Experimental Investigation of a Helical Coil Heat Exchanger

Helical coil heat exchangers are one of the most common equipment found in many industrial applications. Helical coil heat exchanger is one of the devices which are used for the recovery system. The helical coil heat exchangers can be made in the form of a shell and tube heat exchangers and can be used for industrial applications such as power generation, nuclear industry, process plants, heat recovery systems, refrigeration, food industry etc. In our work we had designed, fabricated and experimentally analysed a helical coil heat exchanger and a straight tube heat exchanger. From the observations and calculations, the results of the helical coil heat exchanger and straight tube heat exchanger are obtained and are compared. From our obtained results, the helical coil heat exchanger showed increase in the heat transfer rate, effectiveness and overall heat transfer coefficient over the straight tube heat exchanger on all mass flow rates and operating conditions. The centrifugal force due to the curvature of the tube results in the secondary flow development which enhances the heat transfer rate. Comparative study shows that helical coil heat exchanger is having better performance that straight tube heat exchanger.