CFD and experimental studies on heat transfer enhancement in an air cooler equipped with different tube inserts

This paper reports the experimental and Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) modeling studies on heat transfer, friction factor and thermal performance of an air cooled heat exchanger equipped with three types of tube insert including butterfly, classic and jagged twisted tape. In the studied range of Reynolds number the maximum thermal performance factor was obtained by the butterfly insert with an inclined angle of 90°. The results have also revealed that the difference between the heat transfer rates obtained from employing the classic and jagged inserts reduces by decreasing the twist ratio. The CFD predicted results were used to explain the observed results in terms of turbulence intensity. In addition, good agreements between the predicted and measured Nu number as well as friction factor values were obtained.