Numerical Investigation of Tub Side Heat Transfer and Pressure Drop in Helically Corrugated Tubes

Abstract

This paper presents a three-dimensional numerical investigation carried out in turbulent forced convection in a tube with helical ribs. Enhancement of heat transfer using helically corrugated tubes has been<br />studied experimentally by many researchers but there exist a few published numerical analyses results. The paper also introduces the results of heat transfer and friction factor data for incompressible fluid flow<br />in a tube with 24 mm inside diameter and Reynolds numbers between 25000-80000. The geometric parameters of single start internally ribbed tubes are, rib height to diameter ratio ranging from 0.02 to 0.06<br />and rib pitch to diameter ratio ranging from 0.6 to 1.2. The inlet water temperature is 10oC and tube wall is at 80oC uniform temperature. Tube side, three-dimensional turbulent flow has been simulated using a<br />finite volume code and the results are compared with available experimental data. It has been shown that the helical ribs have a significant effect on the heat transfer augmentation and pressure drop.