Enhancement of Heat Transfer in a Tube with Swirl Generators

Influence of strip self-rotating plastic spiral elements inserted in a tube on heat transfer enhancement is studied experimentally. The strip consists of 100 self-rotating spiral elements made of plastic polycarbonate inserted in the inner tube of a concentric tube heat exchanger with a view to generating swirl flow that helps to increase the heat transfer rate of the tube. Cold water flows in the annulus whereas the hot water flows in the inner tube. The obtained experimental data are compared with the data obtained from plain tube .Experimental results confirmed that the use of self-rotating plastic spiral elements leads to higher overall heat transfer coefficient than the plain tube. This technology is not only useful for heat transfer enhancement but also can be used for self cleaning deposition fouling in heat exchanger when the flow velocity is higher than 0.2 m/sec.