Experimental Comparison Between Heat Transfer Enhancement Methods In Heat Exchangers

This paper presents an experimental comparison between four different types of heat transfer enhancement techniques or methods in heat exchangers: Two insert devices (displacement device and swirl flow device), extended surfaces, and obstruction devices. The objective of these experiments is to assist the undergraduate mechanical engineering students in the understanding of the basic heat transfer processes and the methods and devices that can be implemented to enhance the heat transfer. The experimental setup and apparatus required to carry out these experiments is relatively simple. It includes five tube-within-a-tube heat exchangers that are instrumented with three thermocouples at each end, two rotameters, heating element, water pump, and Data Acquisition. Four of the five heat exchangers are modified by one type of the above-mentioned heat transfer enhancement techniques. These equipments are relatively inexpensive and available in almost all undergraduate heat transfer laboratories.