Exergo-Economic Performance Evaluation of Enhanced Tube under Equivalent Pump Power Consumption

Based on the first and second laws of thermodynamics as well as exergo-economic theory, comprehensive performance evaluation criterion has been proposed for enhanced tube under the condition of equivalent pump (fan) power consumption, accounting for a variety of factors such as heat transfer, flow and investment costs. Performance evaluation criterion formula, namely, net profit value (NPV) has been derived from the perspective of the exergy recovery. Take spirally corrugated tube as an example, the results show that the exergo-economic performance of the spirally corrugated tube is superior to smooth tube for the range considered in the present study. From the viewpoint of NPV, although NPV of enhanced tube is greater than that of smooth tube, there exist critical values of Re and Nq exceeding which NPV of enhanced tube would be less than zero, showing no engineering significance.