Thermal performance of a heated tube equipped with a novel perforated V–baffle turbulator: Experimental investigation and artificial neural network prediction

Improving the thermal performance of heat exchangers using turbulators requires balancing enhanced heat transfer against the accompanying pressure losses. In this study, conventional V-baffle turbulators were modified into a perforated V-baffle configuration, introducing physical characteristics different from those reported previously. This research examined the effects of perforated V-baffles with different orientations (upstream and downstream directions), angles of attack (30°, 50°, and 70°) and pitch lengths (25.4, 50.8, and 76.2 mm) on the thermal performance (expressed in terms of the thermal enhancement factor (TEF)) of a constant heat flux tube heat exchanger across a Reynolds numbers range of 5502-13,786. The TEF obtained for the tube equipped with perforated V-baffles ranged from approximately 0.97-1.70, depending on the baffle configuration and airflow velocity. The results indicate that the perforated V-baffles with larger pitch lengths and smaller angles of attack tended to exhibit superior thermal performance. Notably, the perforated V-baffles exhibited relatively stable TEF values across the tested airflow velocities, a key feature of this turbulator. In addition, an artificial neural network (ANN) was employed as a predictive tool to estimate the TEF. Multiple ANN models were developed using different hyperparameter settings to identify the optimal architecture. The best-performing model achieved a coefficient of determination (R 2 ) and a mean absolute percentage error (MAPE) of 0.999 and 0.42%,respectively, when predicting previously unknown TEF data. Furthermore, sensitivity analysis was conducted to assess the effect of independent variables on TEF, revealing that the angle of attack exerted the most significant impact.