Heat transfer characteristics in a sudden expansion pipe equipped with swirl generators

This investigation is aimed at studying the heat transfer characteristics and pressure drop for turbulent airflow in a sudden expansion pipe equipped with propeller type swirl generator or spiral spring with several pitch ratios. The investigation is performed for the Reynolds number ranging from 7500 to 18,500 under a uniform heat flux condition. The experiments are also undertaken for three locations for the propeller fan (N = 15 blades and blade angle of 65 degrees) and three pitch ratios for the spiral spring (P/D = 10, 15 and 20). The influences of using the propeller rotating freely and inserted spiral spring on heat transfer enhancement and pressure drop are reported. In the experiments, the swirl generator and spiral spring are used to create a swirl in the tube flow. Mean and relative mean Nusselt numbers are determined and compared with those obtained from other similar cases. The experimental results indicate that the tube with the propeller inserts provides considerable improvement of the heat transfer rate over the plain tube around 1.69 times for X/H = 5. While for the tube with the spiral spring inserts, an improvement of the heat transfer rate over the plain tube around 1.37 times for P/d = 20. Thus, because of strong swirl or rotating flow, the propeller location and the spiral spring pitch become influential on the heat transfer enhancement. The increase in pressure drop using the propeller is found to be three times and for spiral spring 1.5 times over the plain tube. Correlations for mean Nusselt number, fan location and spiral spring pitch are provided. (C) 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.