Experimental investigation on the convective heat transfer enhancement for highly viscous fluids in helical coiled corrugated tubes

In the present analysis, the forced convective heat transfer in smooth and corrugated helical coiled tubes was experimentally studied in the Reynolds and Dean number ranges 50÷1200 and 12÷295 respectively, by adopting Ethylene Glycol as working fluid. The primary aim of the investigation is to study the combined effect of the wall curvature and of the wall corrugation in the thermal entrance region for highly viscous fluids. Two coiled tubes with a curvature ratio of about 0.06, one with smooth wall and the other with spirally corrugated wall, were investigated under the uniform heat flux boundary condition. The main conclusion is that in the Reynolds number range analyzed, both curvature and corrugation enhance the heat transfer. For Dean number values lower than about 120 the wall curvature effect prevails, and the heat transfer enhancement reflects Nusselt numbers that are approximately 2–3 times higher than the straight smooth section. For greater Dean number values, the wall corrugation instead prevails. In fact the corrugated coiled tube reaches Nusselt number values which are up to 8 times higher than the ones expected for the smooth straight tube. The smooth coiled tube shows instead thermal performances at maximum 3.6 times over the straight section.