Abstract
In an effort to develop a heat transfer enhancement technique for low temperature applications such as utilization of LNG cold energy, an experiment was carried out to evaluate the heat transfer and the pressure drop performance for a spirally indented tube using ethylene-glycol and water solutions and pure water under horizontal single-phase conditions. The test tube diameter was 14.86 mm and the tube length was 5.38 m. Heat transfer coefficients and friction factors for both inner and outer surfaces of the test tube were calculated from measurements of temperatures, flowrates and pressure drops. Correlations of heat transfer coefficients in the spirally indented tube, which were applicable for laminar and turbulent regimes were proposed for inner, and outer surfaces. The correlations showed that heat transfer coefficients for the spirally indented tube were much higher than those for smooth tubes, increased by more than 8 times depending upon the Reynolds number. The correlations were compared with other correlations for various types of surface roughness. The effect of the Prandtl number on the heat transfer characteristics was discussed. The critical Reynolds number from the laminar flow to the turbulent flow inside the spirally indented tube was found to be around Re=1,000.
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Abbreviations
- C pn :
-
Specific heat of hot fluid
- D i :
-
Inside tube diameter
- D o :
-
Outside tube diameter
- f :
-
Darcy friction factor
- G h :
-
Mass flow rate of hot fluid
- h :
-
Heat transfer coefficient
- k w :
-
Tube wall thermal conductivity
- Pr :
-
Prandtl number
- Q :
-
Heat transfer rate
- Re :
-
Reynolds number
- T pf :
-
Mean cold fluid temperature
- T hf :
-
Mean hot fluid temperature
- T hf, i :
-
Mean inlet hot fluid temperature
- T hf, w :
-
Mean outlet hot fluid temperature
- T w :
-
Average wall temperature
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Lee, S.C., Nam, S.C. & Ban, T.G. Performance of heat transfer and pressure drop in a spirally indented tube. KSME International Journal 12, 917–925 (1998). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02945559
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02945559