Heat transfer enhancement by flow-induced vibration in heat exchangers

The flow-induced vibration in heat exchanger is usually considered as a detrimental factor for causing the heat exchanger damage and is strictly prevented from its occurrence. Its positive role for the possible heat transfer enhancement has been neglected. In this article a novel approach is proposed to enhance the heat transfer by using the flow-induced vibration of a new designed heat transfer device. Thus the flow-induced vibration is effectively utilized instead of strictly avoiding it in the heat exchanger design. A heat exchanger is constructed with the new designed heat transfer devices. The vibration and the heat transfer of these devices are studied numerically and experimentally, and the correlation of the shell-side convective heat transfer coefficient is obtained. It is found that the new designed heat exchanger can significantly increase the convective heat transfer coefficient and decrease the fouling resistance. Therefore, a lasting heat transfer enhancement by the flow-induced vibration can be achieved.