CFD analysis on heat and flow characteristics of double helically coiled tube heat exchanger handling MWCNT/water nanofluids

Double helically coiled tube heat exchangers are used in different heat transfer utilization due to higher heat transfer capabilities and with their compactness. The double helically coiled tube heat exchanger increases the turbulence and enhances the maximum heat transfer rate than the straight tubes. In this investigation, the heat transfer and pressure drop of the double helically coiled heat exchanger handling MWCNT/water nanofluids have been analyzed by the computational software ANSYS 14.5 version. The computational analysis was carried out under the laminar flow condition in the Dean number range of 1300–2200. The design of new shell and double helically coiled tube heat exchanger was done by using standard designing procedure and 3D modeling was done in Cre-O 2.0 parametric. The Finite Element Analysis software ANSYS Workbench 14.5 was used to perform CFD analysis under the standard working condition. The MWCNT/water nanofluids at 0.2%, 0.4%, and 0.6% volume concentrations have been taken for this investigation. The major factors like volume concentrations of nanofluids and Dean Number are considered for predicting the heat transfer rate and pressure drop. The simulation data was compared with the experimental data. It is studied that the heat transfer rate and pressure drop increase with increasing volume concentrations of MWCNT/water nanofluids. It is found that the Nusselt number of 0.6% MWCNT/water nanofluids is 30% higher than water at the Dean number value of 1400 and Pressure drop is 11% higher than water at the Dean number value of 2200. It is found that the simulation data hold good agreement with the experimental data. The common deviation between the Nusselt number and pressure dropof CFD data and the Nusselt number and pressure drop of experimental data are found to be 7.2% and 8.5% respectively.