Thermal performance of air to water heat exchanger with plain surface disc turbulators: experimental and numerical study

Abstract

The influence of plain surface disc turbulators on thermo-hydraulic characteristics of water to air double pipe heat exchanger is studied. Tests are conducted for three different diameter ratios, three different pitch ratios and Reynolds number varies betweess 3200 and 10,500. Water (hot fluid) and air (cold fluid) flow along inner tube and through annulus, respectively. Heat exchanger involving smallest diameter ratio (0.420) and pitch ratio (8.420) offers highest augmentation in heat transfer with larger pressure drop. In addition to this, finite volume method has been employed to numerically evaluate the hydrothermal characteristics of heat exchanger using disc turbulators for diameter ratio = 0.420 and pitch ratio = 8.420. Correlations for Nusselt number, friction factor, and thermal enhancement factor are presented as a function of experimental parameters. © 2020, Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.