Pressure drop increase of forced convective condensation inside horizontal coiled wire inserted tubes

An experimental study was performed to investigate the increment of the pressure drop during condensation of R-134 a vapor inside a horizontal tube with different coiled wire inserts. A double-pipe counter-flow heat exchanger of 1040-mm length was used as the test condenser while, the refrigerant flowed inside the inner tube and the coolant flowed in the annulus. Four coiled wires of 10.0-mm pitch and different diameters of 0.5, 0.7, 1.0 and 1.5-mm and also four springs of 1.0-mm diameter and different pitches of 5, 8, 10 and 13-mm were inserted on the refrigerant side of the test condenser. Data were recorded for different mass flow rates in plain tube and each coiled wire inserted tube. Investigating the results for the coiled wire inserted tubes revealed that inserting the springs increased the pressure drop in a range of 260 to 1600% in comparison with that for a plain tube. Also, influence of coiled wire geometry on the pressure drop was investigated. Based on the collected data, an empirical correlation was developed to predict the pressure drop during the condensation inside a horizontal tube in the presence of a spring insert. Finally, the performance evaluation of the coiled wire inserted condensers was done. (C) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.