• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.25 no.12
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• pp.1676-1683
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• 2001

An experimental study on condensation heat transfer characteristics of helically coiled spiral tubes was performed. The refrigerant is R-113. A refrigerant loop was established to measure the condensation heat transfer coefficients. Experiments were carried out uniform heat flux of 15 kw/m$^2$, refrigerant quality of 0.1∼0.9, curvature ratio of 0.016, 0.025 and 0.045. The curvature of a coil was defined as the ratio of the inside diameter of the tube to the diameter of the bending circle. To compare the condensation heat transfer coefficients of coiled spiral tubes, the previous results on coiled plain tubes and straight plain tubes were used. The results shows that the condensation heat transfer coefficients of coiled spiral tubes largely increase, as increasing Re and quality, compared to those of coiled plain tubes and straight plain tubes. As increasing degree of subcooling, however, the condensation heat transfer coefficients on coiled spiral tubes decrease. It is found that the heat transfer enhancement is more better than coiled plain tubes and straight plain tubes, as increasing curvature ratio.

• Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.212-226
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• 2006

This paper is a continuation of the authors' previous work on spiral coil heat exchangers. In the present study, the heat transfer characteristics and the performance of a spirally coiled finned tube heat exchanger under wet-surface conditions are theoretically and experimentally investigated. The test section is a spiral-coil heat exchanger which consists of a steel shell and a spirally coiled tube unit. The spiral-coil unit consists of six layers of concentric spirally coiled finned tubes. Each tube is fabricated by bending a 9.6 mm diameter straight copper tube into a spiral-coil of four turns. The innermost and outermost diameters of each spiral-coil are 145.0 and 350.4 mm, respectively. Aluminium crimped spiral fins with thickness of 0.6 mm and outer diameter of 28.4 mm are placed around the tube. The edge of fin at the inner diameter is corrugated. Air and water are used as working fluids in shell side and tube side, respectively. The experiments are done under dehumidifying conditions. A mathematical model based on the conservation of mass and energy is developed to simulate the flow and heat transfer characteristics of working fluids flowing through the heat exchanger. The results obtained from the present model show reasonable agreement with the experimental data.

• Korean Journal of Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Engineering
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.282-291
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• 1998

Heat transfer performance are studied for the turbulent flow of water in 3 smooth tube coils having ratios of coil to tube diameter of 16, 21 and 27, and a corrugated-coiled tube having a ratio of coil to tube diameter of 29, for Reynolds numbers from 8000 to 60000 and is also compared with the limited results available to data. The experiments are carried out for the fully developed turbulent flow of water in tube coils under the condition of uniform heat flux. This work is limited 0 tube coils of R/a between 10 and 30. The tube having a ratio of coil to tube diameter of 27 among the 3 smooth tube coils shows the best heat transfer performance. The performance of coiled tube best transfer performance. The performance of coiled tube with a similar curvature ratio is better for a corrugated-coiled tube(R/a=17) than for a smooth coiled tube(R/a=16). An empirical relation which correlates most of the data within $\pm$25% was also developed. Test result shows that the Nusselt number is found to be affected by a secondary flow due to curvature.