Heat Transfer in Tubes Fitted With Trapezoidal-Cut and Plain Twisted Tape Inserts

Experimental investigation of heat transfer and friction factor characteristics of a circular tube fitted with plain twisted tapes (PTT) and trapezoidal-cut twisted tapes (TTT) with twist ratios y = 2.0, 4.4, and 6.0 was carried out. The experimental data obtained from plain tube and PTT were verified with the standard correlation to ensure the validation of experimental results. The experimental results revealed that heat transfer rate, friction factor, and thermal enhancement factor in the tube equipped with TTT were significantly higher than in the tube fitted with PTT and the plain tube. The additional disturbance and secondary flow in the vicinity of the tube wall generated by the TTT compared to that induced by the PTT was determined as the reason for enhancement. Subsequently, an empirical correlation was also formulated to match with experimental results with ±6% and ±5% variation respectively for Nusselt number and the friction factor.