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An experimental study of heat transfer enhancement with winglets inside a tube

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Abstract

The thermal enhancement and pressure drop in a circular tube with radially-arrayed winglet vortex generator (VG) mounted inside at different orientations were experimentally studied. A series of four winglet rings containing VGs were on the inner surface of the tube at different sections. The effects of winglet attack angles β (0–45°), pitch ratios PR (1.6–4.8), porosity ratio γ (0–20%), winglet length L (10–20 mm), and inclination angle α (0–30°) on heat transfer and pressure drop characteristics were carefully examined. The study was carried out at Reynolds numbers (Re) ranging from 6 × 103 to 2.7 × 104 nestling in the turbulent flow regime. Results showed a significant effect of the winglets on the heat transfer enhancement and pressure penalty compared to the smooth tube. Experiments further revealed that as the length or attack angle of winglets increased, both Nusselt number (Nu) and friction factor (f) were intensified. When it turned to pitch ratio and inclination angle of winglets, the trend became adverse. By comparing the contribution of different winglet parameters, it is preferable to optimize the pitch ratio (PR) other than length, inclination angle (α) nor attack angle (β) for a higher thermal enhancement. The case of small porosity ratio (γ = 10%) at a low Re yields the maximum thermal enhancement of 1.26. Empirical correlations for Nu and f were generated for the winglets based on experimental data.

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Abbreviations

A [m2]:

Lateral area of the duct

Cp [Jkg-1K-1)]:

Capacity

D [m]:

Diameter of the duct

f [-]:

Friction factor

H [m]:

Height of winglet vortex generator

h [Wm-2K-1]:

Convective heat transfer coefficient

I [A]:

Current

k [Wm-1K-1]:

Thermal conductivity

L [m]:

Length of vortex generator

l [m]:

Length of test section

\( \dot{m} \) [kgs-1]:

Mass flow rate

Nu [-]:

Nusselt number

P [m]:

Pitch

PR [-]:

Pitch ratio

∆P [Pascal]:

Pressure drop

Pr [-]:

Prandtl number

Q [J]:

Heat

R :

Result function

δR :

Error of result

Re [-]:

Reynolds number

T [K]:

Temperature

t [m]:

Tube thickness

U [ms-1]:

Velocity

V [volt]:

Voltage

\( \dot{V} \) [m3s-1]:

Volumetric flow rate

X :

Independent variable

δX :

Error of independent variable

\( \overline{X} \) :

Averaged variable

α [°]:

Inclination angle

β [°]:

Attack angle

γ [-]:

Porosity ratio

ρ [kgm-3]:

Density

υ [m2s-1]:

Kinematic viscosity

b :

bulk

conv :

Convective

D :

Duct

i :

index

in :

Inlet

loss :

Heat loss

out :

Outlet

O :

Smoothduct

pp :

Pump power

s :

Surface

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Acknowledgements

We gratefully acknowledge the support of the Khalifa University of Science and Technology, Abu Dhabi, UAE and the Petroleum Institute, Abu Dhabi (Research Grant: RIFP 15322-2015) for the completion of this research work.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Khalifa University of Science and Technology, P.O. Box 2533, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates

    G. Liang, Md. Islam & Imad Barsoum

  2. Department of Automobile and Traffic Engineering, Guilin University of Aerospace Technology, Guilin, Guilin, 541001, China

    G. Liang

  3. Institute for Turbulence-Noise-Vibration Interaction and Control, Harbin Institute of Technology (Shenzhen), Shenzhen, Shenzhen, 518055, China

    Md. Mahbub Alam

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Correspondence to Md. Islam.

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Liang, G., Islam, M., Alam, M.M. et al. An experimental study of heat transfer enhancement with winglets inside a tube. Heat Mass Transfer 57, 1223–1234 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00231-021-03021-0

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