Author : Jagpreet Singh, Ashwani Kumar and Satbir Sehgal

In heat exchangers, enhancement of heat transfer is achieved by increasing the convection heat transfer coefficient or by increasing the convection surface area. One of the method to increase the convection coefficient within a heat exchanger is by introduces inserts within the pipes/tubes. In the present work, introduction of inserts of different materials and cuts have been investigated computationally. Effect of introduction of inserts of different cuts (square, circular and triangular) inside the inner tube of single unit on heat transfer and friction factor for heating of water for Reynolds number range 500-3000 was studied. Three different materials of the inserts Galvanized Iron (GI), Aluminium (Al) and Copper (Cu) are used and the results reveals square cuts copper inserts performs better among the selection. The variation between computational and experimental Nusselt Number was observed to be 19-28% which is attributed due to simplicity of model and assumptions.

Keywords: Heat Exchanger, Inserts, CFD, Nusselt Number, Reynolds Number

Article published in International Journal of Current  Engineering  and Technology, Vol.4,No.3 (June- 2014)