Enhancing Convective Heat Transfer with Bisectional Passive ‎Flow Divider Inserts

  • Authors

    • Suryaji S Kale Mechanical Engineering Department, Department of Technology, Shivaji University, Kolhapur, Maharashtra 416004, India
    • Sanjaykumar S. Gawade Mechanical Engineering Department, Rajarambapu Institute of Technology, Rajaramnagar, Sakharale, Affiliated to Shivaji University, ‎‎Kolhapur, Uran Islampur, Maharashtra, 415414, India
    https://doi.org/10.14419/gyyv8s34

    Received date: May 25, 2025

    Accepted date: July 2, 2025

    Published date: December 4, 2025

  • Heat Transfer Enhancement; Inserts; Flow Divider Type; Reynolds Number; Bisectional Inserts

  • Abstract

    The high rate at which conventional energy sources are being exhausted has increased the world's attention on the effective use and ‎management of the available energy. Heat exchangers are very important parts of thermal systems, and they are used to transfer the heat ‎energy between two or more fluids. Their thermal performance should be enhanced to increase the overall energy efficiency. This can be ‎done by several heat transfer augmentation methods, which are broadly divided into active, passive, and hybrid methods. Passive techniques ‎are especially appealing among them because they are simple and do not require external energy.‎

    The paper investigates the use of flow divider-type inserts as a passive method of improving heat transfer in a circular tube heat exchanger. ‎The inserts used were 90o, 60o, 45o and 30o twist angle inserts at a Reynolds number range of 7000 to 21000. The experimental results ‎showed that the Nusselt number increased with the Reynolds number, showing that convective heat transfer was improved.Nevertheless, ‎the Thermal Enhancement Factor  and Friction Factor (f) exhibited a decreasing trend with the Reynolds number.‎

    The insert with 45o twist angle was the most successful in overall performance of all the tested configurations. It produced the best Thermal ‎Enhancement Factor  and Overall Performance Criteria (n) and was an effective compromise between the heat transfer enhancement and ‎the pressure drop. In particular, the 45o insert showed up to 1.99 times better Nusselt number (Nu), 2.21 times higher heat transfer ‎coefficient (h), 1.7 times higher thermal enhancement factor , and an Overall Performance Criteria (η) of 1.22 than a plain tube. Conversely, ‎the 30o twist angle, despite enhancing heat transfer, had a very high friction factor that resulted in increased pressure losses and low flow ‎efficiency

     

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    Kale, S. S., & Gawade , S. S. . (2025). Enhancing Convective Heat Transfer with Bisectional Passive ‎Flow Divider Inserts. International Journal of Basic and Applied Sciences, 14(8), 52-62. https://doi.org/10.14419/gyyv8s34