Impact of helical baffle structure on heat transfer performance of vertical condensers. (25th March 2017)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Chen, Yaping; Yang, Shifan; Wu, Jiafeng; Zhou, Jiahao
• Is Part Of: Applied thermal engineering. Volume 115(2017)
• Page Start: 9
• Page End: 16
• Publication Date: 2017-03-25
• Subjects: Vertical condensers -- Trisection helical baffle -- Heat transfer coefficient -- Variable angle baffles -- Bent tail edge; Heat engineering -- Periodicals; Heating -- Equipment and supplies -- Periodicals; Periodicals; 621.40205
• DOI: 10.1016/j.applthermaleng.2016.12.118
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1359-4311

Abstract

Highlights: Trisection helical baffles were adopted for vertical condenser drainage enhancement. Experiments were conducted on condensers with 6 different helical baffle schemes. h.t.c. of schemes with variable angle is 25.47% higher than that of fixed angle ones. h.t.c. of schemes with dual thread is 15.74% higher than that of single thread ones. h.t.c. of schemes with bent tail edge is 6.37% higher than that of the plane ones. Abstract: The heat transfer performance of a novel type trisection helical baffle vertical condenser was experimentally investigated. The testing schemes have a common shell and replaceable tube bundles, including six tube bundles with different structured trisection helical baffles and a segmental one. The investigation is aimed at revealing the impacts on the heat transfer performance of structural improvements for facilitating condensate drainage, including inclined helical baffles of variable angles, dual threads and bent tail edges. The experimental results show that the best scheme, which adopts dual thread variable angled baffles with bent tail edges, has the average shell side heat transfer coefficient 131.8% higher than that of the segmental one. Taking the shell side heat transfer coefficient as the evaluation index, the single thread variable angle schemes are on average 25.47% higher than the single thread fixed angle ones; the dual thread variable angle schemes are on average 15.74% higher than the single thread ones; and the schemes with bent tail edges are on average 6.37% higher than the corresponding ones without bent tail edges. The results give a prospective way to overcome the deficiency of inferior heat transfer performance of the conventional segmental baffled vertical condenser to that of the horizontal one.