Numerical and Experimental Investigations on Performance Evaluation of a Conical Offset Vortex Generator Inserts to Improve Convective Heat Transfer Coefficient

Abstract

The passive augmentation technique is widely used by researchers from thermal engineering field and it has shown excellent results for convective heat transfer rate. This paper shows the numerical and experimental findings for convective heat transfer characteristics and friction coefficient. Tests were conducted for turbulent flow, using air as medium through a uniformly heated steel pipe containing a novel kind of insert named as Conical offset Vortex Generator (COVG). The simulation tests were performed for turbulent flow with varying Reynolds number in the range 4000 to 50000. The parameters were analyzed during tests are pitch to smooth tube diameter ratio (p/d) and angle of attack (α). Various simulation tests were carried out with the help of ANSYS Fluent software to optimize the geometry. The simulation tests were carried out for different angle of attack (α = 15°, 30°, 60°). COVG with angle of attack (α = 60°) shows more enhancement in heat transfer rate, hence it was used for the experimentation purpose. The experimentation is conducted for various pitch to diameter (p/d = 1.18, 1.97, 3.94). The numerical and experimental results show improvement in heat transfer rate as there is decrease in pitch to smooth tube diameter ratio (p/d) and it also increases the value of friction factor. The reason behind the improvement in heat transfer rate is that, the braking of thermal boundary layer near the wall surface. Experimental results show the enhancement of Nusselt number from 3.46-6.7.