NUMERICAL ANALYSIS OF DOUBLE PIPE HELICAL COIL HEAT EXCHANGER

Project Group Abhin Chandramohan 8302 Athulya Shaji 8314 Dheeraj Murali 8316

Guided by Dr. M Jose Prakash

INTRODUCTION
In helically coiled tubes, the pipe curvature causes

centrifugal forces to act on the flowing fluid, resulting in a secondary flow pattern perpendicular to the main axial flow.
This secondary flow pattern generally consists of two

vortices, which move fluid from the inner wall of the tube across the center of the tube to the outer wall. Upon reaching the outer wall it travels back to the inner wall following the wall.
The secondary flow increases heat transfer rates as

it moves fluid across the temperature gradient.

Helically coiled tubes can be found in many applications including

Food processing Nuclear reactors

Compact heat exchangers

Heat recovery systems Chemical processing,

Low value heat exchange,

Medical equipment. Regenerative cooling in rocket engines

CHARACTERISTICS OF HELICAL COIL

Pitch (H) Curvature ratio (r/Rc) Pitch circle diameter

(PCD)
Non-dimensional pitch

(H/2Rc)
Helix angle ()
Dean number

OBJECTIVES OF THE PRESENT STUDY

The objective of this work is to study the heat transfer characteristics of double pipe helical heat exchanger.
Numerical investigation on helical coil heat exchanger

will be conducted
Heat transfer characteristic will be studied by varying

the fluid and geometrical parameters

Later it is expected to develop co relation connecting

Nusselt Number, Prandtl Number and the Reynolds number

MODEL USED FOR VALIDATION

Paramete r Value

Do (m) 0.100

Di (m) 0.040

d (m) 0.028

R (m) 0.800

 Modeling : Done in AUTOCAD 2010 and

exported to GAMBIT 2.4.6

Meshing: Done in GAMBIT 2.4.6 and mesh

file is exported to FLUENT 6.3.26

Analysis: Done in FLUENT 6.3.26

VALIDATION
Simulations were performed using four different

mass flows in the inner tube i. 0.00835kg/s ii. 0.02504kg/s iii. 0.04174kg/s iv. 0.05843 kg/s
For each inner flow rate, three trials were performed

with annulus mass flow rates that were 1/2, 1, and 2 times the inner flow rate.
The total number of simulations performed was 12 (

four inner flow rates x three annulus flow rates).

Heat transfer v/s Inner mass flow rate of current analysis

Graph published in Applied Thermal Engineering 26 (2006) 12661273 by Timothy J. Rennie, Vijaya G.S. Raghavan

Geometry creation for Analysis

The modeling of the heat exchanger is done

using AutoCAD2010 Two helically coiled concentric tubes were created one over the other to form a double pipe helical heat exchanger. Both tubes have the wall thickness of 6mm 16 helical tube in models are drawn in AutoCAD2010 The models were constructed by varying helix angle from 5o to 40o at an interval of 5o

Model Case A 1

RADIUS OF CURVATUR E (m) 0.7927

PITCH (m) 0.4358

PITCH ANGLE () 5

TOTAL LENGTH (m) 5

Model

RADIUS OF CURVATURE (m)

PITCH (m)

PITCH ANGLE ()

TOTAL LENGTH (m)

Case A 2

0.7837

0.8682

10

Case B 1

2.9886

0.2615

Case A 3

0.7686

1.294

15

Case B 2

2.9544

0.5209

10

Case A 4

0.7478

1.71

20

Case B 3

2.8978

0.7764

15

Case B 4 Case A 5 0.7212 2.113 25 5 Case B 5 Case A 6

2.8191

1.0261

20

2.7189

1.2678

25

0.6892

2.5

30

5 Case B 6

2.5981

1.5

30

Case A 7

0.6519

2.868

35

5 Case B 7 2.4574 1.7207 35 3

Case A 8

0.6095

3.213

40

Case B 8

2.2981

1.9284

40

Table.4.1Different models of helical heat exchanger with Coil length 5m

Table.4.1Different models of helical heat exchanger with Coil length 3m

ANALYSIS
The models drawn using AutoCAD2010 and

meshed using GAMBIT exported to FLUENT for analysis. The Boundary Conditions and Material Properties were defined in FLUENT. Two cases were analyzed to find the variation total heat transfer of fluids with geometrical Inlet of the inner tube Inlet of the outer tube parameters. Heat exchanger inlet
fluids Case 1 WATER Case2 AIR Mass flow rate 0.055 kg/s 0.001078 kg/s Temperature 360K 360K Mass flow rate 0.055 kg/s 0.001078 kg/s Temperat ure 290K 290K

Table. Boundary conditions

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

The Effect of helix Angle on heat transfer rates of

helical heat exchangers was studied and its independency from coil length, fluid in tube and different mass flow rates was proved. Length Independency Maximum heat transfer was found to be at helix angle of 20o irrespective of the coil length.

Fluid Independency Analysis have been carried out for the two fluids on all the models of length 5 m. Results were obtained for water with the flow rate 0.055kg/s and air with flow rate 0.001078 kg/s respectively. Max. heat transfer at 20o for both fluids.

water plot

air plot

Flow rate Independency

Analysis was carried out for the water on three

models with mass flow rates 0.050 kg/s, 0.055 kg/s, 0.060 kg/s, 0.065 kg/s. The three models used were Helical coil of 5m length with helix angle 10o, 20o & 30o. Irrespective of the mass flow rates, maximum heat transfer occurred at Helix angle of 20o

Variation of Nusselt Number with Helix angle

Convective heat transfer coefficient between the

inner copper pipe and the inner fluid is calculated using the equation Q=hA(T2-T1) Nusselt number can be calculated as Nu=hD/k The Nusselt no variation with helix angle was plotted for both the fluids.

Plot of Nusselt no variation with helix angle for water

Plot of Nusselt no variation with helix angle for air

Formulation of heat transfer Correlation

Data obtained from the numerical experiments is used to

propose a correlation for Nusselt number in terms of Reynolds number , when the helix angle is 200( helix angle corresponding to maximum heat transfer) prandtl number . is Mass flow Reynolds no Nusselt No consideration Prandtl 2.62 and fluid under is water. rate number
.050 .055 .060 .065 .070 .075 2350.1 2491.04 2717.5 2943.95 3170.42 3396.8 24.79 25.97 26.82 29.63 30.74 32.39 2.62 2.62 2.62 2.62 2.62 2.62

Table. Data for

 Correlation of the following form is appropriate.

Nu = C Rem Prn The data obtained from the studies are fitted using the software MATLAB and the values of C, m and n were obtained. The proposed correlation Nu=.0588 Re.721 Pr.46 , where Pr = 2.62

CONCLUSION
Numerical study was performed on a double pipe helical coil

heat exchanger and scheme was validated using the data available in literature. The effect of helix angle on the heat transfer rates of the helical coil heat exchanger has been studied. It is found that the heat transfer increases with helix angle and then decreases. The combined effect of torsion and curvature of helical coil heat exchanger is maximum at a certain helix angle causing maximum heat transfer and was found to occur at the helix angle 200 . The angle at which maximum heat transfer occurred was found to be independent of coil length of helix, fluid passed in heat exchanger and also the mass flow rate of fluid. Finally, a correlation is proposed for the Nusselt number of

REFERENCES
Hsu, C.-F., and S.V. Patankar. 1982. Analysis of laminar non

Newtonian flow and heat transfer in curved tubes. AIChE Journal, Vol. 28(4):610-616. Prabhanjan, D. G., T. J. Rennie, and G. S. V. Raghavan. 2004. Natural convection heat transfer from helical coiled tubes. International Journal of Thermal Sciences, Vol.43:359365 Rahul Kharat et al. (2009). Development of heat transfer coefficient correlation for concentric helical coil heat exchanger, International journal of Thermal Sciences 8(2009)2300-2308 Sandeep. K.P et al. (2008). Heat Transfer Coefficent in Helical Heat Exchangers under turbulent flow conditions, International Journal of food engineering,vol.4,Issue 1, 2008 Timothy J. Rennie, Vijaya G.S. Raghavan, Experimental studies of a double-pipe helical heat exchanger ,International journal of Thermal sciences 45 (2006) 1158-1165. Zheng. B,, C.x Lin,M.A.Edadian, Combined laminar forced convection and thermal radiation in a helical

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