6th ASIA PACIFIC International Modern Sciences Congress

Numerical prediction for turbulent flow and heat transfer in elliptical twisted tube

Khudheyer S. Mushatet
Department of Mechanical Engineering, College of Engineering, University of Thi-Qar, Al-
Nasiriyah, Iraq
Ali k. Abdul Razzaq
Department of Mechanical Engineering, College of Engineering, University of Thi-Qar, Al-
Nasiriyah, Iraq

Abstract
Heat transfer and Turbulent flow characteristics of fluid flow inside in the double elliptical twisted
tube heat exchanger with different volume concentrations of nano fluid were investigated
numerically. The investigation has been conducted for Reynolds number range from 5000 to 30000
while the twist ratio (Tr=5). Four values of nano fluid volume concentration is examined as
(φ=0.05, 1, 2.5, 4) %.The research is aim to promote the heat transfer enhancement by means of the
combined mechanism of the double elliptical twisted tube heat exchanger and nano fluid. The
obtained results show that the the twisted elliptical tube improvement the heat transfer performance
compared with plain tube. This increase is improved as the volume concentration of nano fluid
increases. The twisted elliptical tube can reduce the dissipation based thermal resistance that
provides the great benefit in heat transfer. In addition, the numerical consequence revealed that, the
effectiveness of the heat exchanger and the overall performance factor increase as twist ratio
decreases. The twist pitch has an influence on the overall thermal hydraulic performances. The
twisted elliptical tube with φ=4% and Tr=5 has the best overall thermal-hydraulic performance. The
twist elliptical tube bring on the pressure drop because of the twisted wall the pressure drop both
increase with increasing Reynolds number.

Keywords: Twisted elliptical tube, Nano fluid, Turbulent flow, Double tube heat exchanger

Nomenclature

LMTD Logarithmic mean temperature difference

ϵ Effectiveness
Cp Specific heat (J/kg.K)
m mass (kg)
𝛥𝑃 Pressure drop (pa)
𝑅𝑒 Reynolds number
Tr Twisted ratio
P Twisted pitch (mm)
K thermal conductivity,wm/k
Greek symbols
µ Dynamic viscosity, kg. m-1.s-1
ρ Density (kg/m3)
η Overall Performance
φ concentration of nanofluid, %

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Introduction
Heat exchangers are widely used in various commercial and engineering industries. Therefore, the
design of heat exchangers is a complex matter. It needs careful analysis of the hydraulic, thermal
performance regardless of the equipment's long-term performance problems and financial costs. It is
necessary to use optimization methods that increase thermal performance and efficiency, offset by a
rise in pressure drop, resulting in an increase in pumping power and, consequently, an increase in
losses. Therefore, it is preferable to use double-tube heat exchangers because they are used in high-
pressure applications and are essential when a wide range of temperatures is required. Tan et al. [1]
experimentally studied the overall performance of heat transfer and pressure drop on both sides of a
twisted oval tube heat exchanger. In addition, a rod baffle heat exchanger is designed and compared
with the twisted oval tube heat exchanger by analyzing the overall performance. The study showed
that the heat transfer in a twisted oval tube heat exchanger is higher than that of a rod baffle heat
exchanger, in contrast to the pressure drop is higher in a rod baffle heat exchanger. Also, the overall
performance of the twisted oval tube is higher and more effective in the annular and lateral flow. Li
et al. [2] Heat transfer properties and flow rate were experimentally in a twisted oval tube bundle in
tangential flow. As the general performance of the twisted oval tube is higher than that of the
straight round tube. Show that there is a good correlation between the Nusselt number and the Euler
number. Vaezi et al. [3] numerically studied the effect of aspect ratio on heat transfer rate as well as
laminar flow and compressive flow of double oval tubes under different conditions. The heat
transfer in double oval tubes is significantly improved if compared to the circular tubes, but this
does not prevent the use of circular tubes because the effect of pressure drop may overwhelm the
improvement of heat transfer. Considering that the geometry of the tube affects the thermal
optimization ratio and the flow characteristics, a well-designed optimization technique ensures that
the heat transfer overcomes the pressure loss. Whereas the improvement ratio increases as the
aspect ratio increases. Kim et al. [4] numerically investigated heat transfer and flow, the aero-
thermal performance, and the twisted ratio in the twisted elliptic tube. Simulations were performed
for Reynolds numbers (100-10000). Feng et al. [5] a numerical simulation of flowing air was
carried out during nested tubes consisting of a twisted elliptical tube with a firm temperature at the
wall. Also studied the thermal-hydraulic characteristics for Airways within twisted elliptical tube
using Physical Parameters and Reynolds Number. Where they found that the flow of bawburs
towards the tube wall due to deformation spiral deformation at Twisted Elliptical Tube. In addition
to this Nusselt Number and Eller Number Increase in The Aspect Ratio. The Nusselt Number
Continues to Increase in Reynolds Number, while the two Decrease with the Increase in the Twist
Pitch. In Addition, Heat Transfer Increases Due To Changing of Air Flow Near The Wall of Tube,
Which Leads To The Formation of Annular and Spiral Flow. After years of a challenge to promote
heat transfer by Fluid Mechanics. At present, one of the ways to overcome fluids with low thermal
conductivity, such as water, oil, and others, are replaced by advanced liquids with high thermal
conductivity, nanotechnology [6-8]. Sasmal et al. [9] discussed numerically the effect of the axis
ratio of the elliptical tube and the nanofluid on the flow field, drag coefficient, and Nusselt number.
In addition, analysis of the crowding and heat transfer phenomenon in elliptical tubes and
exceptional cases of oval tubes and flat plates. It was found that the drag coefficient in the oval tube
is higher in nanofluids than in water. Dawood et al. [10] investigated numerically the thermal
properties of mixed convection heat transfer when a nanofluid flowed in the annular stream of an
elliptical tube in a laminar manner. Various types of nanofluids of different diameters were used.
The results showed that the Nusselt number increased as the volume percentage of nano-particles
and the number of Reynolds rose. Alempour et al. [11] showed numerically the effect of the twist
pitch, cross-section, aspect ratio, and flow rate on the heat transfer properties of elliptical tubes.
In addition, the effect of the liquid type (nanofluids) flowing on the heat transfer process was
studied. The heat transfer of the twisted tube compared to that of the smooth tube was observed to
be 20% higher at twist pitches of 0.2. The effect of nanofluid in increasing heat transfer. Shahsavar
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et al. [12] Numerical verification of the effects of the Reynolds number and the volume
concentration of nano-particles and twist pitch in increasing the performance of a double-tube heat
exchanger using nano-particles and twisted tubes. Laminar flow of the CuO nanofluid with the base
fluid carboxymethyl cellulose with different mixing ratios. At the same time, the outcomes found
that the efficiency of the heat exchanger and heat transfer increases when the Reynolds number
increases. Also, the nanofluid works better than the base fluid at a Reynolds number of 500 and a
concentration of nano-particles ≤ 1.5%. In addition, the overall performance of the double twisted
tube heat exchanger is higher than that of the twin-tube heat exchanger, while the highest overall
performance value is 2.671 at Reynolds number 2000, the concentration of nano-particles 3% and
twist pitch = 4 mm. Eltaweel et al. [13] Experimentally examined thermal performance
improvement by utilizing two types of tubes in the warmth exchanger: a standard circular tube and a
twisted tube for flat plate collector; The twisted tube exchanger aims to improve heat transfer
performance and lower the shell pressure drop. The results revealed that the efficiency of twisted
tubes increased by 12.8 percent and 12.5 percent in comparison with the circular tubes in fluid flow
(water and MWCNT/water nanofluid). In comparison with conventional circulated tubes with
distilled water, also an improvement of 34 percent in MWCNT twisted tubes.
In this study, the main purpose is to enhance the convective heat transfer efficiency of the double
elliptical twisted tube heat exchanger. Twisted elliptical tube are investigated numerically with
twisted ratio and deferent volume concentration of nano fluid and compared with plain tube. The
cold outlet temperature, the effectiveness of the heat exchanger, pressure drop and the overall
thermal performance are also used to describe the performance of the heat exchanger. Also, addition
of nanoparticles to the fluid is studied in order to investigate the effect of nanoparticles on the
performance of the heat exchanger.

Model description
The physical model of the test section mainly consists of two tubes used to form an annular space
ranging from an twisted elliptical tube placed at the center of a circular tube are shown in Fig. 1.
The outer tube was 50 mm outer diameter, 4mm thickness, and 1000 mm length. The inner twisted
elliptic tube with a major (a) and minor (b) radii of 35.4 mm and 17.6mm respectively, 4mm
thickness, and a length of 1000mm. Pure water, Al2o3 nanoparticles are selected as the working
fluid and the thermos physical properties assumed to be temperature independent.

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Fig. 1. (a) Double twisted tube, (b) major and minor axis of elliptical twisted tube and diameter of
circular tube,
(c) The physical model of the elliptical twisted tube.

Governing equations and numerical scheme

The 3-D governing equations for solving the turbulent fluid and heat transfer is the continuity,
momentum, and energy equations. Whose are realized in Cartesian coordinate’s technique. To
modeled the turbulent flow is used k − ω turbulent model. The flow for the mixture model are
presented with the following basic assumptions:
1- Steady-state flow.
2- Turbulent flow.
3- Three-dimensional flow.
4- Incompressible flow.
5- Body force is ignored.

𝜕𝑢𝑖
=0 (1)
𝜕𝑥𝑖

Momentum equations:

𝜕𝑢𝑖 𝑢𝑗 ∂P 𝜕 𝜕𝑢𝑖 𝜕𝑢𝑗

=− + ((𝜇 + 𝜇𝑡 ) ( + )) (2)
𝜕𝑥𝑖 ρ ∂𝑥𝑖 𝜕𝑥𝑗 𝜕𝑥𝑗 ∂𝑥𝑖

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Energy equations:

𝜕𝑢𝑖 𝑇 ∂ 𝜇 𝜇𝑡 𝜕𝑇
=ρ (( + ) ) (3)
𝜕𝑥𝑖 ∂𝑥𝑖 𝑝𝑟 𝑝𝑟𝑡 𝜕𝑥𝑖

Nano fluid properties relations

The nanoparticle is (Al2o3) particles, which is added at four different volume fractions of 0.005,
0.01, 0.025, and 0.04 to the base fluid (water). In order that estimate the properties of the nanofluid
in every volume fraction, the subsequent relations are used and the consequential thermophysical
properties are provided in Tables 1. The relation for calculating the dynamic viscosity is [12]:
𝑘𝑛𝑓 𝑘𝑠 +2𝑘𝑓 +2∅(𝑘𝑓 −𝑘𝑠 )
= (7)
𝑘𝑓 𝑘𝑠 +2𝑘𝑓 −∅(𝑘𝑓 −𝑘𝑠 )
𝜌𝑛𝑓 = (1-∅)𝜌𝑛𝑓 + ∅𝜌𝑠 (8)
(1−∅)𝜌𝑓𝑐𝑝𝑓 +∅𝜌𝑠𝑐𝑝𝑠
𝑐𝑝𝑛𝑓 = (9)
𝜌𝑛𝑓
𝜇𝑛𝑓= 𝜇𝑓 (10)
(1−∅)2.5

Table 1. Water-Al2O3 nano-fluid thermo-physical properties.

ρ (kg/m3) cp (J/kgK) k (W/mK) µ (kg/ms)
3970 765 40 ‫ـــــــــــــــــــــ‬
Nanoparticle Characteristics
ø = 0% 998.2 4182 0.613 0.001003
ø = 0.05% 1013.059 4115.046891 0.621 0.001016
ø = 0.1% 1027.918 4050.029454 0.631 0.001029
ø = 0.25% 1072.495 3865.786638 0.657 0.001069
ø = 0.4% 1117.072 3696.248321 0.686 0.001111

Constant temperature (Tci=298, Thi=343) and Reynolds number (5000 -30000) are used at the two
tube inlet, whereas the two-fluid outlets are both set to zero relative gauge pressure. The twisted
tube was twisting at Tr=5, with an adiabatic surrounded wall of the outer tube.
The hydrothermal parameters investigated together with the logarithmic mean temperature
difference, the heat exchanger effectiveness, and the overall performance which are calculated,
respectively, as follows:
ΔT1−ΔT2
LMTD= ΔT1 (11)
ln( )
ΔT2
qact
ϵ=𝒒 (12)
𝒎𝒂𝒙
𝛜
η= ∆𝐏𝐓 (13)
The system of governing equations of the fluid flow solved iteratively using Ansys Fluent 18.2, 3D
double precision solver. The convergence criterion for continuity, momentum and energy are 10−4.
The thermal performance of a double pipe twisted tube heat exchanger was examined to predict and
explain the influence of twisted elliptical configuration on flow stability during steady-state
turbulent flow.

Result and Discussion

The imitations are performed of turbulent convection heat transfer and fluid flow of nanofluids in a
three-dimensional through a twisted elliptic annulus. The type of nanoparticles is studied which is,

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Al2O3 with pure water as a base fluid. Different values of Reynolds number were used in the range
of 5000≤ Re ≤ 30000 with volume friction of four nanoparticles in the range of 0.5% ≤ Ø ≤ 4%.
Nanofluids are proven to enhance the heat transfer characteristics. The effect of changing the twist
pitch along the flow path on the heat transfer and flow field is studied.
Figure 2 shows the cold outlet temperature of nanofluid with Re for double twisted tube heat
exchanger. This figure indicates that the Tco is decreased as the Re increases for all volume friction.
This is due to the increasing in the mass flow of cold nano fluid which reduces the time of nano
fluid to exchange heat. Also, this figure shows that pure water has the lower Tco and volume
friction =0.04 has the higher Tco. Due to increasing the secondary flow leads to an increase in the
contact area, which increases heat transfer.

water Ø=0.5% Ø=1% Ø=2.5% Ø=4%

305

304

303
Tco

302

301

300

299
5000 10000 15000 20000 25000 30000
Re

Fig.2. Variation of cold outlet temperature with Re.

Figure (3) shows the variation of heat exchanger effectiveness versus Re for two types of nanofluid
and pure water. This figure shows that the effectiveness is increasing when the Re increased this is
fundamentally due to the combined effect of common swirling flow by the twisted elliptical tube
and turbulence generated by the alternative cuts along the edge of the twisted tube. Subsequently
this leads to the destruction of the thermal boundary layer and creating better flow mixing between
the fluids at the core and heating wall surface. It also increases at volume concentration =0.04
increased is because of increasing the heat dissipated in case of nanofluid due to the increasing in
the thermal conductivity of nano fluid with the rising of the volume concentration value as a results
of dispersing more amount of nanoparticles and the increase in fluid viscosity, which cause to be
lost the fluid movement, which promotes better heat transfer. The effectiveness is higher for the
double twisted elliptical tube than for the plain tube because of strong swirl flow in the presence of
the twist elliptical tube. It is found that the heat transfer rate with the twist ratio (Tr=5) is higher
than those with other ratios this means that the turbulent intensity obtained from the lower twist
ratio is higher than those from higher ratios. Moreover, the use of minimal twist ratio lead to higher
tangential contact between the swirling flow and the tube surface

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0,45
water Ø=0.5% Ø=1% Ø=2.5% Ø=4%
0,4
0,35
0,3

Effectiveness 0,25
0,2
0,15
0,1
0,05
0
5000 10000 15000 20000 25000 30000
Re
Fig.3. The variation of Effectiveness against Re.

The dramatic variation in velocity in the cross sections causes the enhancement of the pressure
drop. The pressure drop in twisted tubes with twist pitch and Reynolds number is depicted in Fig. 4.
The pressure drop increases with increase in Reynolds number and decrease in the twist pitch. That
leads to strong resistance in fluid flow. Investigating the effect of changing the number of the turns
in the flow path showed that, by a sudden reduction of the twist pitch, the pressure drop increased
significantly. Because by a sudden reduction of the twist pitch length, the flow experienced higher
distortions along the path and the intensities of the recirculation and secondary flows are
augmented, leading to more the pressure drop enhancement. According to the obtained results, by
changing the cross section shape from circular to elliptical and twisting the tube wall, the heat
transfer coefficient and pressure drop increased. Whereas, the presence of nanoparticles increases
the pressure drop due to the increase in the viscosity of the liquid, and thus the intensity of the
turbulence increases, reaching the highest possible at volume friction =0.04. That boosting the
pressure drop entails the increase in pumping power and, therefore, increases the cost required to
circulate the fluid through the heat transfer system, which is undesirable.

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7000
water Ø=0.5% Ø=1% Ø=2.5% Ø=4%
6000

5000

4000
Δpt

3000

2000

1000

0
5000 10000 15000 20000 25000 30000
Re
Fig.4.Variation of total pressure drop across with Re.

Due to the flow distortion in passing through a twisted path, the fluid flow experiences a
considerable velocity gradient, and the secondary flow generated along the path, and the
recirculation in the flow cross sections causes the fluid mixing to improve and the turbulence
intensity to increase. The enhancement in mixing and turbulence intensity causes the heat transfer to
improve a fact that could also be observed in Fig. 4. Illustrates the overall thermal performance of
twisted elliptical tube with Re for Tr=5 and different volume friction. The increase in pressure drop
results in the decrease in the overall thermal performance. The results show that when the pressure
drop is considered, the twisted elliptical tube with volume friction =0.04 has the best overall
thermal-hydraulic performance for Reynolds numbers ranging from 5000 to 30000. As shown, the
the overall thermal performance first enhances and then decrease with Re. The value of the overall
thermal performance is higher for Al2o3 nanofluid, which implies that using hybrid nanofluid and
twisted tube are considered a better choice in practical application. This is due to the enhanced
effective thermal conductivity of the nanofluid which is accompanied by an increase in the thermal
diffusivity. Heat transfer enhancement is increased when volume fraction is increased; it can be
observed that 4% volume fraction has the highest heat transfer enhancement, while 0.5%
concentration has the lowest enhancement. This is because the physical properties of nanofluid vary
with the volume fraction. Thus, transfers more energy in the fluid, because of the momentum
energy is much higher than the thermal energy in higher volume fraction. In general, the increase of
nanoparticles volume fraction results in an increase of fluid viscosity which diminishes the fluid
movement. The overall thermal performance increases significantly, and by suddenly decreasing the
pitch along the flow and raising the number of the turns.

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water Ø=0.5% Ø=1% Ø=2.5% Ø=4%

0,0025

0,002

0,0015
Ƞ

0,001

0,0005

0
5000 10000 15000 20000 25000 30000
Re

Fig.5.Variation of the overall thermal performance versus Re.

Conclusion
1- Comparing the performance of the nano fluid and the base fluid the nano fluid has a better
hydrothermal performance than the base fluid. The highest overall thermal performance was
5.88%, when volume fraction = 4%.
2- The double elliptical twisted tube heat exchanger always performs better than the plain tube,
and increasing both the Reynolds number and volume fraction leads to a greater difference
between the overall hydrothermal performance.
3- Investigating the effect of twisting the wall showed that, at the flow Reynolds number of
30000, in conditions that the tube wall is Tr=5 and nanofluid volume concentration =4%, the
effectiveness of heat exchanger is equal to 0.42, which showed that twisting of tube wall
with elliptical cross section and nano fluid has caused the effectiveness of heat exchanger to
increase by 80.2%.
4- The up growth of twist in the twisted oval tube reason secondary flow. This secondary flow
change the velocity and temperature distributions in the twisted elliptic tube. Causes
pressure drop higher than the plain tube.

References
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