Turbulent flow heat transfer and pressure loss in a double pipe heat exchanger with louvered strip inserts

Abstract In the present work, heat transfer and friction characteristics were experimentally investigated, employing louvered strips inserted in a concentric tube heat exchanger. The louvered strip was inserted into the tube to generate turbulent flow which helped to increase the heat transfer rate of the tube. The flow rate of the tube was in a range of Reynolds number between 6000 and 42,000. The turbulent flow devices were consisted of (1) the louvered strips with forward or backward arrangements, and (2) the louvered strip with various inclined angles (θ = 15°, 25° and 30°), inserted in the inner tube of the heat exchanger. In the experiment, hot water was flowed through the inner tube whereas cold water was flowed in the annulus. The experimental data obtained were compared with those from plain tubes of published data. Experimental results confirmed that the use of louvered strips leads to a higher heat transfer rate over the plain tube. The increases in average Nusselt number and friction loss for the inclined forward louvered strip were 284% and 413% while those for the backward louvered strip were 263% and 233% over the plain tube, respectively. In addition, the use of the louvered strip with backward arrangement leads to better overall enhancement ratio than that with forward arrangement around 9% to 24%.