Heat Transfer and Pressure loss of a very shallow fluidized-bed heat exchanger Part 1. Experiment with a single row of tubes

A novel gas fluidized-bed heat exchanger with a very small static bed height has been developed for a heat-exchanging system using a low-pressure fan. This fluidized bed is composed of a multislit distributor, a single row of 8 mm diameter tubes, and glass beads 48–195 μm in diameter. The measured performance of heat transfer is excellent and that of fluidization is satisfactory, in spite of the static bed height being as small as 13 mm. In the best case, the test fluidized bed exhibited a heat transfer performance comparable to that of a conventional fluidized bed with a perforated plate distributor and a static bed height of 150 mm, and showed one-fourteenth the pressure loss.     

Heat transfer and pressure drop characteristics of turbulent flow in a circular tube fitted with regularly spaced twisted-tape elements

The results of an experimentalnvestigation of turbulent flow heat transfer and pressure drop characteristics in a circular tube fitted with regularly spaced twisted-tape elements connected by thin circular rods are reported. The characteristics are governed by Reynolds number, Prandtl number, twist ratio, space ratio, and rod-to-tube diameter ratio. Correlations for friction factor and Nusselt number are also reported. It is shown that on the basis of both constant pumping power and constant heat duty, regularly spaced twisted-tape elements do not perform better than full-length twisted tapes.     

Quantitative infrared investigation of local heat transfer in a circular finned tube heat exchanger assembly

This work deals with the local heat transfer coefficient evaluation over the fin of the second row of a staggered circular finned tube heat exchanger assembly. The coefficient distribution is determined by using a transient technique and by calculating the energy balance during the fin cooling. The calculation model takes into account radiation with the surrounding and lateral heat conduction into the material. The method uses infrared measurements and integration between time bounds that depend on space. It is proposed to choose the integration bounds with an original criterion based on local heat transfer. Validation is performed on the reference case consisting in a thin plate in an aerodynamically and thermally developing channel flow. Then, distributions of Nusselt number on the circular fin are presented for several Reynolds numbers. The high resolution of the whole method and set-up allow detecting thermal imprints of developing horseshoe vortices. These imprints are analyzed by following their angular evolution around the tube.     

Numerical prediction of laminar flow and heat transfer characteristics in a tube fitted with regularly spaced twisted-tape elements

By numerically solving the Navier-Stokes and energy equations in their three-dimensional parabolic form, the friction and heat transfer characteristics are predicted for laminar flow in a circular tube fitted with regularly spaced twisted-tape elements that are connected by circular rods. The predictions have agreed closely with the experimental data for water. It is shown that a strong L/D effect is associated with the configuration under consideration. By extending the predictions outside the range of experimental data, it is found that considerably enhanced thermohydraulic performance is achievable by increasing the number of turns on the tape elements, by reducing the connecting rod diameter, and at high fluid Prandtl numbers.     

The influence of tube bundle geometry on cross-flow boiling heat transfer and pressure drop

An experimental investigation was performed to compare the boiling heat transfer coefficients and two-phase pressure drops from a square inline and a staggered tube bundle having the same tube pitch-to-diameter ratio (P/D = 1.30) and from two square inline tube bundles having different pitch-to-diameter ratios (P/D = 1.30 and 1.70). Except at the highest heat fluxes the heat transfer coefficients generally were higher in the staggered tube bundle than in the inline tube bundle and higher in the larger P/D tube bundle than in the smaller. As the heat flux increased, the differences decreased. The differences were attributed to the tradeoff between nucleation and convection. The staggered tube bundle had higher pressure drops than the inline bundle except at low mass velocities; the larger pressure drop in the staggered bundle was attributed to the combination of a larger void fraction and a larger friction multiplier, with the frictional component dominating at higher mass velocities. Comparing the inline tube bundle pressure drops, it was concluded that the larger P/D bundle had a larger void fraction than the smaller P/D tube bundle; no conclusions could be drawn regarding the relative magnitude of the two-phase fraction multiplier.     

Parametric study of gross flow maldistribution in a single-pass shell and tube heat exchanger in turbulent regime

Uniform distribution of flow in tube bundle of shell and tube heat exchangers is an arbitrary assumption in conventional heat exchanger design. Nevertheless, in practice, flow maldistribution may be an inevitable occurrence which may have severe impacts on thermal and mechanical performance of heat exchangers i.e. fouling. The present models for flow maldistribution in the tube-side deal only with the maximum possible velocity deviation. Other flow maldistribution models propose and recommend the use of a probability distribution, e.g. Gaussian distribution. None of these, nevertheless, estimate quantitatively the number of tubes that suffer from flow maldistribution. This study presents a mathematical model for predicting gross flow maldistribution in the tube-side of a single-pass shell and tube heat exchanger. It can quantitatively estimate the magnitude of flow maldistribution and the number of tubes which have been affected. The validation of the resultant model has been confirmed when compared with similar study using computational fluid dynamics (CFD).     

Experimental study of heat and mass transfer from a horizontal cylinder in downward air-water mist flow with blockage effect

An experimental study was made on convective heat and mass transfer from a horizontal heated cylinder in a downward flow of air-water mist at a blockage ratio of 0.4. The measured local heat transfer coefficients agree fairly well with the authors' numerical solutions obtained previously for the front surface of a cylinder over the ranges mass flow ratio 0–4.5×10⁻², a temperature difference between the cylinder and air 10–43 K, gas Reynolds number (7.9–23)×10³, Rosin-Rammler size parameter 105–168 μm, and dispersion parameter 3.4–3.7. Heat transfer augmentation, two-pahse to single-phase of greater than 19 was attained at the forward stagnation point. For heat transfer in the rear part of the cylinder, an empirical formula is derived by taking into account the dimensionless governing variables, that is, coolant-feed and evaporation parameters.     

Effect of a helical wire on mixed convection heat transfer to carbon dioxide in a vertical circular tube at supercritical pressures

Reactor core of a SCWR (supercritical water-cooled reactor) employs a tight lattice in order to efficiently remove heat from nuclear fuels. In the narrow sub-channels of a tight lattice reactor core, a helical wire instead of a complicated conventional spacer has been used as a turbulence generator and a space-keeper between the fuel rods.A series of experiments were performed in order to investigate an effect of a helical wire on heat transfer to upwardly flowing CO₂ in a electrically-heated circular tube with an inner diameter of 6.32 mm, where a helical wire with an outer diameter of 1.3 mm was tightly inserted inside the tube. The tube inner diameter corresponds to the equivalent hydraulic diameter of a sub-channel of a KAERI’s fuel assembly concept. The mass fluxes ranged from 400 to 1200 kg/m² s; the heat fluxes ranged from 30 to 90 kW/m²; and the pressures were 7.75 and 8.12 MPa. The corresponding Reynolds numbers at the test section inlet ranged from 1.8 × 10⁴ to 7.5 × 10⁴. The heat transfer rate reached almost twice the value obtained from the experiment with a plain tube of the same size near the pseudocritical temperature and the effect of a wire was attenuated as the temperature moved away from the pseudocritical temperature. The wall temperature distribution along the span between the contact points was a concave downward parabola. Near the pseudocritical temperature, the wall temperature showed relatively higher values, indicating a stagnant fluid around the wire. On the other hand, the wall temperature at the contact point showed a relatively lower value, indicating a fin function of a wire.     

管壳式换热器内气液两相流冲刷垂直管束的阻力特性研究

本文对垂直布置的管壳式换热器中，气液两相流冲刷管束时的流动阻力进行了实验研究。实验段采用管壳式换热器模型，其圆形外壳内的管束由４９根管子组成，并沿长度方向用三块折流板将管束分成四个冲刷流程。当气液两相流自下而上冲刷管束时，分别测量摩擦阻力和局部阻力，并用分相流动模型进行分析，得到良好的计算关联式。     

Finite element solutions of laminar flow and heat transfer of air in a staggered and an in-line tube bank

A finite element method is used to solve the full Navier-Stokes and energy equations for the problems of laminar flow and heat transfer characteristics of air around three isothermal heated horizontal cylinders in a staggered tube bank and around four isothermal heated horizontal cylinders in an in line tube bank. The variations of surface shear stress, pressure and Nusselt number are obtained over the entire cylinder surface, including the zone beyond the separation point. The predicted values of total drag, pressure drag and friction drag coefficients, average Nusselt number, and the plots of velocity flow fields and isotherms are also presented.     

Characteristics of the critical heat flux for downward flow in a vertical tube at low flow rate and low pressure conditions

The characteristics of the critical heat flux (CHF) for downward flow were studied experimentally with an Inconel 600 circular tube test section in a water test loop at low-flow rate (0 200 kg/m²s) and low-pressure (0.1 0.7 MPa) conditions. The attention was given to the effects of upstream conditions—upper plenum and inlet throttling. Two totally different kinds of CHF behaviors were observed. It seems appropriate to interpret them as flooding-type CHF and dryout in annular flow. The CHF in downward flow may vary from extremely unstable flow CHF as low as near the flooding CHF value to stable flow CHF as high as that of upflow, depending on the upstream conditions of the test section. The CHF correlation by Mishima and that by Weber were proposed for the presentation of the lower and upper limits of the CHF for downward flow in a vertical tube at low-flow rate and low-pressure conditions.     

Flow and heat transfer in a rotating cavity with a radial inflow of fluid Part 1: The flow structure

Flow visualization has been conducted in a rotating cavity, comprising two steel discs and a peripheral polycarbonate shroud, for dimensionless flow rates of air up to |C_w|8000 and rotational Reynolds number up to Re_φ10⁶. For all the experiments, the ratio of the inner to outer radii of the discs was 0.1 and the ratio of the axial clearance between the discs to their outer radii was 0.133; five different shroud geometries were tested. The flow visualization has confirmed that the flow structure comprises a source region near the shroud, laminar or turbulent Ekman layers on the discs, a sink layer near the centre of the cavity, and an interior core of rotating fluid. Above a certain flow rate, this structure was found to be unstable; heating one disc tended to stabilize the flow. For isothermal flow, measurements of the size of the source region were in good agreement with values predicted from a simple theoretical model.