Effects of the shape of tube and flow field on fluid flow and heat transfer

Abstract The arc tube is an innovative heat exchange device that has the advantages of high heat exchange efficiency, which slows down the damage thermal stress to the pipeline and high mass transfer rate, in comparison to the traditional straight wall tubes. Therefore, it is widely applied in the field of heat and mass transfer, particularly in heat exchanger. To study the influence of the ratio of the circumscribed arc radius of the arc tube on the heat transfer and flow resistance characteristics of the fluid inside the tube, geometric models of sine wave wall tubes with various radius ratio i, and the same size parameters have been established. The flow field and temperature field in the tube have been analyzed by numerical simulation and experiment, and the comprehensive heat transfer performance of different wave-wall tubes has been evaluated using the performance evaluation factor PEC. The results show that the heat transfer capacity is stronger for the smaller i. Further, Nu decreases with increasing i, and the reduction decreases with increasing Re. The frictional resistance coefficient at 1 is proportional to i at radius ratio between 0.1 and 1, and the frictional resistance coefficient is inversely proportional to i at 1