Numerical investigation on the convective heat transfer in a spiral coil with radiant heating

Abstract

The objective of this study was to numerically investigate the heat transfer in spiral coil tube in the laminar, transitional, and turbulent flow regimes. The Archimedean spiral coil was exposed to radiant heating and should represent heat absorber of parabolic dish solar concentrator. Specific boundary conditions represent the uniqueness of this study, since the heat flux upon the tube external surfaces varies not only in the circumferential direction, but also in the axial direction. The curvature ratio of spiral coil varies from 0.029 at the flow inlet to 0.234 at the flow outlet, while the heat transfer fluid is water. The 3-D steady-state transport equations were solved using the Reynolds stress turbulence model. Results showed that secondary flows strongly affect the flow and that the heat transfer is strongly asymmetric, with higher values near the outer wall of spiral. Although overall turbulence levels were lower than in a straight pipe, heat transfer rates were larger due to the curvature-induced modifications of the mean flow and temperature fields.