Enhanced thermal and fluid flow performance of cross flow tube bank with perforated splitter plate

ABSTRACT

The cross flow over the tube bank is extensively employed in the heat exchangers. The present study investigates the heat transfer and frictional losses of cross flow tube bank with solid and perforated splitter plates. The experimental data are collected for bare tube bank, tube bank with solid and perforated splitter plate by varying the splitter plate width ratio (R_w) and the perforation index (P_i) in the Reynolds number range of 10,500–40,500. The cylindrical tube bank with perforated splitter plate having (R_w) of 0.5 and (P_i) of 1.5 yields maximum thermal and hydraulic performance.

KEYWORDS:

• Cylindrical tube bank
• splitter plate
• splitter plate width ratio
• perforation index

Nomenclature

As	=	Surface area of tube array (m2)
d	=	Diameter of perforation (m)
D	=	Diameter of cylindrical tube (m)
Tb	=	Mean bulk temperature of fluid (oC)
Ts	=	Surface temperature of cylindrical tube (oC)
PD	=	Diagonal pitch of tubes (m)
PL	=	Longitudinal pitch of tubes (m)
PT	=	Transverse pitch of tubes (m)
Re	=	Reynolds number of fluid
Qc	=	Convective heat transfer rate (W)
n	=	Number of thermocouples on tube surface
N	=	Number of tubes in tube bank
Nu	=	Area average Nusselt number
k	=	Thermal conductivity of fluid (W/mK)
f	=	Friction factor
h	=	Convective heat transfer coefficient (W/m2 K)
Δp	=	Pressure drop in test section (Pa)
ρ	=	Density of air (kg/m3)
Ap	=	Area of perforation in splitter plate (m2)
As	=	Area of solid splitter plate (m2)
U	=	Free stream velocity of fluid (m/s)
Umax	=	Maximum velocity of fluid (m/s)
V	=	Voltage (V)
I	=	Electric current (A)
W	=	Width of splitter plate (m)
L	=	Length of splitter plate (m)
Lt	=	Length of test section (m)
Pe	=	Electrical power (W)
Pr	=	Prandtl number of fluid