Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Numerical investigation of heat transfer in annulus laminar flow of multi tubes-in-tube helical coil

  • Original
  • Published:
Heat and Mass Transfer Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

In the present study, a CFD analysis using ANSYS-FLUENT 14.5 CFD package is used to investigate the characteristics of heat transfer of laminar flow in annulus formed by multi tubes in tube helically coiled heat exchanger. The numerical results are validated by comparison with previous experimental data and fair agreements were existed. The influences of the design and operation parameters such as heat flux, Reynolds numbers and annulus geometry on the heat transfer characteristics are investigated. Different annulus of different numbers of inner tubes, specifically 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 tubes, are tested. The Results showed that for all the studied annulus, the heat flux has no effect on the Nusselt number and compactness parameter. The annulus formed by using five inner tubes showed the best heat transfer performance and compactness parameter. Correlation of predicting Nusselt number in terms of Reynolds number and number of inner tubes are presented.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6
Fig. 7
Fig. 8
Fig. 9
Fig. 10
Fig. 11
Fig. 12

Similar content being viewed by others

Abbreviations

ρ w :

Water density, kg/m3

μw :

Water dynamic viscosity, N.s/m2

A :

Annulus cross sectional area, m2

A h :

Rod heaters surfaces area, m2

Cp :

Water specific heat, J/kg.K

D :

Diameter of the outer tube, m

d :

Heaters rod diameter, m

D c :

Helical coil of diameter, m

De :

Dean number, dimensionless

D h :

Hydraulic diameter, m

h :

Average coefficient of heat transfer, W/m2.K

H :

Pitch, m

hA h :

Factor to measure heat exchanger compactness, W/K

h x :

Local coefficient of heat transfer, W/m2.K

k w :

Thermal conductivity of water, W/m.K

L :

Length of coil tube, m

ṁw :

Mass flow rate of water, kg/s

N :

Number of inner rod heaters

Nu :

Average Nusselt number, dimensionless

Pr :

Prandtl number, dimensionless

q:

Heat flux, W/m2

Q :

Rate of heat transfer, W

R :

Coil curvature ratio, dimensionless

Re :

Reynolds number, dimensionless

T s :

Heater rods average surface temperature, oC

T w :

Average temperature of cooling water along the entire annulus volume, oC

T wi :

Average temperature of inlet water, oC

T wo :

Average temperature of exit water, oC

Z:

Number of the coil turns

References

  1. Dean WR (1927) Note on the motion of fluid in a curved pipe. Philos Mag 20:208–223

    Article  MATH  Google Scholar 

  2. Dravid AN, Smith KA, Merrill EW, Brian PLT (1971) Effect of secondary fluid motion on laminar flow heat transfer in helically coiled tubes. AICHE J 17(5):1114–1122

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Akiyama M, Cheng KC (1972) Laminar forced convection heat transfer in curved pipes with uniform wall temperature. Int J Heat and Mass Transfer 15:1426–1431

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Kalb CE, Seader JD (1983) Entrance region heat transfer in a uniform wall-temperature helical coil with transition from turbulent to laminar flow. Int J Heat and Mass Transfer 26(1):23–32

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Janssen LAM, Hoogendoorn CJ (1978) Laminar convective heat transfer in helical coiled tubes. Int J Heat and Mass Transfer 21:1197–1206

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Jayakumar JS, Mahajani SM, Mandal JC, Iyer KN, Vijayan PK (2010) CFD analysis of single-phase flows inside helically coiled tubes. Comput Chem Eng 34:430–446

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Prabhanjan DG, Rennie TJ, Raghavan GSF (2004) Natural convective heat transfer from helical coiled tubes. Int J Thermal Sciences 43:359–365

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Shokouhmand H, Salimpour MR, Akhavan-Behabadi MA (2008) Experimental investigation of shell and coiled tube heat exchangers using wilson plots. Int Commun Heat Mass Transfer 35:84–92

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Salimpour MR (2009) Heat transfer coefficients of shell and coiled tube heat exchangers. Exp Thermal Fluid Sci 33:203–207

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Ghorbani N, Taherian H, Gorji M, Mirgolbabaei H (2010) An experimental study of thermal performance of shell-and-coil heat exchangers. Int Commun Heat Mass Transfer 37:775–781

    Article  Google Scholar 

  11. Ghorbani N, Taherian H, Gorji M, Mirgolbabaei H (2010) Experimental study of mixed convection heat transfer in vertical helically coiled tube heat exchangers. Exp Thermal Fluid Sci 34:900–905

    Article  Google Scholar 

  12. Lu X, Zhang G, Chen Y, Wang Q, Zeng M (2015) Effect of geometrical parameters on flow and heat transfer performances in multi-stream spiral-wound heat exchangers. Appl Therm Eng 89:1104–1116

    Article  Google Scholar 

  13. Nada SA, Eid EI, Abd El Aziz GB, Hassan HA (2015) Performance enhancement of Shell and helical coil water coolers using different geometric and fins conditions. Heat Trans Asian Res:1–17. https://doi.org/10.1002/htj.21180

  14. Petrakis MA, Karahalios GT (1999) Fluid flow behavior in a curved annular conduit. Int J Non Linear Mech 34(1):13–35

    Article  MATH  Google Scholar 

  15. Rennie TJ (2004) Numerical and experimental studies of a double-pipe helical heat exchanger, Ph.D. Dissertation, McGill University, Montreal, Canada

  16. Rennie TJ, Raghavan VGS (2005) Experimental studies of a double-pipe helical heat exchanger. Exp Thermal Fluid Sci 29:919–924

    Article  Google Scholar 

  17. Kumar S, Sharma SM, Nigam KDP (2006) Pressure drop and heat transfer study in tube-in-tube helical heat exchanger. Chem Eng Sci 61:4403–4416

    Article  Google Scholar 

  18. Louw WI (2002) The influence of annular tube contact in a helical-wound tube-in-tube heat exchanger. Master in mechanical engineering In the Faculty of Engineering of the Rand Afrikaans University

  19. Seyyedvalilu MH, Ranjbar SF (2015) The effect of geometrical parameters on heat transfer and hydrodynamics characteristics of helical exchanger. Int J Recent Adv Mech Eng (IJMECH) 4(1):35–46

  20. Kharat NB, Jha RS (2009) Development of heat transfer coefficient correlation for concentric helical coil heat exchanger. Int J Thermal Sci 48:2300–2308

    Article  Google Scholar 

  21. Al Shaer WG (2010) Heat transfer and pressure drop characteristics of multi tubes-in-tube helically coiled heat exchanger, M. SC. Thesis, Benha University, Egypt

  22. Nada SA, El Shaer WG, Huzayyin AS (2015) Performance of multi tubes in tube helically coiled as a compact heat exchanger. Heat Mass Transf 51(7):973–982

    Article  Google Scholar 

  23. Holman JP, Gajda WJ (1989) Experimental method for engineering. McGraw Hill, New York

    Google Scholar 

  24. Srinivasan PS, Nandapurkar SS, Holland FA (1968) Pressure drop and heat transfer in coils. Chem Eng 9:113–119

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Benha Faculty of Engineering, Benha University, Benha, Egypt

    S. A. Nada & H. F. Elattar

  2. Department of Mechanical Power Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Mansoura University, El-Mansoura, Egypt

    A. Fouda

  3. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering at Shoubra, Benha University, Cairo, Egypt

    H. A. Refaey

Authors
  1. S. A. Nada
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. H. F. Elattar
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. A. Fouda
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. H. A. Refaey
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to S. A. Nada.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Nada, S.A., Elattar, H.F., Fouda, A. et al. Numerical investigation of heat transfer in annulus laminar flow of multi tubes-in-tube helical coil. Heat Mass Transfer 54, 715–726 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00231-017-2163-8

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00231-017-2163-8

Search

Navigation