scholarly journals Investigation of Condensate Retention on Horizontal Pin-Fin Tubes Using Water-Propanol Mixture

2022 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 835
Author(s):  
Hafiz Muhammad Habib ◽  
Hafiz Muhammad Ali ◽  
Muhammad Usman

Condensers are an integral part of air conditioning systems. The thermal efficiency of condensers solely depends on the rate of heat transfer from the cooling medium. Fin tubes are extensively used for heat transfer applications due to their enhanced heat transfer capabilities. Fins provide appreciable drainage because surface tension produces pressure gradients. Much research, contributed by several scientists, has focused on adjusting parameters, such as fin design, flow rates and retention angles. In this study, a setup with an observing hole was used to inspect the influence on retention angle of adjusting the flow rates of the fluid. The increase in retention angle was examined using several velocities and concentration mixtures. Pin-fin tubes were used to obtain coherent results using a photographic method. The experimental setup was designed to monitor the movement of fluid through the apparatus. The velocity was varied using dampers and visibility was enhanced using dyes. Photographs were taken at 20 m/s velocities after every 20 s. and 0.1% concentration and the flooding point observed. The experimental results were verified by standard observation which showed little variation at lower velocity. For water/water-propanol mixtures, a vapor velocity of 12 m/s and concentration ratio of 0.04% was the optimal combination to achieve useful improvement in retention angle. With increase of propanol from 0% to 0.04%, the increase in retention angle was greater compared to 0.04% to 0.1%. For velocities ranging from 0 to 12 m/s, the increase in retention angle was significant. A sharp change was observed for concentration ratios ranging from 0.01% to 0.05% compared to 0.05% to 0.1%.

2015 ◽  
Vol 137 (7) ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew J. Rau ◽  
Suresh V. Garimella ◽  
Ercan M. Dede ◽  
Shailesh N. Joshi

The effect of a variety of surface enhancements on the heat transfer achieved with an array of impinging jets is experimentally investigated using the dielectric fluid HFE-7100 at different volumetric flow rates. The performance of a 5 × 5 array of jets, each 0.75 mm in diameter, is compared to that of a single 3.75 mm diameter jet with the same total open orifice area, in single-and two-phase operation. Four different target copper surfaces are evaluated: a baseline smooth flat surface, a flat surface coated with a microporous layer, a surface with macroscale area enhancement (extended square pin–fins), and a hybrid surface on which the pin–fins are coated with the microporous layer; area-averaged heat transfer and pressure drop measurements are reported. The array of jets enhances the single-phase heat transfer coefficients by 1.13–1.29 times and extends the critical heat flux (CHF) on all surfaces compared to the single jet at the same volumetric flow rates. Additionally, the array greatly enhances the heat flux dissipation capability of the hybrid coated pin–fin surface, extending CHF by 1.89–2.33 times compared to the single jet on this surface, with a minimal increase in pressure drop. The jet array coupled with the hybrid enhancement dissipates a maximum heat flux of 205.8 W/cm2 (heat input of 1.33 kW) at a flow rate of 1800 ml/min (corresponding to a jet diameter-based Reynolds number of 7800) with a pressure drop incurred of only 10.9 kPa. Compared to the single jet impinging on the smooth flat surface, the array of jets on the coated pin–fin enhanced surface increased CHF by a factor of over four at all flow rates.


Energies ◽  
2022 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 400
Author(s):  
Miftah Altwieb ◽  
Rakesh Mishra ◽  
Aliyu M. Aliyu ◽  
Krzysztof J. Kubiak

Multi-tube multi-fin heat exchangers are extensively used in various industries. In the current work, detailed experimental investigations were carried out to establish the flow/heat transfer characteristics in three distinct heat exchanger geometries. A novel perforated plain fin design was developed, and its performance was evaluated against standard plain and louvred fins designs. Experimental setups were designed, and the tests were carefully carried out which enabled quantification of the heat transfer and pressure drop characteristics. In the experiments the average velocity of air was varied in the range of 0.7 m/s to 4 m/s corresponding to Reynolds numbers of 600 to 2650. The water side flow rates in the tubes were kept at 0.12, 0.18, 0.24, 0.3, and 0.36 m3/h corresponding to Reynolds numbers between 6000 and 30,000. It was found that the louvred fins produced the highest heat transfer rate due to the availability of higher surface area, but it also produced the highest pressure drops. Conversely, while the new perforated design produced a slightly higher pressure drop than the plain fin design, it gave a higher value of heat transfer rate than the plain fin especially at the lower liquid flow rates. Specifically, the louvred fin gave consistently high pressure drops, up to 3 to 4 times more than the plain and perforated models at 4 m/s air flow, however, the heat transfer enhancement was only about 11% and 13% over the perforated and plain fin models, respectively. The mean heat transfer rate and pressure drops were used to calculate the Colburn and Fanning friction factors. Two novel semiempirical relationships were derived for the heat exchanger’s Fanning and Colburn factors as functions of the non-dimensional fin surface area and the Reynolds number. It was demonstrated that the Colburn and Fanning factors were predicted by the new correlations to within ±15% of the experiments.


2011 ◽  
Vol 134 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Hafiz Muhammad Ali ◽  
Adrian Briggs

This paper presents a fundamental study into the underlying mechanisms influencing heat transfer during condensation on enhanced surfaces. New experimental data are reported for condensation of ethylene glycol at near atmospheric pressure and low velocity on 11 different 3-dimensional pin-fin tubes tested individually. Enhancements of the vapor-side, heat-transfer coefficients were found between 3 and 5.5 when compared to a plain tube at the same vapor-side temperature difference. Heat-transfer enhancement was found to be strongly dependent on the active surface area of the tubes, i.e., on the surface area of the parts of the tube and pin surface not covered by condensate retained by surface tension. For all the tubes, vapor-side, heat-transfer enhancements were found to be approximately twice the corresponding active-area enhancements. The best performing pin-fin tube gave a heat-transfer enhancement of 5.5; 17% higher than obtained from “optimised” two-dimensional fin-tubes reported in the literature and about 24% higher than the “equivalent” two-dimensional integral-fin tube (i.e., with the same fin-root diameter, longitudinal fin spacing and thickness, and fin height). The effects of surface area and surface tension induced enhancement and retention are discussed in the light of the new data and those of previous investigations.


Author(s):  
Abubakar M. El-Jummah ◽  
Gordon E. Andrews ◽  
John E. J. Staggs

Conjugate heat transfer (CHT) computational fluid dynamics (CFD) predictions were carried out for impingement heat transfer with obstacle (fins) walls on the target surface midway between the impingement jets and aligned in the direction of the crossflow (direction of outflow of the impingement cooling air) to minimise the pressure loss increase due to the fins. A single sided flow exit was used in a geometry that was applicable to reverse flow cooling of low NOx combustors, but was also relevant to turbine blade and nozzle cooling. A 10 × 10 row of impingement jet holes (hole density n of 4306 m−2) was used, which had ten rows of holes in the cross-flow direction. One heat transfer enhancement obstacle per impingement jet was investigated and compared with previously published experimental results, for Nimonic 75 metal walls, for flow pressure loss and surface averaged heat transfer coefficients. Two different shaped obstacles were investigated with an impingement gap, Z, of 10mm: a continuous rectangular rib 4.5mm high (H) and 3.0 mm thick and a rectangular pin-fin rib with ten 8mm high (H) pins that were 8.6mm wide and 3.0 mm thick. The obstacles were equally spaced on the centreline between each row of impingement jets aligned with the crossflow. The impingement jet pitch to diameter X/D and gap to diameter Z/D ratios were kept constant at 4.66 and 3.06 for X, Z and D of 15.24, 10.00 and 3.27 mm, respectively. The two obstacles investigated had obstacle height to diameter ratio H/D of 1.38 and 2.45. The computations were carried out for three different air coolant mass fluxes G of 1.08, 1.48 and 1.94 kg/sm2bar. The pressure loss ΔP/P and surface average heat transfer coefficient (HTC) h predictions for all three G showed good agreement with the experimental results. The predicted results were also compared with the impingement jet single exit flow, for a smooth target wall of the same impingement hole configuration. A significant increase in the overall surface averaged heat transfer was predicted and measured for the co-flow configuration with rectangular pin-fins. This was a 20% improvement at low coolant flow rates for the rectangular pin fin obstacles and 15% for the ribs. At high coolant flow rates the improvement was smaller at 5% for the rectangular pin fins and 1% for the rectangular ribs.


Author(s):  
Marcel Otto ◽  
Erik Fernandez ◽  
Jayanta S. Kapat ◽  
Mark Ricklick ◽  
Shantanu Mhetras

Increasing the firing temperatures in gas turbines require better, and highly efficient means of heat removal of turbine blades so that metal temperatures stay within the limit of safe operation with respect to metal properties. This study focuses on the trailing edge region of a turbine blade. Ribs were added into a pin fin array in order to achieve better heat transfer compared to pin fin arrays without additional ribs as they are commonly used. Heat transfer measurements are obtained using the thermochromic liquid crystal technique (TLC) in a trapezoidal duct with pin fins and rib turbulators representing endwall cooling. The blockages due to pins are 35%, 50% and 65%. There are a total of 15 rows of pins in the streamwise direction, and 5 columns in the spanwise direction. The non-dimensional rib heights are 0, 0.27, 0.7 and 0.1. The minor angle of the trapeze is 14 degrees, the hydraulic diameter of the duct is 21 mm. The Reynolds Numbers tested, based on free stream velocity and the hydraulic diameter of the experiment, are 40,000 60,000 and 106,000. The test matrix for this study contains all possible blockage and rib height combinations for all three Reynolds Numbers tested. Streamwise averaged and spanwise averaged Nusselt number augmentations are compared to the Dittus-Boelter baseline case, and are presented for the endwalls together with heat transfer results for the pins. A pitot probe was traversed at the inlet and exit of the wind tunnel in order to measure the inlet and exit velocity profiles. For the endwall heat transfer, it was found for all configurations, that a local maxima occurs around one pin diameter downstream of the pin and a local heat transfer minima occurs near two pin diameters downstream of the pin. Nusselt number augmentation is generally higher closer to the longer side of the trapeze. The same trend is seen for the pin heat transfer which is in the columns closer to the long side of the duct larger than on the short edge of the duct. This claim can be supported with the results from the velocity profile measurements. Through the length of the duct, the flow shifts from the nose region to the larger opening on the opposite wall. This effect is weaker at higher flow rates, higher blockages, and larger ribs since more flow resistance exists, and this resistance hinders the flow to move sideward. Also, it is observed that increasing the blockage ratio as well as increasing the rib height, has a positive impact on heat transfer. It is also observed that increasing the Reynolds number causes a reduction in Nusselt number augmentation. At higher flow rates, the flow has higher momentum, and tends to be less impacted by the inclusion of the ribs, which results in the ribs being more effective at lower flow velocities. However, for low flow rates, the ribs only act as an extended surface, for higher flowrates though, the ribs act as turbulators as well which causes better mixing and a more evenly distributed heat transfer on the endwall. In order to interpret the presented measurements correctly, a comprehensive uncertainty analysis was conducted, and all heat transfer results are reported accurately within 12.3%. Repeatability tests show a maximum difference of 6%.


Author(s):  
Hafiz Muhammad Ali ◽  
Hassan Ali ◽  
Adrian Briggs

New experimental data are reported for condensation of ethylene glycol at near atmospheric pressure and low velocity on six three-dimensional pin-fin tubes. Enhancements of the vapour-side, heat-transfer coefficients were found between 3 to 5.5 when compared to a plain tube at the same vapour-side temperature difference. Heat-transfer enhancement was found to be strongly dependent on the active surface area i.e. on the proportion of the tube and pin surface not covered by condensate retained by surface tension. For all the tubes, vapour-side, heat-transfer enhancements were found to be approximately 3 times the corresponding active-area enhancements. The best performing pin-fin tube gave a heat-transfer enhancement of up to 5.5; 17% higher than those obtained from ‘optimised’ two-dimensional fin-tubes reported in the literature and about 24% higher than the ‘equivalent’ two-dimensional integral-fin tube (i.e. with same fin root diameter, longitudinal fin spacing and thickness and fin height).


2017 ◽  
Vol 48 (7) ◽  
pp. 657-679 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lei Luo ◽  
Chenglong Wang ◽  
Lei Wang ◽  
Bengt Sunden ◽  
Songtao Wang

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