Numerical comparison study on heat transfer enhancement of different cross-section wire coils insert with varying pitches in a duct

Abstract

Heat transfer enhancement (HTE) efforts spent during the last half-century have become one of the most important working areas of researchers from both academia and industry. One of the most popular passive methods, with regard to the price-performance ratio, is to place wire coils in a pipe or duct. In this study, the heat and pressure drop characteristics of diamond, triangular, and circular cross-sectional wire coils (DWC, TWC, and CWC) in a square duct were investigated by using the FLUENT program. In addition to the cross-section examination, the thermo-hydraulic behavior of three different pitches (p = 54, 72, and 90 mm) for the specified geometries were also investigated. The Reynolds number was between 4387 and 18,415. The square duct was 1.25 m in length, and was 18 mm in diameter. The results showed that the Nusselt number of CWC, TWC, and DWC were higher than that of a smooth pipe within 38-88%, 37-93%, and 38-98% range, respectively. The friction of CWC, TWC, and DWC was observed to be higher than that of a plain tube within a range of 87-278%, 82-266%, and 107-366%, respectively. The TWC with 90 mm pitch showed the highest heat transfer performance evaluation criteria (PEC) with a performance coefficient of 1.3 at Reynolds number of 4504, whereas the DWC with 54 mm pitch was observed to show the lowest PEC. Thus, the as-obtained PEC, which is 30% higher than that of a plain tube, indicates the prominence and effectiveness of the numerical study in increasing the heat transfer.