AN EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATION OF FORCED CONVECTION HEAT TRANSFER FROM A COILED HEAT EXCHANGER EMBEDDED IN A PACKED BED

Forced convection heat transfer from a helically coiled heat exchanger embedded in a packed bed of spherical glass particles was investigated experimentally. With dry air at ambient pressure and temperature as a flowing fluid, the effect of particle size, helically coiled heat exchanger diameter, and position was studied for a wide range of Reynolds number. It was found that the particle diameter, the helically coiled heat exchanger diameter and position, and the air velocity are of great influence on the convective heat transfer between the helically coiled heat exchanger and air. Results indicated that the heat transfer coefficient increased with increasing the air velocity, increasing helically coiled heat exchanger diameter, and decreasing the particle size. The highest heat transfer coefficients were obtained with the packed-bed particle size of 16 mm and heat exchanger coil diameter of 9.525 mm (1/4 inch) at a Reynolds number range of 1,536 to 4,134 for all used coil positions in the conducted tests. A dimensionless correlation was proposed for Nusselt number as a function of Reynolds number, particle size, coil size, and coil position.