Search

This paper experimentally investigates the thermo-hydraulic performance of tubes with various twisted tapes (TTs) with the Reynolds number ranging from 4000 to 10,000 (at the turbulent transition region). The Nusselt number (Nu) and friction factor (f) of the tested plain tube shows good agreement with the Gnielienski and Filonenko equations. The average deviations are within 9.5% and 2.8%, respectively. For the successive TT tube, the existing correlation which includes the effect of gap between the TT insert and tube can well predict the present measurement, and the deviation upon Nu and f is within ±10%. Meanwhile, the successive TT with the twisted ratio of 4 can achieve the highest comprehensive thermal performance (CTP) by 1.08–1.10. Yet the Nu and f will simultaneously drop by 6.7% and 11.6% when raising the gap ratio from 0.043 to 0.135. The CTP is also pronouncedly reduced and can be negatively reversed than the plain tube at the turbulent transition region. On the other hand, it is validated that the U-cut and isosceles V-cut configurations might provide similar improvement on Nu and f compared to the successive TT. The obtuse V-cut configuration shows more pronounced improvement on Nu and f, and yields the highest CTP of 1.18–1.23 within the test range. The existing correlations applicable for the V-cut TTs are unable to predict the present measurements accurately.