Heat transfer enhancement by twisted tapes with alternate-axes and triangular, rectangular and trapezoidal wings

The effects of twisted tapes with alternate-axes and wings on heat transfer, flow friction and thermal performance characteristics in a round tube are investigated. The influence of wing shape including triangle, rectangle and trapezoid is also studied. The experiments are performed using twisted tape with three different wing-chord ratios (d/W) of 0.1, 0.2 and 0.3 and constant twist ratio (y/W) of 4.0. The alternate-axis is made by arranging each plane of twisted tape to 60 degree difference relative to the adjacent plane. The results show that both heat transfer rate and friction factor associated by all twisted tape are consistently higher than those without twisted tape. Under the similar operating conditions, Nusselt number, friction factor as well as thermal performance factor given by the tape with alternate-axes and trapezoidal wings are higher than those given by the others. It is also found that that Nusselt number, friction factor and thermal performance increase with increasing wing-chord ratio. The maximum thermal performance factor of 1.42 is found with the use of twisted tape with alternate-axes and trapezoidal wings at d/W = 0.3, where the heat transfer rate and friction factor, respectively increase to 2.84 and 8.02 times of those in the plain tube.

Research highlights▶ The twisted tapes with alternate-axes and wings offer great heat transfer enhancement. ▶ The tape with trapezoidal wings provides higher Nusselt number, friction factor as well as thermal performance factor than the ones with rectangular wings and triangular wings. ▶ The tape with trapezoidal wings possesses thermal performance factor as high as 1.42.