Study of thermal effectiveness and its relation with NTU in shell and helically coiled tube heat exchangers

Abstract

In the present study, the effect of operational and geometrical parameters on the thermal effectiveness of shell and helically coiled tube heat exchangers was investigated. Analysis was performed for the steady state. The working fluid of both sides is water, that its viscosity and thermal conductivity were assumed to be dependent on temperature. Based on the results, two correlations have been developed to predict the thermal effectiveness, for wide ranges of mass flow rates ratio, dimensionless geometrical parameters and product of Reynolds numbers. Furthermore, it was found for same values of NTU and Cr, the effectiveness is averagely 12.6% less than the effectiveness of parallel flow heat exchangers and this difference is approximately constant.