Synopsis of

Thermal behaviour in heat exchanger tube

with inserts

Department of MECHANICAL ENGINEERING

DIT UNIVERSITY

Mr P.S CHANDEL
(Overall Project Coordinator)
Submitted to
Dr SUNIL CHAMOLI
(Project coordinator)

SUBMITTED BY

NAME

ROLL NUMBER

SECTION

DEEPAK SAH
KAUSHAL PANT
DHEERAJ THAKUR
AVINASH ROSHAN
RAHUL PANDEY

120070104052
120070104170
120070104057
120070104161
120070104189

ME - B
ME - D
ME - B
ME - D
ME - D

CONTENT
ABSTRACT
INTRODUCTION
DESCRIPTION OF THE RESEARCH WORK
FUTURE SCOPE
CONCLUSION

ABSTRACT
An experimental investigation will be carried out to study the effect of heat transfer and
friction characteristics of turbulent flow of air passing through tube .In order to enhance rate
of heat transfer to flowing air in the duct of solar air heater and in heat exchanger or in
cooling of turbine blade various turbulence generators viz. ribs, baffles and delta winglets are
considered as an effective technique. Investigators reported various turbulence generators in
literature for studying heat transfer, friction characteristics and flow pattern in heat
exchanger and in solar air heater.
In the present article an attempt has been made to categorize and review the reported
turbulence generators used for heat transfer enhancement in heat exchanger and solar air
heater and gives an approach for further research for forced convection from the surfaces
with large scale roughness.
Artificial roughness in the form of repeated ribs is one of the effective way of improving the
performance of a solar air heater ducts. Various studies have been carried out to determine
the effect of different artificial roughness geometries on heat transfer and friction
characteristics in solar air heater ducts.
The objective of this paper is to review various studies, in which different artificial
roughness elements are used to enhance the heat transfer coefficient with little penalty of
friction factor. On the basis of correlations developed by various investigators for heat
transfer coefficient and friction factor, an attempt has been made to compare the
thermohydraulic performance of roughened solar air heater
ducts. It has been found that lot of experimental and analytical studies reported in the
literature.

INTRODUCTION
Heat transfer enhancement in a single phase at low and moderate Reynolds number has been
a major subject of intensive research over the years. It has numerous applications including
cooling of electronics systems, internal cooling inside turbine blades, compact heat
exchangers, biomedical devices, solar air heater, etc. Many techniques based on both active
and passive methods have been proposed to enhance heat transfer in these applications.
Energy is a basic ingredient needed to sustain life and development. Energy is needed in
various forms to fulfil our daily requirements. Solar energy is available freely and a clean
source of energy. The simplest and the most efficient way to utilize solar energy is to convert
it into thermal energy for heating applications by using solar collectors. Solar air heaters,
because of their inherent simplicity are cheap and most widely used for many applications at
low and moderate temperatures.
Artificially roughened absorber plate is considered to be a good methodology to breaking the
laminar sub-layer in order to reduce thermal resistance and to increase heat transfer
coefficient. Regarding artificial roughness, many experimental investigations have been
reported in literature by various authors. In this paper, an attempt has been made to
categorize and review the reported roughness geometries used for creating artificial
roughness. Correlations for heat transfer coefficient and friction factor developed by various
investigators for solar air heater ducts having artificial roughness of different geometries
were reviewed and presented in the paper.
Among these methods one can find systems involving vortex generators such as ribs and
baffles. Disturbance promoters increase fluid mixing and interrupt the development of
thermal boundary layer, leading too enhancement of heat transfer. Due to limited
conventional energy resources an alternative finding is necessary, as energy in various forms
has been playing an increasingly important role in world wide economic progress and
industrialization. The growth of world population coupled with rising material needs has
escalated the rate of energy usage. Rapid increase in energy usage characteristic of the past
50100 years cannot continue indefinitely, as finite energy resources of earth are exhaustible.
On the other hand, environment degradation with the use of fossil fuels is a threat to life on
this planet earth. In view of worlds depleting fossil fuel reserves and environmental
threats, development of renewable energy sources has received an impetus.

DESCRIPTION OF THE RESEARCH WORK

An experimental set-up was designed and fabricated in order to carry out experimental
investigation on heat transfer and flow characteristics of smooth as well as artificially
roughened duct used in solar air heaters. Schematic and photographic view of experimental
set-up is shown in figure. Rectangular duct having aspect ratio of 10, internal size of 300 _
30 _ 2400 mm and entry section, test section and exit section of length
900, 1000 and 500 mm respectively was fabricated in accordance with recommendation of
ASHRAE standard (ASHRAE standard, 1977). Galvanized iron sheet of 20 SWG having
size of 2400 _ 335 mm was used as absorber plate and considered as top broad wall of duct,
whereas bottom and side walls of duct were made from 12 mm thick plywood. In order to
minimize heat loss, duct was well insulated by packing glass wool at the outer surface. In
order to carry out indoor experimentation, an electric heater having size of 1500 _ 300 mm
was provided for supplying heat flux to absorber plate. It was fabricated by combining series
and parallel loops of nichrome wire on an asbestos sheet and placed on top side of absorber
plate at a gap of 75 mm. In order to control heat flux, variac was connected to the
heater. Centrifugal blower was provided at exit side of the pipe line to make forced flow of
air through the duct. Control valves were provided at inlet and outlet of centrifugal blower
for adjusting flow rate of air.

Aim is to review heat transfer and friction characteristics of artificially roughened duct of
solar air heaters. The concept of performance enhancement of roughened ducts will also been
discussed. Correlations for heat transfer coefficient and friction factor by various
investigators developed for solar air heater ducts having artificial roughness of different
geometries will be reviewed and presented in the paper. These correlations may be used to
predict the thermal as well thermohydraulic performance of solar air heaters having
roughened ducts. The following will be noted ;
1. Roughness geometries being used in solar air heaters are of many types depending
upon shapes, size, arrangement and orientations of roughness elements on the absorber
plate.
2. General arrangement of different types of roughness geometries reported by the
various investigators are fixing wires, rib formation by machining process, expanded
metal mesh ribs, and creating Dimple shaped geometries.
3. Transverse rib roughness enhances the heat transfer coefficient by flow separation and
generation of vortices on the upstream and downstream of rib and reattachment of
flow in the interrib spaces.

4. Angling of transverse rib further enhances the heat transfer on account of the
movement of vortices along the rib and formation of a secondary flow cell which
results in high heat flow region near the leading end. V-shaping of a long angled rib
helps in the formation of two secondary flow cells as compared to one in case of an
angled rib resulting in still higher heat transfer rate.
5. Producing a gap in the inclined rib is found to enhance the heat transfer by breaking
the secondary flow and producing higher level of turbulence in the fluid downstream
of the rib. A similar gap in both the limbs of V-rib further enhances the heat transfer
by introducing similar effects in both the limbs. Further the use of multi v-rib across
the width of the plate is found to enhance the heat transfer by increasing the number of
secondary flow cells several times.

FUTURE SCOPE
(i) In order to bring into account effect of friction penalty induced with application of
artificial roughness, thermohydraulic performance of investigated type of artificially
roughened duct may be evaluated.
(ii) In order to predict performance of solar air heater under actual climatic conditions,
mathematical model may be developed by using Nusselt number and friction factor
correlations reported in the present paper.

CONCLUSIONS
A number of studies have been carried out in order to investigate the effect of various
parameters on the performance of asymmetrically heated rectangular duct. The relative
roughness height, relative roughness pitch, angle of attack and relative gap position in
discrete ribs are considered the important factors that affect the performance of solar air
heater and heat exchanger. Delta winglets were used in solar thermal systems and found
suitable to generate the vortexes which increase the heat transfer without much increase in
friction factor.
Maximum studies have been reported with small height roughness elements and suitable
optimum parameters are available that help the designers for their effective efficiency
performance in industrial applications viz. air heater, turbine blade cooling, nuclear reactor
and electronic equipments. Few studies have been reported with high roughness height
generally called baffles and they show high rate of heat transfer but baffle blockage increase
the pressure drop which is a serious concern thus investigators must look to reduce the
pressure drop which can attained by desecrating the geometry or to find the geometry which
will be thermo-hydraulically better.
The compound delta winglets can be used to enhance heat transfer and perforated winglets
may found suitable in performance enhancement of solar thermal systems. Thus the there is
tremendous scope for future study of the heat transfer and friction factor characteristics of
different shapes of perforation baffle, delta winglets and the effect of hole sizing and its
alignment. The information presented here will be beneficial for beginners in this area of
research.