EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATIONS ON HEAT TRANSFER ENHANCEMENT IN A HORIZONTAL TUBE USING CONVERGING AND DIVERGING CONICAL STRIP INSERTS

摘要

The present work deals with the results of the experimental investigations carried out on augmentation of turbulent flow heat transfer in a horizontal circular tube by means of tube inserts, with air as working fluid. Experiments were carried out initially for the plain tube (without tube inserts). The Nusselt number and friction factor obtained experimentally were validated against those obtained from theoretical correlations. Secondly experimental investigations using three kinds of tube inserts namely Rectangular bar with diverging conical strips, Rectangular bar with converging conical strips, Rectangular bar with alternate converging diverging conical strips were carried out to estimate the enhancement of heat transfer rate for air in the presence of inserts. The Reynolds number ranged from 8000 to 19000. In the presence of inserts, Nusselt number and pressure drop increased, overall enhancement ratio is calculated to determine the optimum geometry of the tube insert. Based on experimental investigations, it is observed that, the enhancement of heat transfer using Rectangular bar with converging and diverging conical strips is more effective compared to other inserts.