Concept Engineering International

Turbulator Division
Widest Range of Turbulators for Heat Transfer Enhancement
The Turbulator Division

Concept Engineering International is a heat Product and design philosophy

transfer focused engineering company with
over 90% of its products exported to developed 1. We have developed our core products
markets including Austria, USA, Australia, UK, using wire due to its low pressure drop high
Germany, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, turbulence characteristics making them the
Thailand, UAE, Mexico among others. Our best class of turbulators in the world.
range of turbulators is indeed very wide and
covers most turbulator types. 2. Since customers may require other types
of turbulators due to legacy issues, user
Possibilities offered by Turbulators: specifications or specialized application, we
make other types also. Together we have a
1. Correctly used turbulators can make large range and pride ourselves on being a one
equipment a tenth of its normal size in some stop shop for turbulators.
instances. In others it makes it significantly
smaller. Basically its use is warranted in the Major Types of turbulators
following instances:
1. Flexible or wire Petal turbulators. (Also called
a. Where the fluid in the tube is viscous. wire matrix turbulators)

b. The fluid flow in the tube has a low 2. Rigid center rod wire turbulators. (sometimes
Reynolds number. soldered to tubes)

c. All kinds of oil coolers and thermic 3. Finned Hollow Rod type turbulators.
heaters.
4. Twisted tape turbulators. (Traditional).
d. Gasses in the tube.

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The Turbulator Division

Major Applications for Turbulators: Advantages of Flexible or wire petal

turbulators.
1. Oil Coolers (Also called wire matrix turbulators)
2. Highly viscous liquids
3. Gas or Air heaters/coolers -Light weight, flexible and cheap.
4. Static Mixers -Easy to install, remove and reinsert after
5. Falling Film Evaporators -cleaning.
6. Inline reactors -Very efficient.
7. Prevention of scale formation on tube
walls and reduction of fouling by creation of Range
turbulence.
Sizes
Basic Principles behind turbulators: We can offer for all sizes of tubes from 1/4” to
1.25” OD.
For Heat exchangers
Loop Density
1. A fluid flowing through a tube unless in For each tube OD we can offer a wide variety
turbulent flow tends to form a film at the tube of Loop densities from Low density to Ultra
wall which impedes heat transfer. High Density. Apart from our standard range
customization of the density can also be done
2. A Turbulator breaks this film and makes the as per customer requirement.
flow turbulent raising the effective Reynolds
number. This increases heat transfer in the case Material of Construction
of heat exchangers, as well as induces mixing
and reactions in inline mixers and reactors. Stainless Steel 304 / 304L, 316 / 316L, 321 etc.
Carbon Steel.
3. Wire due to its small diameter and cylindrical Copper
nature offers comparatively lower resistance Brass
while offering a large matrix for interacting with Monel
the fluid. It thus gives higher mixing and heat Fecralloy
transfer for a lower pressure drop.

4. The turbulence created also greatly reduces

fouling as particulate matter does not get
deposited on the tube walls but is swept off by
the turbulence created.

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The Turbulator Division

Rigid center rod wire turbulators sometimes Finned Hollow Rod type turbulators.
soldered to tubes.
For large diameter tubes, it is sometimes
It is possible to give a high wire loop density desirable to block the center of the tube, to
on a rigid central rod where the loops are narrow the passage. In such a case we can
soldered both to the central wire rod as well as offer a hollow rod type Turbulator. In this case
if desired the tube wall. This arrangement has we substitute the rigid center rod for a small
the following advantages/ disadvantages. diameter tube the ends of which have been
sealed. This sealing of the ends converts the
Advantages small diameter tube into a light weight hollow
-A very high concentration of loops can be put rod. The loops are then soldered on just like in
on the center rod as the loops are Oval rather the Rigid center rod type Turbulator. This type
than circular. of Turbulator is generally used in tubes where
-If the loops are soldered inside the tube, they the id of the tube is more than one inch.
give very good bonding and so increase heat
transfer through conduction in addition to Twisted tape turbulators
through turbulation.
-If soldered inside tubes, this turbulator can The twisted tape is the old war horse of the
withstand high pressure. Turbulator world and of course we make them
-Can be offered in most materials of in large quantities. This type is also featured Twisted Tape Turbulator
construction except aluminium. in the HTRI software as a generic product
so customers can do their own design. (A
Disadvantages type of wire Turbulator is also featured but
-Higher cost. as a proprietory product of Calgavin and
-Once installed, cannot be removed. As customized as per their configurations.)
turbulators brazed/soldered in tubes.
-Solder will melt at temperatures around 180 We can give all standard and a large range of
/290 degrees C for normal/High temperature custom pitches and offer them in almost all
solder. Hence not suitable for higher materials.
applications above 290 degrees C.
While in most cases the flexible wire type is
a preferred option, in the case of retrofitting,
where there is a lower flexibility with regards to
redesigning the existing equipment, this is very
often a low pressure drop reasonable efficiency
solution.

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 The Turbulator Division

Turbulators in Static Mixers and Inline reactors.

1. Agitated vessels for mixing or reactions can be replaced by passing the fluids to
be mixed through a set of turbulated tubes.

By this intube micromixing it is possible to achieve:

Turbulators in Falling Film evaporators
1. Online versus batch mixing and reactions.
When placed correctly in a the tubes of a falling film evaporator the loops direct the
2. Significantly lower equipment size. falling liquid to the wall of the tube and also turbulates the film of liquid increasing
heat transfer and evaporation.
3. Significantly Lower power consumption.
The turbulators also provide additional surface area for the evaporation to take
4. Significantly lower mixing time. place.

5. For reactions it is possible to coat the turbulators with catalysts or to make them
from catalyzing metals.

6. For reactions it is possible to add or remove heat by housing the turbulated

tubes within an exchanger where the heat transfer fluid (either heating or cooling)
can be passed through the shell. (steam, hot/ cold water, Thermic oil.)

7. Turbulators are also very useful when fluids need to be mixed in the feed pipe
itself before entering a process chamber.
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 The Turbulator Division

Turbulators as scale inhibitors and removers

Scale formation occurs through deposition on the tube wall. This becomes more
pronounced if the flow is laminar. This scale can choke off the tube leading to a
huge efficiency drop. Turbulators in vertical tube condensers and vertical tube steam air heaters

1. Turbulators by disturbing the film along the wall of the tube, makes the flow Where condensation happens inside vertical tubes, significant performance
turbulent and the scale is swept away before it can be settle. This significantly enhancement is achieved using flexible wire petal turbulators inserted with the
reduces scale, extending the time needed between tube cleanings. loops facing upwards. This is because:

2. Since the turbulators are removable with a strong twisted center wire, what scale The condensate film forms a laminar layer impeding heat transfer. The Turbulator
is deposited can be easily dislodged by removing the turbulators. (By pulling them breaks the film and increases heat transfer and hence condensation.
out with the help of the hook provided.) The condensate is diverted to the center of the tube removing its barrier forming
potential significantly increasing the heat transfer at the tube wall.
The contact points of the Turbulator and tube encourages drop formation at those
points. These drops of condensate are drained away towards the center of the tube
by the wire loops.
This system is superior to putting the tubes horizontally as in such an arrangement
the condensate settles at the floor of the tube reducing effective heat transfer area
and in the case of steam condensate can cause knocking.
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 The Turbulator Division
Key elements of Good Turbulator design.
hiod linear in btu/hr for No Turbulator, Rigid turbulator, Flexible
While we stand ready, and prefer to help our customers with design, we have turbulator & Twisted tape for 5 cSt oil viscosity
tried to present an overview by presenting some graphical data.

To do this we have done the following:

Chosen a ¾” OD tube as it is very widely used.

For this tube OD, we prepared the following data:

The pressure drop and heat transfer of oil of 3 viscosities, 5 CST,

15 CST and 25 CST travelling through the tubes at a flow rate of
1 to 6 feet per second. This data was prepared for the following

Turbulator cases:

• No Turbulator (NT)
• Rigid turbulators RTA, RTB & RTC. (Our standards for this tube size).
• Flexible turbulators FTD1, FTD2 & FTD3 (Again our standard models)
hiod linear in btu/hr for No Turbulator, Rigid turbulator, Flexible
• Twisted tape turbulators. Since the possibilities here are infinite for the case turbulator & Twisted tape for 15 cSt oil viscosity
of better comparing the two,we selected those twisted tape turbulators that
gave with a 15 CST oil the same pressure drop at 3 FPS flow rate as the
corresponding standard flexible turbulators. We must bear in mind though,
that twisted tape turbulators thus selected have a very high twist ratio and
are not commonly manufactured. However they were chosen for their value in
comparision. Most commonly used twisted tape turbulators will have a lower
performance and pressure drop.
• This data is represented graphically in the following charts/graphs.

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 The Turbulator Division

hiod linear in btu/hr for No Turbulator, Rigid turbulator, Flexible Oil side pr drop in psi/ft for No Turbulator, Rigid turbulator,
turbulator & Twisted tape for 25 cSt oil viscosity Flexible turbulator & Twisted tape for 15 cSt oil viscosity

Oil side pr drop in psi/ft for No Turbulator, Rigid turbulator, Oil side pr drop in psi/ft for No Turbulator, Rigid turbulator,
Flexible turbulator & Twisted tape for 5 cSt oil viscosity Flexible turbulator & Twisted tape for 25 cSt oil viscosity

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 The Turbulator Division
From the curves, we can arrive at the following observations:
    HTPD factors for Flexible,Twisted tape & Rigid turbulators  
vel fps NT FTD1 FTD2 FTD3   TTD2 TTD4 TTD6   RTA RTC RTE
1) The rigid soldered turbulators overall give the best heat transfer and also the 1 500.5 161.5 75.2 58.0 55.2 41.3 31.2 155.3 51.1 41.8
2 195.5 62.0 32.4 23.6   40.2 25.9 18.4   45.6 28.9 15.3
highest pressure drop. However as the viscosity goes up, the performance as 3 132.3 33.2 17.8 12.4 37.2 19.7 13.3 22.6 14.9 8.5
compared to flexible turbulator goes up significantly. For example in the 5 cSt case, 4 112.9 21.4 11.2 7.5   26.1 13.6 9.2   13.4 9.0 5.7
5 100.8 15.4 7.8 5.0 21.5 10.5 7.0      
RT6 is above FTD3, RT4 above FTD2 and RT2 above FTD1. However at 15 cSt 6 93.6 12.0 5.7 3.5   17.9 8.6 5.8     5 cSt  
both RT6 and RT4 are above FTD 3 and RT2 is very close to FTD 3. In the case of                          
vel fps NT FTD1 FTD2 FTD3   TTD2 TTD4 TTD6   RTA RTC RTE
25 cST all the three rigid turbulators are all above the highest performing flexible 1 119.4 37.5 15.9 13.9   29.6 20.2 14.7   72.5 28.9 24.1
turbulators.The pressure drop is also compared to performance much lower. 2 72.2 27.3 11.9 9.5   20.5 12.1 8.4   26.9 20.4 10.7
3 53.6 17.9 8.4 6.4   17.3 9.0 6.0   14.1 11.0 6.6
4 38.1 12.4 6.1 4.6   13.2 6.8 4.6   9.8 7.3 4.6
2) The performance of the twisted tape (even though the twisting selected is high 5 27.9 9.0 4.6 3.4   11.1 5.6 3.7        
6 21.7 6.9 3.6 2.6   9.3 4.7 3.1     15 cSt  
to match the pressure drop of corresponding flexible wire Turbulator) is generally                          
lower than that of the flexible but not by much. However given that we will not have vel fps NT FTD1 FTD2 FTD3 TTD2 TTD4 TTD6 RTA RTC RTE
1 57.9 11.1 5.2 5.2   20.1 13.0 9.2   52.2 20.0 18.2
such a high degree of twisting in standard available twisted tape turbulators we can 2 39.0 13.2 5.5 4.7 13.9 7.7 5.3 20.7 16.7 8.9
say that the flexible turbulators perform better. 3 27.8 10.7 4.6 3.7   11.4 5.7 3.8   12.2 9.8 5.6
4 23.5 8.3 3.7 2.9 8.7 4.3 2.9 8.4 6.6 4.2
5 19.3 6.5 3.0 2.3   7.3 3.5 2.3        
3) The pressure drop increase for the two wire type turbulators with 6 15.6 5.1 2.5 1.9 6.1 3.0 1.9   25 cSt  
                         
increase in fluid velocity is more than linear. The increase in performance Note : HTPD factor is calculated for light , medium and dense turbulators as heat transfer coefficient
is less than linear. This tells us that after a point it is not worth trying to hiod linear per unit pr drop at different oil viscosities and different oil velocities through tubes

purchase performance with pressure drop. Good     Better     Best

     

4) The performance as well as the pressure drop in the case of twisted tape
turbulators are more linear.

To get another angle on this performance we worked out the following table,
where we have simply divided the heat transfer coefficient by the corresponding
pressure drop to get the HTPD factor (Heat transfer coefficient per unit of pressure
drop). We did this for the three oil viscosities for all the Turbulator models at all the
studied flowrates. We have color coded the results so that it is easier to spot the
best as well as the trend.

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 The Turbulator Division
The following facts emerge:
Design
1) Across all Turbulator types the HTPD factor goes down as the velocity increases.
We can assist with the design data for the
2) Across all turbulator types the HTPD factor goes down as the winding density turbulators we produce on a case by case
increases. basis depending on the application, type of
turbulators requested and the fluids involved.
3) Different Turbulator types give comparatively different results under different
viscosity and flow conditions. Our regular customers are also provided data
which they can use for doing their own design.
4) We can conclude that the best Turbulator is case specific.
Customization
The following should be kept in mind:
To a large degree we can customize our
1) The data for rigid turbulators are for rigid soldered turbulators. If the same turbulators to meet your requirement.
turbulators are not soldered they perform but not as well. This is due to the better
contact and so better heat transfer due to soldering. Research Assistance

2) Just as pressure drop is a cost we pay for performance so is the dollar cost For customers wishing to experiment with new
of material and labour. The rigid soldered Turbulator while an extremely efficient applications using turbulators, we are very
Turbulator is expensive to make and install. happy to share our experience and provide
support by way of small customized orders
3) Ease of cleaning and maintenance are also key factors in turbulator choice. shipped by courier.

4) Since we make all types, we have nothing to lose in giving the client correct
advice.

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 Example 1
Example 1 : Brine cooled Air cooler

Here we have as case 1, wire wound fin tube (a special high performance fin tube
we make) with no turbulators. In case 2 we have the same wire wound fin tube
with internal flexible turbulators. This allows us to see the standalone effect of the
turbulators.

Number of rows drops from 20 to 12. Total tube length falls from 1164 to 636. This is
a 45% decrease.
Quite naturally the airside pressure drop falls with its commensurate power savings
from 1.2 inches of water column to .8 inches. Evan more remarkably the tubeside
pressure drop falls from .5 to .4 kgs per square cm. This demonstrates that though
the pressure drop goes up nominally on account of turbulators the actual total
pressure drop can actually fall as the number of passes reduce and the length of
tube becomes less.

Example 2 : Produced Water heater.

Here we have case 1 as a normal helical fin tube with no Turbulator and 6 passes
and case 2 our own wire wound fin tube (a much higher efficiency fin tube we make)
and our flexible Turbulator inside the tube. The results are given as under.

The surface area of fins per linear foot of wire wound fin tube is 4.02 feet against
6.16 for the normal helical fin tube.
The number of tube rows is reduced from 6 to 3 and tube passes from 6 to 1.
Total fin surface area is reduced from 30,532 to 11,898. A reduction of 62%.

Example 3 : Shell and Tube exchanger (with Hot Oil on the tubeside and
Produced water on the shell side.)

Case 1 is without turbulators and case 2 is with flexible internal turbulators.

The total length of tubes is reduced from 55 lengths of 16 ft to 60 lengths of 10 ft.

This reduces the total length of tubes by 32%.

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Example 2 Example 3
Tube side fluid Hot oil Hot oil
Shell side fluid Produced water Produced water
Tube side flow rate 19634 19634 lbs/hr
Tube side inlet temp 550 550 degF
Shell side flow rate 47536 47536 m3/hr
Shell side inlet temp 175 175 deg F
Shell side outlet temp 246 246 deg F
Tube side outlet temp 266 266 deg F
Heat load 3573838 3573838 btu/hr
Fouling factor shell side 0.003 0.003 hr ft2 deg F/btu
Fouling factor tube side 0.002 0.002 hr ft2 deg F/btu
Allowable pr drop shell 5 5 psi
Allowable pr drop tube 10 10 psi
Heat exchanger type BEU BEU
Shell ID 19 19 in
Tube type plain plain
Tube OD 1 1 in
Tube thickness 14 14 BWG
Tube material S32205 Duplex S32205 Duplex
Tube pitch 1.25 1.25 in
No of passes 8 6
No of tubes [U bends ] 55 60
Baffle type segmental segmental
Baffle spacing 6 6 in
Inside turbulator nil 25D2
Outside coeff ho 768.3 705.9 btu/hr ft2 deg F
Inside coeff hi 125.8 290.2 btu/hr ft2 deg F
Overall coeff clean Uc 86.52 159.5 btu/hr ft2 deg F
Overall service Ud 58.9 85.7 btu/hr ft2 deg F
287.4 418.2 kcal/hr m2 deg C
LMTDc 156.5 156.9 deg F
Tube length provided 16 10.0 ft
Heat tr area prov. ext 470.6 325.2 ft2
43.7 30.2 m2
Overdesign 21.45 22.35 %
Shell side pr drop 1.735 1.224 psi
Tube side pr drop 2.428 9.483 psi

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Concept Engineering International Phone: +91-22-4353 3700-99
Turbulator Division, Fax: +91-22-4353 3717
2nd floor, KK Chambers, Sir P.T. Marg, E-mail: [email protected]
Fort, Mumbai 400001. www.conceptengg.com
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