Accepted Manuscript

Experimental and Numerical Investigations on the Heat Transfer and

Flow Characteristics of a Helical Coil Heat Exchanger

A. Sheeba , C.M. Abhijith , M. Jose Prakash

PII: S0140-7007(18)30491-2
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijrefrig.2018.12.002
Reference: JIJR 4198

To appear in: International Journal of Refrigeration

Received date: 28 July 2018

Revised date: 3 December 2018
Accepted date: 4 December 2018

Please cite this article as: A. Sheeba , C.M. Abhijith , M. Jose Prakash , Experimental and Numer-
ical Investigations on the Heat Transfer and Flow Characteristics of a Helical Coil Heat Exchanger,
International Journal of Refrigeration (2018), doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijrefrig.2018.12.002

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 ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT

Highlights
 Heat transfer and flow characteristics of the heat exchanger is analysed.
 Numerical results are validated with experimental results.
 Heat transfer coefficient is higher in this heat exchanger.
 From heat transfer point of view there exists an optimum value of pitch.
 A correlation is proposed to predict Nusselt number.

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Experimental and Numerical Investigations on the Heat Transfer and Flow

Characteristics of a Helical Coil Heat Exchanger
Sheeba A., Abhijith.C. M, Jose Prakash M.*
Dept. of Mechanical Engineering
T.K.M College of Engineering, Kollam, Kerala, India
*Corresponding author email: jpmmech@yahoo.co.in

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Abstract

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Experimental and numerical investigations have been carried out on a helical coil double pipe

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heat exchanger to study its heat transfer and flow characteristics. Two major parameters are

identified to affect convective heat transfer, namely the Dean number and torsion. Overall heat

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transfer coefficients are calculated and the heat transfer coefficients are determined using

Wilson plot. The numerical scheme is validated with the experimental results obtained from
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present study also with that reported in literature. The results showed that use of helical coil

heat exchanger instead of straight tube type leads to an enhancement in the Nusselt number.
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However the friction factor is high in helical coil. The Nusselt number in the inner tube and
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annulus increase with Dean number and the effect of Dean number on Nusselt number is more

significant in the annulus. The overall heat transfer coefficient varies with pitch and there
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exists an optimum value of pitch. A correlation is proposed to estimate Nusselt number in

terms of Dean number, Prandtl number and dimensionless pitch.

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Keywords: Helical coil, Dean number, Torsion, Nusselt number, friction factor
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Nomenclature :
English symbols Greek symbols
d diameter of the inner tube[m] μ dynamic viscosity[cP]
m mass flow rate [kgs-1] τ stress [Nm-2]
f friction factor ρ density[kg m-3]
Ψ dimensionless pitch

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h heat transfer coefficient [Wm-2K-1]

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k thermal conductivity [W(mK)-1] Subscripts

p pitch of the helical coil [m] c cold fluid

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r radius [m] f fluid

t time [s] i inner

u velocity in the x direction [ms-1]

v velocity in the y direction [ms-1]
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o outer
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w velocity in the z direction [ms-1] r radial direction

A area [m2] w copper wall

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D diameter of the outer tube[m] z axial direction

De Dean number θ angular direction

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L length of the heat exchanger[m]

Nu Nusselt number
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P pressure[Pa]
Pr Prandtl number
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R radius of curvature[m]
Re Reynolds number
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T temperature[K]
U overall heat transfer coefficient[Wm-2K-1]
V velocity of flow [ms-1]
Cp specific heat [kJ(kgK)-1]

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1. Introduction

Helical coils are widely used in applications such as refrigeration, food processing, heat

recovery systems. The heat transfer rates in helical coils are high compared to straight pipes

especially in the laminar regime. The pipe curvature causes centrifugal forces to act on the

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flowing fluid, resulting in a secondary flow pattern perpendicular to the main axial flow. This

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secondary flow pattern generally consists of two vortices, which move fluid from the inner

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wall of the tube across the centre of the tube to the outer wall and it travel back to the inner

wall following the wall. The secondary flow motion induced by the curvature effect and the

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resultant centrifugal force makes heat transfer coefficient and friction factor greater than that in

a straight pipe. Also, torsion of helically coiled tubes causes more complication in temperature
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and velocity fields. An increase in pressure drop and heat transfer rate in helical pipes were

reported by Yildiz et al., (1995). Three dimensional laminar forced flow and heat transfer in
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the entrance region of helical pipes have been investigated by Lin et al., (1996) using a fully
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elliptic numerical method. Laminar flow at a higher Reynolds number generates a weaker

oscillation of the average friction factor than that at a lower Reynolds number. Ali(1997)
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studied natural convection heat transfer from uniformly heated helical tubes oriented

horizontally in air and proposed a correlation to determine heat transfer coefficient. Zheng et
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al., (2000) investigated the effects of thermal radiation on convective heat transfer and found
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that thermal radiation could enhance the total heat transfer rate. Prabhanjan et al. (2002)

illustrated the advantage of using a helically coiled heat exchanger versus a straight tube heat

exchanger for heating liquids. The experiments were done in the transitional and turbulent flow

regions. Prabhajan et al.,(2004) carried out an experimental investigation on the natural

convection heat transfer from helical coiled tubes immersed in water. They correlated outside

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Nusselt number to the Rayleigh number and considered coil height as the best representation

for a vertical coil. An experimental investigation of steady state natural convection heat

transfer from uniformly heated helicoidal pipes oriented vertically and horizontally are

presented by Moawed (2005). The results showed that the overall Nusselt number increases

with the increase in ratios of coil diameter to pipe diameter (D/do), pitch to pipe diameter (p/do)

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and length to pipe diameter (L/do) for vertical helicoidal pipes. Rennie et al., (2006) conducted

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numerical studies on a double pipe helical heat exchanger in the laminar regime. Overall heat

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transfer coefficients were calculated for both parallel flow and counter flow and obtained a

correlation for annulus Nusselt number in terms modified Dean number. Experimental and

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numerical investigations of heat transfer characteristics of tube in tube heat exchanger were
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carried out in counter current mode operation by Kumar et al., (2006). Shokouhmand et

al.,(2007) conducted studies on a helical coil heat exchanger with air and water as the heat
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transfer fluid and proposed a correlation for estimating the heat transfer coefficient. Conte et

al., (2008) performed numerical investigation to understand forced laminar flow in rectangular
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coiled pipes with circular cross section. Conical coils showed better heat transfer performance.

Chen et al.,(2008) conducted numerical studies on double tube heat exchanger in parallel and
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counter flow configurations. Inner tube with oval cross section showed better heat transfer
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characteristics. Xiaowen et al., (2009) reported an improvement in the coefficient of

performance of a domestic water cooled air conditioner when helical heat exchanger was used.
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Fluid to fluid heat transfer characteristics of compressed air with turbulent flow in double pipe

helical heat exchanger was investigated by Mandal and Nigam (2009). Correlations for friction

factor and Nusselt number in the inner and outer tubes were proposed. Kharat et al.,(2009)

developed a correlation for heat transfer coefficient for flow between concentric helical coils.

Jayakumar et al.,(2010) carried out CFD simulations of vertically oriented helical coils with
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turbulent flow of water. They proposed correlations for the estimation of average Nusselt

number for both the constant wall temperature and constant wall heat flux boundary

conditions. The mixed convection heat transfer in a coil in shell heat exchanger was

experimentally investigated by Ghorbani et al.,(2010). Experiments were conducted for both

laminar and turbulent flow inside coil. Critical heat flux experiments were conducted by Chen

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et al.,(2011) in horizontal helically coiled tubes with refrigerant R134a as the heat transfer

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fluid. It is reported that the coil to diameter ratio is more important than length to diameter

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ratio and proposed a correlation to estimate critical heat flux. Forced convection heat transfer

from a constant heat flux helical coil tube was experimentally investigated by Moawed (2011).

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Studies were conducted varying the coil parameters and obtained a correlation heat transfer
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coefficient in terms of Reynolds number and geometric parameters. Haruki and Horibe(2013)

studied the flow and heat transfer characteristics of ice slurries in a helically-coiled pipe. The
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interaction between the buoyant force and the centrifugal force, due to secondary flow has

significant effect on the flow resistance. In contrast, the heat transfer coefficient was
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influenced by the latent heat of the ice particles. Mahmoudi et al., (2017) investigated the

forced convection heat transfer and pressure drop in helically coiled pipes using TiO2/water
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nanofluid and reported that for a given Reynolds number, Dean number has a significant effect
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on heat transfer. Xu et al.,(2018) experimentally investigated heat transfer characteristics of

supercritical CO2 in helically coiled tubes with constant wall heat flux. They investigated the
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effect of mass flux, heat flux and diameter on the dimensionless exergy destruction. Results

indicate that the dimensionless exergy destruction caused by the irreversibility of heat transfer

is much larger than that by flow friction for supercritical CO2. Dubba et al.,(2018) presented an

experimental study of a diabatic flow of R-600a through a concentric configured helically

coiled capillary tube suction line heat exchanger. A semi empirical correlation was proposed to
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predict the mass flow rate of R-600a flowing through adiabatic helical coiled capillary tube.

Izadpanah et al.,(2018) studied the natural convection heat transfer over the outer surface of

helically coiled heat exchanger inside a water tank. The effect of coil diameter, pitch, turns and

mass flow rate were studied and presented a power law correlation for the Nusselt number.

The main focus of this study is to provide useful insight into the thermal and flow

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characteristics of double pipe helical coil heat exchangers. In the numerical study, interface

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boundary condition is applied at the solid-fluid interfaces and the heat transfer is computed

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using the conjugate heat transfer algorithm available in Fluent. The results obtained from

numerical studies are compared with the data obtained from our experimental studies. This

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study proposes a correlation for Nusselt number in terms of Dean number, Prandtl number and
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dimensionless pitch.

2. Experimental system
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2.1 Geometrical details of the heat exchanger

Table 1 Dimensions of coil used in the present study

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Parameter Value(mm)
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Outside diameter of inner tube(do) 9.5

Inside diameter of inner tube(di) 7.9
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Wall thickness of both inner and outer tubes(t) 0.8

Outside diameter of outer tube(Do) 15.9
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Inside diameter of outer tube(Di) 14.3

Radius of curvature of the helical coil(R) 235.9
Pitch of the helical coil varied from (P) 16 - 144
Length of the coil(L) 2960

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Table 1 shows the dimensions of the helical coil tube in tube heat exchanger considered for the

study.

2.2 Experimental setup

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Fig. 1 Experimental setup

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The schematic diagram of the experimental setup is shown in the figure 1. The test

section i.e. the helical coil heat exchanger is made of copper tubes. In order to prevent the heat
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loss from the heat exchanger to the surroundings two layers of insulations are provided on the

outer surface of the heat exchanger. The first layer is polyurethane foam (PUF) insulation and

the second layer is asbestos rope. The cold water is circulated through the annulus and hot

water is circulated through the inner tube. Centrifugal pumps are used to pump the hot and cold

fluids and the flow rate is regulated using valves. An electric heater with capacity of 12 litres is
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used to supply hot water to the inner tube. Calibrated T type thermocouples are used for

measuring the temperature at salient points in the heat exchanger. The accuracy of the

thermocouples used is ±0.50C. Flow meters with an accuracy of ± 1 % of full scale are used to

measure the flow rates. The pressure drop in the inner tube and annuls is measured using a

differential pressure gauges with an accuracy 0.5% of the reading. A data acquisition system is

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used to acquire the temperature data. The maximum uncertainty in the estimation of Nusselt

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number is 3.35 %.

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2.3 Experimental procedure

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Experiments are conducted on helical coil tube in tube heat exchanger in the counter flow

configuration. Flow rates in the annulus and inner tube are varied within limits which resulted
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in laminar flow for both fluids. The following flow rates are used: 0.1, 0.3, 0.5, 0.7 and 0.9

lpm. All possible combinations of these flow rates in both the annulus and the inner tube are
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considered. The experiments are repeated thrice for every combination of flow rates which
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resulted in 75 trials. The inner Dean number in the range 170 to 600 and annulus Dean number

in the range of 36 to 120. The inlet temperature of the hot fluid is in the range 65-80oC and that
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of the cold fluid is in the range 28-30oC. The outlet temperature of hot fluid is in the range 38-

52oC and that of the cold fluid is in the range 37-45oC.

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2.4 Data reduction

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The heat transfer from the hot and cold fluids are calculated by applying the energy balance

equation as shown below.

The rate of heat transfer ( ) ( ) (1)

Overall heat transfer coefficient, (2)

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Outside surface area of the inner tube, (3)

Where L is the length of the tube and d0 is the outer diameter of the inner tube.

( )
Log mean temperature difference, (4)
( )

Where, ΔT1= Th1-Tc2 and ΔT2 = Th2-Tc1

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The heat transfer coefficients at the inner and outer surface of the inner tube are

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calculated using Wilson plots.

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The flow through the inner tube was kept constant and the flow in the annulus was varied for

the five different flow rates.

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The overall heat transfer coefficient can be related to the inner and outer heat transfer

coefficients by equation 5,
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( ⁄ )
(5)
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Where Aii and Aiois the inside and outside surface areas of the inner tube respectively and di

and do are the inside and outside diameters of the inner tube respectively. k w is the thermal
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conductivity of the copper tube and L is the length of the heat exchanger.

After calculating the overall heat transfer coefficient, the only variable in the above equation
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that are unknown are the heat transfer coefficients. By keeping the mass flow rate in the inner
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tube constant, it is then assumed that the inner heat transfer coefficient is constant. The outer

heat transfer coefficient is assumed to behave in the following manner with the fluid velocity
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in the annulus, Vo,

(6)
This is substituted in equation 5 as shown below,
(7)

n is taken as 0.8(Wilson,1915) for single phase, forced convection problems, and

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( ⁄ )
(8)

The values of C and H were determined through curve fitting. C is obtained from slope of the

plot between 1/U0 and ν0-n and H from the y-intercept. The values of hi and ho were then

calculated. This procedure was repeated for all the five inner flow rates. The inner and annulus

Nusselt numbers were calculated from the above values of hi and ho by using the following

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relation,

The Nusselt number, (9)

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The Prandtl Number was calculated by using the following relation, (10)

Dean number De = √
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The head loss in the inner tube and annulus are measured using differential pressure gauge.
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From the pressure drop value friction factor is found out using the formula,
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(11)
( )( )
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Where ΔP is the pressure drop between inlet and outlet, u is the mean velocity of flow, ρ is the

density, L is the length and d is the hydraulic diameter of selected tube.

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Based on the nature of the correlations available in the literature, a correlation of the following
form is appropriate.
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Nu = C DexPryψz (12)
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After linearization of the function, and using the regression analysis(available in excel
software) the values of C, x, y and z are obtained.

3. Numerical Setup

The 3D-geometry of the double tube helical coil heat exchanger is modeled using AutoCAD

14.0 and ANSYS 14.5 Design Modeler. The mesh was created using meshing module of the

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ANSYS 14.5 workbench. Initially a relatively coarser mesh is generated. This mesh contains

mixed cells (Tetra and Hexahedral cells) having both triangular and quadrilateral faces at the

boundaries. Care is taken to use structured hexahedral cells as much as possible. It is meant to

reduce numerical diffusion as much as possible by structuring the mesh in a well manner,

particularly near the wall region. Later on, a fine mesh is generated and inflation layers are

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provided for all the solid-fluid wall interfaces. The heat transfer analysis of the tube in tube

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heat exchanger is solved using Fluent 14.5. Mass flow boundary conditions are applied at the

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inlets and pressure outlet boundary conditions are specified at the outlets. The hot and cold

fluids flow in the counter flow configuration. Adiabatic boundary condition is applied at the

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outer surface of the heat exchanger. Interface boundary condition is used at the solid-fluid
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interfaces and the heat transfer is computed using the conjugate heat transfer algorithm

available in Fluent. The numerical computation is considered to be convergent when the

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residual summed over all the computational nodes at the nth iteration is not more than 10−6 .

The mass flow rate of both inner fluid and outer fluid are taken as 0.3, 0.5, 0.7, 0.8 and 0.9 lpm
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in succession to obtain a total of 25 simulations. Pressure based solver with steady state

conditions are preferred in the solver settings. The effect of temperature on the properties of
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water like thermal conductivity ( k ), viscosity (μ), and specific heat (Cp) are considered using
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the following equations.

kf= -1.273+0.013T-2.82e-5T2+2.083e-8T3 (13)

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µf= 0.078-6.51e-4T+1.834e-6T2-1.735e-9T3 (14)

Cpf= 4181-0.19T+0.00125T2+4.167e-5T3 (15)

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Present study considers the fluid flow in a helical coil heat exchanger. The flow is steady

and incompressible. The governing equations namely continuity, momentum and energy

equations in cylindrical polar coordinates are given below.

Continuity equation

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𝜕( ) 𝜕 𝜕
( 𝜕𝜃𝜃 ) (𝜕 ) (16) Momentum equation

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𝜕

r component

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𝜕 𝜃 𝜕 𝜃 𝜕 𝜕 𝜕 𝜕 𝜕
* ( 𝜕 )+ * ( )
𝜕 𝜕𝜃 𝜕 𝜕 𝜕 𝜕𝜃

𝜕
( 𝜕𝜃𝜃 )
𝜕
𝜕
+ (17)
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θ component

𝜕 𝜃 𝜃 𝜕( 𝜃 ) 𝜃 𝜕 𝜕 𝜕 𝜕 𝜃 𝜕
* ( 𝜕 𝜃 )+ 𝜃 * ( ) 𝜃 𝜃
𝜕 𝜕𝜃 𝜕𝜃 𝜕 𝜕 𝜕𝜃
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𝜕 𝜕 𝜃
( 𝜕𝜃 ) + (18)
𝜕
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z component

𝜕 𝜃 𝜕 𝜕 𝜕 𝜕 𝜕 𝜕 𝜕
* + * ( ) + (19)
𝜕 𝜕𝜃 𝜕 𝜕 𝜕 𝜕 𝜕𝜃 𝜕
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Energy equation

𝜕 𝜕 𝜕 𝜕 𝜕 𝜕 𝜕 𝜕 𝜕
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𝜃
* + * ( ) + [( 𝜕 ) ( ( 𝜕𝜃𝜃 ))
𝜕 𝜕𝜃 𝜕 𝜕 𝜕 𝜕𝜃 𝜕

𝜕 𝜕 𝜃 𝜕 𝜕 𝜕 𝜕 𝜕
( ) ] [( ) ( ) ( ( 𝜃 )) ] (20)
𝜕 𝜕 𝜕𝜃 𝜕 𝜕 𝜕𝜃 𝜕
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The SIMPLE algorithm is used for pressure velocity coupling with second order upwind

scheme for the discretization of the momentum and energy equations. Hybrid initialization

method was used for initializing the flow variables which is found to have faster convergence

as compared to standard initialization in this particular case. Grid independence study is

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conducted wherein the grid is refined successively using edge sizing and inflation growth rates.

This is repeated until a tolerance of about 1% difference in two successive refinements.

4. Result and discussion

Experimental and numerical investigations have been carried out to study the effect of

Reynolds number, Dean number and torsion on the heat transfer and flow characteristics in a

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double tube helical coil heat exchanger. The flows in both inner tube and annulus are laminar

and the flow configuration is counter flow. In the numerical study pitch is varied from 16 mm

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to 144 mm maintaining the length and radius of curvature same.

4.1 Effect of Dean number on heat transfer

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Fig.2 shows the variation of heat transfer with the Dean number in the inner tube, obtained
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from the present experimental studies. Here the pitch of the coil is 48 mm. The inner flow rate

is varied from 0.3 to 0.9 lpm keeping mass flow rate through the annulus constant. The results
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obtained from numerical studies are also shown for comparison. There is fair agreement
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between the result obtained from experimental and numerical studies and the maximum

deviation is only 10%. The heat transfer rate increases by 75 % when the Dean number is
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increased from 325 to 600 and this is because of the increase in secondary flow which ensures

proper mixing of the fluid inside the tube.

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1200
Experimental
1000
Heat transfer rate (kW)

Numerical
800

600

400

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100 200 300 400 500 600 700
Inner De

Fig. 2 Effect of inner Dean number on heat transfer rate

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Fig. 3 indicates the variation of overall heat transfer coefficient with inner Dean number for
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various flow rates through the annulus. From the graph it is clear that Dean number has a

significant effect on the overall heat transfer coefficients when the outer flow rate is high. For
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the flow rate of 0.3 lpm the overall heat transfer coefficient increases by 25 % when the Dean

number is increased from 172 to 584 and the corresponding increase for the flow rate of 0.9
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lpm is 29%. At higher annulus flow rates, the flow rate in the inner tube is the limiting factor
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of the overall heat transfer coefficient, hence any change in the inner flow rate will have

significant effect.
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The numerical scheme is further validated with the experimental results reported by
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Rennie et al.(2005) (figure. 4). There is very good agreement between the results obtained

from numerical studies and the experimental results reported and this gave the confidence to

proceed with the numerical scheme.

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800

700
Uo( W/m2K)

600

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500 num. 0.3 lpm
exp. 0.3 lpm

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num. 0.5 lpm
400 exp. 0.5 lpm

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num. 0.9 lpm
exp. 0.9 lpm
300
100 200 300 400 500 600
Inner De

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Fig. 3 Effect of inner Dean number on overall heat transfer coefficient
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700

600
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500
Uo (W/m2K)

400
ED

300

200
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Rennie et al.(2005)
100 numerical
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0
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2
Mass flow rate lpm
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Fig.4 Variation of overall heat transfer coefficient with inner mass flow rate

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18

16

14

12
Inner Nu

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4
Experimental

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2 Numerical
0
100 200 300 400 500 600 700
Inner De

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Fig. 5 Effect of inner Dean number on inner Nusselt number
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In the experimental studies Wilson plot is used to estimate the heat transfer coefficients. Fig. 5

indicates the variation of inner Nusselt number with inner Dean number. The data obtained
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from numerical studies are also shown for comparison. There is good agreement between the

data obtained from experiments and numerical studies. The increase in inner Nusselt number is
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50 % when the Dean number is varied from 170 to 585.

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Fig. 6 shows the variation of annulus Nusselt number with Dean number in the annulus. The

data obtained from numerical studies are also shown for comparison. There is fair agreement
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between the data obtained from experiments and numerical studies. The increase in annulus

Nusselt number is 150 % when the Dean number is varied from 36 to 114.
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30

25

20
Annulus Nu

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Experimental
Numerical
5

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0
20 40 60 80 100 120
Annulus De

Fig. 6 Effect of annulus Dean number on annulus Nusselt number

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4.2 Effect of Dean number on friction factor
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0.12
Experiment
0.1 Straight tube
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xin et al. (1997)

Friction factor

0.08 Hart et al. (1988)

0.06
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0.04
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0.02

0
0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700
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Inner De

Fig.7 Effect of inner Dean number on friction factor in the inner tube

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0.25
experiment
straight tube
0.2 Hart et al. (1988)
Mishra and Gupta (1979)
Friction factor

0.15

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0.1

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0.05

0
25 75 125
Annulus De
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175

Fig. 8 Effect of Dean number on the friction factor in the annulus

225
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Fig. 7 and 8 illustrate the comparison of friction factor obtained from present experimental

study with that obtained from various models. In the helical heat exchanger the friction factor
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is higher in both inner and outer tubes compared to straight heat exchanger. In the case inner
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tube Xin et al.(1997) correlation is successful in predicting the friction factor with reasonable

accuracy. In the case of annulus the values obtained from Hart et al.(1998) equation are closer
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to that obtained from experiments. The pressure drop in both inner and annulus flow increases

with increase in Dean number. The rate of increase of pressure drop of annulus flow is greater
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than that of the inner flow. Also the pressure drop for annulus flow is higher at lower Reynolds
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number range compared to that of inner flow. Annulus flow encounters more shear stress than

inner flow because of greater surface area in fluid path.

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4.3 Effect of pitch on overall heat transfer coefficient

Numerical studies have been carried to explore the effect of pitch on the heat transfer. Pitch of

the coil is varied from 16 mm to 144 mm keeping the radius of curvature and dimensions the

coil of as constant.

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570

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565

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560
Uo( W/m2K)

555

550

545
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0 25 50 75 100 125 150
Pitch mm

Fig.9 Variation of overall heat transfer coefficient with pitch

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Figure 9 shows the effect of pitch on overall heat transfer coefficient. The overall heat transfer
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coefficient increases with pitch to a maximum value and then decreases. As the helix angle

increases the torsion of the liquid increases which in turn causes an increase in heat transfer
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rate. As pitch increases further the centrifugal forces decreases for same Reynolds number thus

weakening the secondary flow field and ultimately attaining the straight tube behavior.
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4.3 Formulation of heat transfer correlation

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From the numerical investigations it is clear that the pitch has significant effect on heat transfer

characteristics at lower pitches. The correlations for Nusselt number had also been made in

terms of curvature ratio and Prandtl number. The present correlation incorporates the effect of

pitch also. So a non-dimensional parameter ψ is proposed and is given by,

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Ψ= (21)

Where, p is the pitch in mm and R is the radius of curvature.

Based on the nature of the correlations available in the literature, a correlation of the following
form is appropriate.

Nu = C DexPryψz (22)

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The data obtained from the numerical studies are fitted using regression analysis.

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The proposed correlation for finding out the Nusselt number is:

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Nu = 3.6063 De0.2216 Pr0.0540 ψ0.0472 (23)

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18
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AN
16
14
Nusselt number

12
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10
8
Rennie et al,(2005)
6
Numerical
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4
2 Experimental
0
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0 5 10 15 20
Nu correlation
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Fig.10 Comparison between Nusselt number obtained from correlation and experimental and
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numerical data
Fig.10 indicates the comparison between Nusselt number obtained from correlation and

experimental and numerical data. It can be concluded that present equation is reliable due to

the consistency of results.

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5. Conclusions

Convective heat transfer of fully developed laminar flow in a helical tube in tube heat

exchanger is experimentally and numerically studied. The heat transfer behavior in a helical

heat exchanger is significantly affected by two major parameters namely Dean number and

torsion. The secondary flow is stronger when the Dean number increases. The following

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conclusions are derived out of this studies(i) the numerical model is able to predict the heat

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transfer and flow characteristics of the heat exchanger(ii)effect of Dean number on the Nusselt

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number is more predominant in the annulus(iii) the pressure drop in the helical heat exchanger

is high compared to straight tube(iv) Overall heat transfer coefficient varies with torsion and

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there exists an optimum value of pitch(v) the proposed correlation successful in predicting the
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Nusselt number from Dean number, Prandtl and the dimensionless pitch.

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