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ISSN Online: 2377-424X

International Heat Transfer Conference 12
August, 18-23, 2002, Grenoble, France

Fin shape effects in turbulent heat transfer in tubes with helical fins

Get access (open in a dialog) DOI: 10.1615/IHTC12.1130
6 pages

Abstract

A numerical investigation was performed to understand the effects of different fin profiles in helical microfin tubes under turbulent flow. A stabilized finite element solver and RANS turbulence models were used to analyze the impact of subtle changes in fin profile on both overall and local friction factor and Nusselt number. Present results indicate significant differences (as much as 20%) in both friction factor and Nusselt number can be induced depending on the fin profile. It was also indicated that the reason for the high performance observed in the microfin tube experiment is because of the highly diffusive (turbulent) flow in contact with small portions of the fin surface (fin top and upper portion of windward side of the fin).