Experimental study into effect of developing section length on the heat transfer process in a horizontal annulus

Abstract EN

An experimental investigation has been presented to study the heat transfer process in thermally developed region of horizontal concentric annulus with an adiabatic inner tube and uniformly heated outer tube.

Three lengths of entrance section have been used to achieve the hydrodynamically fully developed flow before test section with (L / Dh=50,75 and 100).

The study has covered the range of Reynolds number (450 ≤ Re ≤ 2000) and Richarson number (0.1 ≤ Ri ≤ 0.7).

Results show that the heat transfer process in the lower part of annulus is better than that in the upper part; and the vortex strength increases as Rayligh and Rynolds numbers increase.

An empirical correlation for the average Nusselt number as a function of Rayliegh and Reynolds numbers and L / Dh has been deduced and compared with available literatures to give the same trend and behavior.