Convective heat transfer studies on helically corrugated tubes with spiraled rod inserts using TiO2/DI water nanofluids

Convective heat transfer and friction factor studies are experimentally carried out in a smooth and five helically corrugated tubes of different heights and pitches of corrugation with spiraled rod inserts. The experiment is conducted under turbulent flow (Re = 4800–8900) and constant wall heat flux conditions. Deionized (DI) water and titanium dioxide (TiO2)/DI water nanofluids are used as working fluids. The average size of TiO2 nanoparticles is 32 nm. Two volume concentrations of nanofluids (0.25 and 0.5%) are used in this study. The combined effects of nanofluids, inserts and corrugation in tubes on Nusselt number and friction factor are investigated. The results indicate that (i) the addition of TiO2 nanoparticles in DI water upsurges the heat transfer rate, which increases with nanofluids volume concentrations; (ii) use of inserts and corrugation in tubes enhances the heat transfer rate further; (iii) among the corrugated tubes, the tube having highest corrugation height (hc = 1 mm) and lowest pitch (pc = 8 mm) with spiraled rod insert of smaller pitch (pi = 30 mm) shows the maximum thermal performance factor of 1.56 for 0.5% volume concentration of nanofluids.