Improvement of Heat Transfer Through Use of Twisted Tape Inserts: A Review

Abstract

The objective of this review paper is to identify the gap in finding out the direction toward the enhancement of heat transfer and the performance of heat exchangers. Heat exchangers can be found in many applications ranging from engineering devices to household consumer appliances. Heat exchangers must offer a good heat transfer performance apart from saving energy. Heat transfer enhancement techniques help to save energy and cool hot components in the design of electronic and mechanical circuits. However, enhancement in heat transfer takes place at the cost of a bearable increase in friction losses and pressure drop. Therefore, miniature heat exchanger systems and the cost of energy, motivate industries to use energy-saving methods in their design. With aging, the most common problem in heat exchangers is the reduction in heat transfer rate. Numerous studies have proved that placing a disturbance occurs in the fluid flow path and it can help to increase the heat transfer rate in the case of worn-out heat exchangers. For decades, researchers are numerically investigating the effects of various kinds of insert tape to improve the heat transfer operation in the heat exchangers. As heat exchangers form the backbone of many industrial processes, the idea of saving energy with the design of a cost-effective tape insert motivated us to work on this area of research. The paper proposes the new model of heat exchanger with an insert having a trapezoidal cut on both sides of an insert and using the different ratios of twist experimentation that will perform and compare the output with the previous studies by using different fluid or phase change materials as a fluid to maximize the performance of heat transfer rate. Also, it aims to find out the impact on friction factor as well pressure drop in the heat exchanger when there is a change in ratios of twist. This research aims to review the findings of earlier researchers in this area and to utilize the knowledge for improving the heat transfer rate of conventional tubes in our future work.

Keywords

• heat transfer
• twisted tape insert
• laminar flow
• flow regimes
• wings
• cuts