Experimental investigation of heat transfer performance of corrugated tube with spring tape inserts

Abstract

Turbulent forced convection in a corrugated tube with spring tape is investigated experimentally, for Reynolds numbers from 10,000 to 50,000. The working fluid is air. Experiments are performed for different pitch and spring ratios. Results show that Nusselt numbers can be increased considerably, depending on pitch and spring ratios. An overall assessment, considering the friction losses, is achieved using the thermo-hydraulic performance parameter. The latter is observed to take values larger than unity for all cases, where quite high values around 2.8 occur for cases with smallest pitch and spring ratios. Predictive Nusselt number and friction factor correlations are proposed.