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Heat Transfer and Flow Resistance Characteristics of Helical Baffle Heat Exchangers with Twisted Oval Tube

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Abstract

To overcome the defect of the significant increase in pressure drop when the heat transfer performance of helical baffle heat exchanger is improved, a novel helical baffle heat exchanger with twisted oval tube is proposed. Numerical simulation was done to exhibit the shell side heat transfer and flow characteristics with CFD software Fluent. The field synergy principle was used to evaluate the shell side performance. The results show that the flow velocity distribution on the shell side of the spiral baffle heat exchanger is more uniform and the velocity near the tube wall increases in the range of research parameters, as the circular tube is replaced by a twisted elliptical tube with the same perimeter length. Moreover, the helical baffle heat exchanger with twisted oval tube has better field synergy of velocity and temperature gradient, velocity and pressure gradient. The helical baffle heat exchanger with helix angle of 15° has better performance than that of circular tube, and its heat transfer coefficient is improved about 3.3% and pressure drop is reduced by 17.1%–19.1%. Hence, the comprehensive heat transfer performance is improved by 21.5%–22.5%. When the helix angle is 20°, the comprehensive heat transfer performance is increased by 16.1%–18.0% with heat transfer coefficient improvement of 3.6% and pressure drop reduction of 13.9%–16.5%.

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Abbreviations

A :

The length of the long axis of the elliptical tube/mm

A t :

cross-sectional area of the twisted elliptical tube/m2

B :

The length of the short axis of the elliptical tube/mm

B p :

The period length of the baffle/mm

C :

Round tube

C 1 :

Coefficient of experience

D :

Bore diameter/mm

d e :

The diameter of the round tube/mm

f :

2esistance coefficient

G k :

Turbulent kinetic energy from average velocity gradients/J·s−1

H :

Baffle thickness/mm

k :

Turbulent energy/J

S i,S h :

Source item

L :

Cross-sectional circumference of the twisted elliptical tube/m

N :

Number of cycles of twisted tube within a periodic full-section model

Nu :

Nusselt number

P :

Pressure/Pa

p :

Pressure gradien/Pa·m−1

Re s :

Reynolds number of the shell side

S :

The period length of the twisted elliptical tube/mm

SD:

The standard deviation of the velocity

T :

Twisted elliptical tube

T :

Temperature gradient/K·m−1

t p :

Tube pitch/mm

U :

Speed vector/m·s−2

α :

Synergy angle of velocity vector and temperature gradient/(°)

β :

Synergy angle of velocity vector and pressure gradient/(°)

ε :

turbulent energy dissipation rate

θ :

Helix angle of the spiral baffle/(°)

λ eff :

Effective thermal conductivity

μ :

Fluid dynamic viscosity/Pa·s−1

υ :

fluid viscosity coefficient/m2·s−1

ρ :

Density/kg·m−3

σ k :

The Prandtl number corresponding to k

σ ε :

The Prandtl number corresponding to ε

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Acknowledgements

The study was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grants No. 21776263, 51706208).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Mechanical and Power Engineering, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, 450001, China

    Xin Gu, Zhiyang Zheng, Xiaochao Xiong, Erhui Jiang, Tongtong Wang & Dongwei Zhang

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  1. Xin Gu
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  2. Zhiyang Zheng
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  3. Xiaochao Xiong
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Correspondence to Dongwei Zhang.

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Gu, X., Zheng, Z., Xiong, X. et al. Heat Transfer and Flow Resistance Characteristics of Helical Baffle Heat Exchangers with Twisted Oval Tube. J. Therm. Sci. 31, 370–378 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11630-022-1581-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11630-022-1581-1

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