Scientific

Journal of Technology Volume 5 Issue 6, 2023

ISSN: 2688‐8645

Research on Heat Transfer Coefficient Measurement Based on

Heat Exchanger Experiment
Liwei Fang
Wenzhou Polytechnic, Wenzhou 325035, China

Abstract
Heat transfer occurs all the time through substances in any phases by means of
conduction, convection and radiation. Therefore, it becomes the fundamental concept in
thermodynamics and in mechanical and chemical engineering, which requires designers
to be familiar with. A large quantity of correlation formulas dealing with distinct
situations have already obtained by plenty of previous testing experience.

Keywords
Heat Exchange; Heat Transfer; Coefficient Measurement.

1. Introduction
From Reference Data CIBSE Guide C, apparently, empirical correlations are differs in various
fluids, tube cross sections and characteristic length, etc. This experiment, using water as
medium flowing in pipe with circle cross section, is mainly focus on the measurement of heat
transfer coefficient to gain the numerical relationship among Nusselt number, Prandtl number
and Reynolds number, and the evaluation on the feasibility of the Dittus and Boelter correlation
by comparing it with the experimental equation.

Figure 1. Schematic apparatus of the whole system

2. Description of Theory
A schematic apparatus is shown in Figure 1. It can be seen that the circulatory system consists
of two major processes: heating and cooling.
Firstly, the pump starts to activate water to move. Simultaneously, the volume flow rate,
adjusted desirably by the control valve nearby, is read from flow meter. The working pipe
setting after the flow instrument is made of copper, which acts as an effective thermal
conductive material, and is entirely wrapped by insulation, which can minimize heat loss during
the operating. In the tube, ‘the heat transfer from a solid surface to a fluid takes place partly by

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ISSN: 2688‐8645

conduction and partly by convection’ (1). In other words, both conduction and convection
occurs when water absorbs the thermal energy, into which initial electric energy is converted.
After the heating section, water enters to a quite long tube, with compact structure, adjacent to
an electric fan. Before it returns to the pump, normally, the fan turns frequently to provide
sufficient ventilation and cool down the liquid inside.

3. Description of Apparatus
Heated pipe: a heating installation with tubular shape to increase the temperature of fluid
flowing through (main part of the system).
Air‐cooled heat exchanger fan: an electrical device to create air current aiming at decreasing
the temperature of fluid flowing in the long tube.
Re‐circulation pump: a common appliance to force the fluid to move from lower place to higher
place
Flow control: a manual controller to regulate flow.
Flow meter: a measurement of volume flow rate in the unit of liters per minute.

4. Description of Experimental Method

1) Start to turn on the system. Rotate the power switch on the control panel to change the
electric current while the voltage remains the same. Thus the heating power can be varied. At
the beginning, amps as required should be a bit large in Unit 1.
2) Regulate fluid flow. After a while, check T5 and T6 to make sure whether their temperature
difference is stable at 4 degree. If not, do this again to attain the purpose. Then, read T1 to T6,
flow rate, electric current and voltage as one group of data.
3) Turn the current to be a little lower than before and repeat Step 2 to take down the data.
4) Apply the same method indicated in Step 3 to collect other 5 groups of testing statistics.
5) Determine the average of T5 and T6, and the mass flow rate based on the assumption that the
water density is 1000 kg/m3. Using the table (Table 1) from Thermodynamic and Transport
Properties of Fluids, by linear method, calculate Cp, μ and λ with corresponding average
temperature of T5 and T6 previously obtained. For example, λ at 35 ℃ and 40 ℃ are 718*10‐
6kg/m s and 651*10‐6kg/m s respectively, so λ at 37 ℃ theoretically should be (718‐
∗
)*10‐6 = 677.8*10‐6kg/m s.
Note: even though for the Cpf and kf (i. e. λ) columns the numbers are not usually enhanced with
the increasing of temperature, to simplify it, the assumption is made that the linear method is
applied by the two nearest numbers for estimation.
6) Within the known conditions,
a). For Nusselt Number: ∆T(fluid, out‐in), L and D are always 4 ℃ , 1.5m and 0.0127m
correspondingly. Hence, the pipe internal surface area A’ is decided by formula
A’ =π*D*L. (1)
Then ∆T (wall – fluid) is depended on the equation
‐ (2)
and
Q = m*Cp*∆T (fluid, out‐in) (3)
Calculate heat transfer coefficient
α = (4)
∗∆

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ISSN: 2688‐8645

followed by
Nu = α*D/λ (5)
b). For Reynolds Number: using the information,
Re = (6)
∗ ∗
c). For Prandtl Number: using the information,
∗
Pr = (7)
7) With the help of Excel, automatically compute Nu, Pr and Re by equations above.

Table 1. Properties of water and Steam

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8) Draw a scatter diagram. Add the linear trend line to attain its own function in the style of y =
mx + n (equivalent to Log (Nu/Prb) = Log A +a Log Re). Specify A and a in numbers while b is
0.4 for heating in this situation and change the function form into Nu = A Rea Pr 0.4.
9) Compare the result with Dittus and Boelter correlation, Nu = 0.023ReD0.8 Pr0.4 for heating
process.

5. Results
The calculated results by Excel is listed in Table 2, the columns of the three numbers are
highlighted.

Table 2. Calculated results
-6
T6-T5 Average of Average of T5 △T(wall-fluid) Cp λ=kf 10 μ 10
-6
Unit Q (kW) α Nu Re Pr
(℃) T1 to T4 (℃) and T6 (℃) (℃) (kJ/kgK) (kW/m K) (kg/ms)
1 4 47.25 37 10.25 4.1784 1.922064 3.1331 627.8 63.38 677.8 17009.94 4.5112
2 4 47.25 36 11.25 4.1782 1.587716 2.3581 626.4 47.81 704.6 13517.22 4.6998
3 4 44.25 35 9.25 4.1780 1.476227 2.6665 625.0 54.18 718.0 12334.07 4.7997
4 4 40.75 33 7.75 4.1784 0.974960 2.1019 622.2 42.90 749.6 7801.78 5.0340
5 4 40.75 31 9.75 4.1788 0.807901 1.3845 619.4 28.39 781.2 6202.84 5.2704
6 4 39.75 30 9.75 4.1790 0.668640 1.1458 618.0 23.55 797.0 5031.62 5.3894
7 4 41.75 29 12.75 4.1794 0.417940 0.5477 616.6 11.28 815.6 3073.05 5.5282

The diagram of the relationship, including the tendency, is illustrated in Figure 2.
From the displayed function in the diagram, a = 0.999 and Log A = ‐2.6482, i.e. A = 0.0022. The
discrepancy for a is (0.999‐0.8)/0.8=24.9% and for A is (0.023‐0.0022)/0.023=90.4%.

Figure 2. Scatter figure with the tendency line

6. Discussion
From the result table, the evidence reveals some characteristics of the fluid flow and the heat
transfer. For Reynolds numbers, except the last one, are most more than 4000, namely that
these flows should belong to turbulent flow. And as the heating power falls down, Re declines
which means the degree of turbulence also drops.
For Nusselt number, as it is defined as the ratio of convective to conductive across the boundary
(2), the all numerical magnitudes of Nu are over 10, which means the convection plays a much
more significant roles than conduction in heat exchange section. From the change of Nu, though

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the convection remains as the majority, it becomes weaker and weaker while the conduction is
growing stronger.
Last for Prandtl number, they are around 5, located in the range of Pr for water 1.7 ‐13.7 in
common cases (3). Therefore, heat diffuses more slowly than momentum and the thermal
boundary layer is relatively thinner than velocity boundary layer for this fluid flow.
Now make an intensive study of the connection among the three numbers. Obviously, the
experimental consequence differs from the Dittus and Boelter correlation equation. There
should be several key points and mistakes during the operation, which need to be explained
and analyzed (4).
First of all, some theoretical assumptions may have impact on it. It is often assumed that the
circulatory system runs in a steady condition. However, there are no ideal unchangeable
conditions. For instance, when reading the temperatures, the trainers can observe that the
numbers shown on the screen fluctuating sometimes actually. It is hard to be fixed in a perfectly
stable condition. Another similar assumption is also made that the heating part is insulated
excellently without any heat loss. As a matter of fact, there should be some heat loss even
though the experimenters felt not warm when touching the outer insulation surface (only prove
that it is insulated well). As a result, the temperatures would differ with the ones if the pipe is
insulated perfectly, leading to the different heat transfer coefficient. In addition, the liner
method utilized in the calculation for properties of water at different temperatures has no
rigorous foundation in fact. It is merely a simply and common way to know the water properties.
Then the accuracy of thermometer is a little low, only to units’ digit. Since that the temperature
difference is 4 degree between T5 and T6, the readings should be accurate to one decimal place
at least.
Selection of useful information is a vital factor in experiment analysis. Generally speaking, not
all recordings are helpful, some maybe wrong owing to the inevitable errors of reading, the
depreciation of instruments or the improper operation. Sometimes, by logical thinking,
analyzers can easily eliminate the completely false information. In this case, the last group of
data is very irregular. Because T2, T3 and T4 remain too high after the reduction of heating
power. Furthermore, they did not decrease despite provided enough time. Consequently, the
diagram is improved, which only use 6 groups of data, shown in Figure 3. A = 0.0120, a = 0.8192,
and final correlation should be Nu = 0.012Re0.8192Pr0.4, which is closer to the truth (5).

Figure 3. Mproved scatter figure with the tendency line
(the function is for the unique heat transfer in this fluid flow)

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Another reason for the large difference is that there is a limitation for the Dittus and Boelter
correlation. From Reference Data CIBSE Guide C, the valid range 0.7 ≤Pr≤160 and ReD>10000 is
the premise for this equation. Thus another developed equation which matches the condition
using the first three groups of data is displayed in Figure 4. A = 0.03453, a = 0.7065 and the
function is Nu = 0.03453Re0.7065Pr0.4. Calculate the discrepancy in percentage: for a, it is (0.8‐
0.7065)/0.8 = 11.7% and for A, it is (0.03453‐0.023)/0.023 = 50.1%, both are lower than that
in Results Section. Despite these, the Dittus and Boelter correlation still seems not very proper
for this case. But if more testing is taken, the constant A and a maybe closer to 0.023 and 0.8
individually since that the Dittus and Boelter correlation itself is an empirical equation.

Figure 4. Improved scatter figure with the tendency line
(Used to compare with the Dittus and Boelter correlation)

7. Conclusion
There are two basic procedures, heating and cooling and the main feature of this experiment is
the large quantity of data manipulation. The existence of difference between the experiment
and experience is very normal since it is impossible for testing at first time perfectly matching
expectation. It would probably have some mistakes and limitations during every experimental
process, commonly such as the reading errors, inappropriate operation, decreasing of
equipment function and the lack of information. The assumption of linear method for
calculating detailed water properties is a case on the point for lacking information (6). If a
diagram or some software which offer these, the function can be more precise. So far, however,
selecting valuable statistics is a suitable approach to raise the accuracy to a certain degree. For
example, the discrepancies between the obtained one and experiential one for A and a turn to
be much lower after deleting useless data beyond the valid range. Furthermore, another
function of this unique fluid flow is also promoted by abandon the last data. In Summary, Nu =
0.03453Re0.7065Pr0.4 is used for comparison with the Dittus and Boelter correlation and Nu =
0.012Re0.8192Pr0.4 is the most correct equation in this case.

8. Recommendations for Future Work

As mentioned above, for apparatus, the thermometer needs to be more accurate and detailed
water properties require to obtain by creditable website, document or software. The more
testing times are taken, the closer to truth for function. Additional future work such as
apparatus checking and maintenance should be done frequently to ensure them running

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smoothly in the experiment. Further study on the heat transfer characteristics linking to
internal fluid flow is also necessary for experimenters.

References
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[4] Aida Masao, Murakami Yuya, Shono Atsushi. Estimation of heat transfer coefficient in turbulent
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