Thermal, hydraulic, exergitic and economic evaluation of a flat tube heat exchanger equipped with a plain and modified conical turbulator

Increasing use of fossil fuels has led to serious consequences on the environment including global warming, pollution, and increased costs of heating systems. This indicates the importance of improving the efficiency of devices used in heating and air conditioning systems such as heat exchangers. In this study, it was tried to enhance the performance of the heat exchanger by simultaneous use of a flat tube as a central tube of the heat exchanger and dual conic turbulator. In addition to plain conical turbulator, the influence of the conical turbulator with aerodynamic geometry was investigated on the heat transfer and pressure drop. Finally, economic evaluation of the studied cases was done based on the thermal performance enhancement factor (TEF) and the net profit of unit transferred heat load (eta(p)). Tests were conducted in the hot water flow rate ranging 0.033-0.0678 L/s while cold water flow rate was kept constant at 0.166 L/s. The results indicated that the heat transfers and exergy loss of the flat tube heat exchanger with a dual modified conical turbulator was up to 33% and 30% higher than the plain tube heat exchanger, respectively. Also, a heat exchanger with a modified dual turbulator with convergent embellishment (case B) selected as the economic case and has the highest TEF and eta(p). It was revealed that the application of enhanced conical turbulator would lead in the increment of eta(p) up to 1.26 times.

Automated summary

The study demonstrates that using a flat tube and dual conic turbulator can enhance the performance of a heat exchanger, resulting in up to 33% higher heat transfers and 30% less exergy loss compared to a plain tube heat exchanger. The heat exchanger with a modified dual turbulator with convergent embellishment was selected as the economic case with the highest thermal performance enhancement factor (TEF) and net profit of unit transferred heat load (eta(p)), showing an increase in eta(p) up to 1.26 times with the application of an enhanced conical turbulator.