Thermal Performance of a Heated Pipe in the Presence of a Metal Foam and Twisted Tape Inserts

Abstract

To meet the demand for more efficient ways of cooling and heating, new designs and further development of heat exchangers is essential in industry. The present study focuses on the thermal performance of a circular pipe with two inserts. The first insert consists of a porous medium having a porosity of 0.91, and the second one consists of a single twist solid insert. Different ranges of heating conditions have been applied for different flow rates. Water and titanium dioxide (TiO2) nanofluid 1% vol are the liquid media used for cooling. Laminar flow is assumed for two different Reynolds numbers of 1000 and 2000. The results of the study have shown that the twisted tape insert increases the thermal efficiency of the pipe more than the porous media insert and the plain pipe. In addition, different temperature readings in the cross section of the pipe have indicated that the twisted tape helps mixing up the fluid and provides a constant temperature in the overall volume of the fluid, whereas for the porous media insert and plain pipe the fluid temperature increases in the fluid particles close to the pipe inner surface. TiO2 nanofluid exhibited an enhancement when compared to water for a plain and porous pipe. However, this enhancement was absent when a twisted insert is used.