INFLUENCE OF NONUNIFORM TWISTED TAPE ON HEAT TRANSFER ENHANCEMENT CHARACTERISTICS

An experimental study of heat transfer and friction factor characteristics in a circular tube fitted by twisted tapes with nonuniform twist ratios is reported. The twisted tapes are used as swirl generators playing roles as heat transfer enhancers. The nonuniform twisted tapes examined in the present work have (1) sequentially increasing twist ratios (SL), (2) sequentially decreasing twist ratios (LS), (3) repeatedly increasing-decreasing twist ratios (SL/SL), (4) repeatedly decreasing-increasing twist ratios (LS/LS), (5) intermittently increasing-decreasing twist ratios (SL→LS), and (6) intermittently decreasing-increasing twist ratios (LS→SL). In addition, three different typical twisted tapes with twist ratios of 3.0, 4.0, and 5.0 (TT) were also evaluated. Apparently, LS yields monotonically increasing swirling intensity and SL decreasing swirling intensity, resulting in lower heat transfer rate and friction factor than the other four nonuniform twisted tapes, which possess extra fluid fluctuation. However, among the tapes tested, the SL/SL offers the maximum thermal performance factor of around 1.03, which corresponds to Nusselt number of around 36% and friction factor of 3.57 times over those of the plain tube. © 2012 Copyright Taylor and Francis Group, LLC.