COMPUTATIONAL ANALYSIS OF DOUBLE PIPE COUNTER FLOW HEAT EXCHANGER USING FINS ATTACHED TO THE INNER PIPE

Abstract

Heat transfer enhancement in a heat exchanger can be improved by active and passive techniques. In the present study, heat transfer rate from the hot fluid to cold fluid in a double pipe counter flow heat exchanger having fins attached to the inner pipe along its length is analyzed. The whole analysis is carried out by using commercial CFD code. The two fin configurations of rectangular and triangular fins are used in the study. Computational analysis was carried on counterflow double pipe heat exchanger with constant mass flow rate for hot and cold fluids for exit temperature. It is found that exit temperature of the hot fluid is low and that of cold fluid is high for the rectangular fin. Using this exit temperature, the heat transfer rate and fin effectiveness are calculated. The results show that heat transfer in a finned configuration is comparatively greater than unfinned one. Among these fin configurations, the rectangular fin shows improvement over triangular fin in terms of heat transfer rate, this is due to the rectangular fin has the large surface area for a given volume and also the effectiveness of the fin show the higher value than the triangular fin.