Simulation of heat transfer enhancement in tube flow with twisted tape insert

Abstract

Heat transfer behaviour in a tube with inserted twisted tape swirl generator is investigated numerically, for different values of the twist ratio and diameter ratio and for Reynolds numbers within the range 100-20,000. The transition-SST model is used as the turbulence model. The computational model is validated, first, on a plain tube, where a good agreement is achieved with the correlations. The subsequent analysis of the tube with twisted tape indicates that the use of twist tape enhances heat transfer generally, which is accompanied by a higher pressure drop. It is observed that an improvement of the thermal-hydraulic performance can only be observed for certain configurations and Reynolds numbers.