Abstract

Heat transfer performance of a regular circular tube and the tube with longitudinal four equally spaced internal fins has been experimentally investigated using working fluid water and air. Electricity supplied to the specially wrapped Nichrome wire around the tubes was the heat source, while fully developed steady state turbulent airflow and laminar water flow were the heat sinks in this study. Wall temperature, bulk fluid temperature and pressure drop along the axis of the finned tube were measured for different Reynolds number ranging from 7x103 to 12x103 for the regular tube and 3x103 to 4x103 for the finned tube for air and 40 to 100 for water for both the tubes. These data ranges include laminar, transition and fully turbulent region for air and only laminar region for water for regular tube and laminar and transition region for finned tube. From the measured data, heat transfer coefficient and friction factor were calculated and analyzed. The finned tube produces a significant enhancement of both heat transfer and friction factor. Enhancement in heat transfer and friction factor may in part be attributed due to the higher heat transfer area and frictional area of the finned tube, respectively.