Forced Convective Heat Transfer From Helicoidal Pipes

Forced convection heat transfer from helicoidal pipes is experimentally investigated over a wide range of operating conditions. Based on the experimental results, a characteristic length incorporating the tube diameter, the coil diameter, and the coil spacing, is proposed as the relevant scale for defining Nusselt and Reynolds numbers. Based on this characteristic length, Nusselt number for helicoidal pipes can be predicated from the correlations available for cylinders in the range of available experimental data. It is shown that the performance of the coils depends on the Reynolds number. At high Reynolds numbers, the heat transfer coefficient is essentially equal to that of the straight pipe and the coil pitch has little influence on the heat transfer rate. On the other hand, at low Reynolds numbers, the heat transfer coefficient is lower than that of a straight pipe and its value is a strong function of the coil spacing.