TURBULENT-FLOW IN INTEGRALLY ENHANCED TUBES .1. COMPREHENSIVE REVIEW AND DATABASE DEVELOPMENT

Thermal performance improvements through passive and active enhancemen t methods have been studied intensely for over three decades. Heat exc hangers with single-phase tube-side flow are one of the important appl ications where passive surface-modification methods are popularly empl oyed. Ribs, indentations, spiral-flutes, and coil inserts are some com mon surface modification techniques that are relatively easy to manufa cture, are cost effective for many applications, and can be used conve niently for retubing existing heat exchangers. This article describes a comprehensive database that was developed to provide easy access to existing single-phase tube-side heat transfer and pressure drop data f or different enhanced tube designs, in a consistent and useful manner. The database contains four files: (1) friction factor data, (2) heat transfer data, (3) tube characteristics, and (4) features of the exper iments used by each data source, such as fluid type boundary condition s, tribe material and tube type. The friction factor database contains nearly 5,000 data points, and the heat transfer database contains mor e than 4,700 data points. The data encompass more than 360 different t ube geometries from over 35 investigations. The information can be use d by practicing engineers for validatating and/or developing predictio n methods, or to compare or estimate the performance of a specific tub e design.