Experimental Investigation of Single-Phase, Condensation, and Flow Boiling Heat Transfer for a Spirally Fluted Tube

Abstract

A spirally fluted tube was tested in a vertically oriented shell-and-tube heat exchanger in both condensing and evaporating service. The heat exchanger showed substantial improvement in performance over that expected from a comparable exchanger with plain tubes. The condensation tests were run with working fluids of ammonia and R-114 condensing on the shell side of the heat exchanger. The boiling tests were run with R-11 boiling on the tube side in upward forced convection; heat was supplied by steam condensing on the shell side.