The Effect of Changing the Coil Wave Amplitude on Improving Heat Transfer for a Natural Gas Heater.

Natural gas is transported from production areas using high-pressure pipelines to pass through pressure reducing stations and then to the consumer. When temperatures drop, the problem of freezing of natural gas and ice appears. To protect against this phenomenon, we use a water bath to improve the temperature of the gas before reducing its pressure. One of the essential elements in the design of a low thermal efficiency water bath heater is the gas coil that runs inside the heater. In this study, the analysis of heat transfers and gas flow velocity inside the corrugated coil was performed with varying wave amplitude (10 mm, 15 mm, and 20 mm). The three-dimensional unsteady Reynolds-Navier-Stokes equations are solved using both the realizable k-ε turbulent model and the finite volume method to obtain the flow field. The results of this study showed that using corrugated coils with a larger capacity leads to an increase in the Nusselt number and friction factor, respectively, by about 6.57% and 114%. In general, the heat exchange inside the corrugated twisted gas coil can be enhanced by increasing the wave amplitude. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]