Transfer, John-Wiley & Sons, 2006.