V-cut twisted tape insert effect on heat transfer enhancement of single phase turbulent flow heat exchanger

Turbulator is recognized as a method to increase the performance of the heat exchanger. Turbulator in the form of V-cut twisted tape insert could help to increase the performance by enhancing the coefficient of the heat transfer. This paper proposes a new design of V-cut twisted tape insert (VTT) with different width ratio (w/W), which investigated on the heat transfer enhancement, in the form of Nusselt number (Nu) and friction factor (f) characteristics. Three different width ratios (w/W) 0.32; 0.38 and 0.48 are introduced in this experiment. The working fluid is the hot water in the inner tube and cold water in the annulus, the flow direction is counter-flow. The temperature inlet of hot water is kept constant at 60°C while the flow rate is in the range of Reynolds number 5400 - 17,350. The heat exchanger without insertion (plain tube) and typical twisted tape insert (TT) are examined for comparison. Results indicate that the proposed VTT increases the heat transfer, friction factor, and thermal performance of the heat exchanger. Under the similar condition, VTT provides the best performance in comparison with TT and plain tube. Decreasing width ratio (w/W) increases the heat transfer and thermal performance. However, when the heat transfer is increased, the friction factor is also increasing. The results also revealed that the use of the VTT and TT, the increase in the heat transfer and friction factor up to 97% and 3.48 times of the plain tube. The highest thermal performance is 1.4.