Numerical Investigation of Thermal-Flow Characteristics in Heat Exchanger with Various Tube Shapes

Abstract

In this study, eight configurations of oval and flat tubes in annular finned-tube thermal devices are examined and compared with the conventional circular tube. The objective is to assess the effect of tube flatness and axis ratio of the oval tube on thermal-flow characteristics of a three-row staggered bank for Re (2600 ≤ Re ≤ 10,200). It has been observed that the thermal exchange rate and Colburn factor increase according to the axis ratio and the flatness, where O1 and F1 provide the highest values. O1 produces the lowest friction factor values of all the oval tubes at all Re, and F4 gives 13.2–18.5% less friction than the other tube forms. In terms of performance evaluation criterion, all of the tested tubes outperformed the conventional circular tube (O5), with O1 and F1 obtaining the highest values. The global performance criterion of O1 has been found to be 9.6–45.9% higher as compared to the other oval tube geometries at lower values of Re, and the global performance criterion increases with the increase in flatness. The F1 tube shape outperforms all the examined tube designs; thus, this tube geometry suggests that it be used in energy systems.

Keywords

• heat exchanger
• tube shapes
• flat tube
• oval tube
• annular fin
• thermal-hydraulics