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Research Paper
h i g h l i g h t s
The heat transfer coefficient of twisted tube was greater than that of plain tube.
Heat transfer coefficient was positively related to the Reynolds number.
Both twist ratio and short-long diameter ratio had an impact on the heat transfer.
The major factor affecting heat transfer was the short-long diameter ratio.
a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t
Article history: Usually, heat transfer coefficient of a high-viscosity fluid is very low at a small Reynolds number to avoid
Received 3 February 2017 a huge pressure drop. Using twisted tube is an effect way to improve its heat transfer performance with-
Revised 31 July 2017 out obviously increasing its pressure drop. In this study, the heat transfer performance of epoxy resin,
Accepted 2 August 2017
which is a kind of high-viscosity fluid, flowing in horizontal twisted tubes with different short-long-
Available online 3 August 2017
diameter ratios and twist ratios, was investigated. The impacts of Reynolds number, short-long-
diameter ratios and twist ratios on heat transfer coefficients and pressure drops were discussed. The
Keywords:
experimental results revealed that horizontal twisted tubes were commendable enhanced tubes for
Epoxy resin
Twisted tube
improving the heat transfer performance of the high-viscosity fluid. In addition, compared with twist
Heat transfer coefficient ratios, the short-long-diameter ratios played a more significant role in heat transfer performance and
Pressure drop pressure drop.
Ó 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.applthermaleng.2017.08.013
1359-4311/Ó 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
W. Yan et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 127 (2017) 28–34 29
Nomenclature
ri inner radius of twisted tube corresponding to smooth Tm the mean bulk temperature of fluid inside-tube, °C
tube, m tm the mean bulk temperature of cooling water, °C
ro outer radius of twisted tube corresponding to smooth DP pressure drop of fluid, kPa
tube, m P pitch of twisted tube, mm
de equivalent diameter, m Qh inside-tube heat flux, W
l tube length of test section, m Qc outside tube heat flux, W
A long diameter of twisted tube, mm Q average heat flux, W
B short diameter of twisted tube, mm K overall heat transfer coefficient, W/(m2K)
R short-long diameter ratio Re Reynolds number
S twist ratio Pr prandtl number
Cph specific heat of epoxy resin, J/(kg°C) Nu nusselt number
Cpc specific heat of cooling water, J/(kg°C) f friction factor
Vh flowrate of epoxy resin, m3/s
Vc flowrate of cooling water, m3/s Greek letters
Ti inlet temperature of epoxy resin, °C qh density of epoxy resin, kg/m3
To outlet temperature of epoxy resin, °C qc density of cooling water, kg/m3
ti inlet temperature of cooling water, °C kw thermal conductivity of the tube, W/m2K
to outlet temperature of cooling water, °C ai heat transfer coefficient inside the tube, W/(m2K)
t wi average wall temperature inside test section, °C
t wo average wall temperature outside test section, °C
spiral groove tubes with different groove depth, pitch and helix inserts had little impact on the fanning friction when the Reynolds
angle with water and oil as heat transfer working fluid. Experi- number was below 500. But it was also suggested coil inserts with
ments showed that compared with the plain tube, the heat transfer lower wire diameters have better performance at low Reynolds
of the tube side was enhanced by 30–120%, and the coefficient of numbers.
friction was increased by 60–160%. Two or more heat transfer augmentation methods were com-
Inserts are essential augmentation tools employed to improve bined together in order to achieve better heat transfer perfor-
heat transfer rate so as to avoid the replacement of the whole heat mance. Under an applied electric field, Liu et al. [14] inserted a
exchanger. The research progress of insert devices developed in helical steel wire coil into the plain tube to study the heat transfer
past decades was reviewed by Dewan et al. [7] and Liu et al. [8]. and flow resistance of 15# lubricating oil. Single external electric
At present, only the twisted tapes and coiled wires have been field could destabilize the thermal boundary layer but could not
widely applied. break laminar flow due to oil is a viscous fluid. Although the com-
Agarwal et al. [9] tested the impacts of twisted tapes with dif- bined enhancement technology is an effective way to improve heat
ferent twist ratios on the heat transfer efficiency of oil inside the transfer performance, the cost of additional device and energy also
tube, and the results indicated that the friction factor (f) and the should be taken into consideration.
Nusselt number (Nu) increased with the decrease of the twist ratio, Several researchers have studied heat transfer performances of
as well as the f increased compared with a plain tube. Al-Fahed high-viscosity fluid by the combination of shell side supporting
et al. [10] took both twist ratio and tape width into account. It structure and enhanced tube. For example, Zhang et al. [15] com-
was proved that the twist ratio was the key factor affecting heat bined helically baffled with a petal-shaped finned tube to study
transfer performance of fluid in tubes, and the heat transfer effi- the heat transfer process of high-viscosity oil (ISO VG-32). The
ciency could be improved by increasing the width. However, along results indicated that the overall heat transfer coefficient of the
with the increase of heat transfer enhancement by using twisted petal-shaped finned tube with helical baffles was 4–5 times than
tape inserts, pressure drop rises significantly. To reduce the pres- that of a plain tube with bow baffles. Similar researches were con-
sure drop caused by displaced inserts, researchers began to con- ducted by Ibrahim [16], Zimparov [17,18], Promvonge et al. [19],
sider using piecewise twisted tape to replace consecutive one, and Bharadwaj et al. [20], etc.
because strong vortex effect caused by twisted tape in a short dis- Obviously, in these studies, oil was mainly selected as the high-
tance flow process will not dissipate quickly. For regularly spaced viscosity fluid. However, a lot of industrial processes will deal with
twisted tape elements, Saha et al. [11] investigated heat transfer other higher viscosity fluids. Vicente et al. [21] investigated the
and pressure drop characteristic of viscous oil in the plain tube. effect of bellows pitch and waveform height on the heat transfer
The results showed that plain tube with regularly spaced twisted coefficient and pressure drop of ethylene glycol under laminar
tape inserts had better integrated heat transfer effect compared flow. The results obtained are of significance for the future opti-
with the plain tube with full-length twisted tapes. mized design of bellows. García et al. [22] conducted heat transfer
Another way to increase the heat transfer performance with experiments with three different working fluids, such as water,
less pressure loss is to displace coiled wires in tubes. Uttarwar propylene glycol, and mixture of water and propylene glycol with
et al. [12] investigated seven wire-coil-inserted tubes by using Ser- equal mass ratio. At 20 °C and 50 °C, these working fluids were dri-
votherm medium grade oil as test fluid. It was showed that the ven into the tube with coil inserts. It was also verified by previous
laminar flow heat transfer coefficient increased fourfold. researches [23,24] that the twisted tube, which is an effective tube
Akhavan-Behabadi et al. [13] studied the heat transfer and flow type for heat transfer enhancement but the quantificational study
performances of an engine oil in a plain tube and seven tubes with is far from adequacy, is suitable for heat transfer enhancement of
coiled wire inserts with pitches of 12–69 mm and wire diameters flow with low Reynolds and high Prandtl number. Moreover,
of 2.0 mm or 3.5 mm. Compared with the plain tube, the coil twisted tubes are able to support each other with point to point
30 W. Yan et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 127 (2017) 28–34
contact to provide a better anti-seismic function and lower shell- 2.2. Structure of the twisted tubes
side pressure drop for heat exchangers.
In this paper, epoxy resin (viscosity is about 200–2000 Pas) was In the experiment, 9 twisted copper tubes and a plain one (No.
chosen as test fluid flowing in the twisted tubes, and the heat 0) were tested respectively. The structural parameters of the tested
transfer performance and pressure drop of the epoxy resin flowing tubes were listed in Table 1.
in horizontal twisted tubes with different short-long-diameter
ratios and twist ratios, were investigated. 2.3. Physical properties of the epoxy resin
Fig. 1. Schematic diagram of experimental system: (1) mixing tank, (2) screw pump, (3) oval gear flowmeter, (4) double-pipe heat exchanger, (5) pressure difference
transmitter, (6)-(7) flowmeter, (8) water pump, (9) water tank, (10) computer, (11) data logger.
Table 1
Structural parameters of the test tubes.
No. Original tube/mm Long diameter A/mm Short diameter B/mm Short-long diameter ratio R = B/A Pitch p/mm Twist ratio S = p/d Tube length /mm
0# U19 1.5 16.0 16.0 1.00 – – 800
1# 19.8 9.4 0.47 300 18.75
2# 21.2 7.0 0.33 200 12.50
3# 19.8 9.4 0.47 200 12.50
4# 21.8 5.8 0.27 300 18.75
5# 21.2 7.0 0.33 400 25.00
6# 21.2 7.0 0.33 300 18.75
7# 21.8 5.8 0.27 400 25.00
8# 19.8 9.4 0.47 400 25.00
9# 21.8 5.8 0.33 200 12.50
W. Yan et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 127 (2017) 28–34 31
Table 2
Physical properties of the epoxy resin at different temperature.
Temperature (°C) Thermal conductivity (W/(mK)) Specific heat capacity (kJ/(kgK)) Viscosity (cP) Density (kg/m3)
30 0.17 1.87 4056 1160
40 0.18 1.89 1278 1160
50 0.20 1.91 556.8 1160
60 0.22 1.94 262.8 1160
70 0.24 1.96 131.4 1160
80 0.27 1.97 68.7 1160
The outside tube heat flux can also be written as: The results were compared with Dittus-Boelter correlation as
Q c ¼ V c qc C pc ðt i t o Þ ð4Þ shown in Fig. 2. It can be observed that the experimental results
for the plain tube are consistent with that of the Dittus-Boelter cor-
Thus, the average heat flux was calculated using relation and the maximum relative error is less than 15.92%, which
Qh þ Qc indicates the reliability of the experimental system.
Q¼ ð5Þ
2
3.2. Uncertainty analysis
The mean bulk temperature (T m ) of the fluid inside tube was calcu-
lated as follow:
The inlet and outlet temperature of the shell side, flowrate and
Ti þ To the wall temperature of the tube were measured to calculate the
Tm ¼ ð6Þ
2 convection heat transfer coefficient of epoxy resin. Since there is
The cross section of a twisted tube is an ellipse, its area is: a measurement error for each single variable and these errors
accumulate in the operation, so the following equation [26] was
S¼pAB ð7Þ used to calculate the uncertainties.
sffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
where the A and B are half - long axis and half - short axis of an 2 2 2
ellipse. The ellipse circumference was calculated by an approximate @y @y @y
ry ¼ dx21 þ dx22 þ þ dx2n ð10Þ
formula in Ref. [25]: @x1 @x2 @xn
0 sffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi1
where y is the derived quantity, x is the measured quantity and dx is
AþB A2 þ B2 A
C ¼p@ þ ð8Þ the error involved in the measured quantity. The experimental
2 2 instruments used in the process and its error columns are listed
in Table 3 and the maximum uncertainty of the heat transfer coef-
ficients calculated by Eq. (10) is less than 2.04%.
Table 3
Experimental measurement equipment and their errors.
consumption (pump power), we should adopt little lead and [10] S. Al-Fahed, L.M. Chamra, W. Chakroun, Pressure drop and heat transfer
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