HEAT TRANSFER AND PRESSURE DROP CORRELATION IN HELICOIDAL PIPES OF RECTANGULAR CROSS SECTION

In this study, flow and heat transfer for laminar flow in curved channels of rectangular cross section is examined. The focus of the numerical solutions is on rectangular cross sections with an aspect ratio less than one, since little information is available for heat transfer in curved rectangular pipes whose width is greater than height. The study examines the impact of the aspect ratio and Dean number on both friction factor and Nusselt number. The results show that although both friction factor and Nusselt number increase as a result of curvature effects, the heat transfer enhancements significantly outweigh the friction factor penalty. Numerical solutions in this study consider the more realistic case of hydrodynamically developed and thermally developing flow.