Experimental Thermal and Fluid Science 78 (2016) 1–9

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Experimental Thermal and Fluid Science

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/etfs

Optimization of heat transfer and pressure drop characteristics via air

bubble injection inside a shell and coiled tube heat exchanger
Amin Moosavi, Majid Abbasalizadeh, Hamed Sadighi Dizaji ⇑
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Urmia University, Urmia, Iran

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Most recently, a couple of academic investigations have focused on air bubble injection (with a constant
Received 26 March 2016 air flow rate) inside the shell-and-coiled-tube heat exchangers in order to increase the performance and
Received in revised form 12 May 2016 effectiveness of these heat exchangers. However, the amount of air flow rate has great effects on these
Accepted 12 May 2016
applications which have not been probed in previous studies. Moreover, in former papers, air flow has
Available online 12 May 2016
been injected inside the only shell side and not coil side of heat exchanger. Hence, in this experimental
research, air bubbles is flowed inside the shell or coil side of heat exchanger with variant air flow rates to
Keywords:
detect an optimum condition and also fill out this topic. Air flow rate was changed between 1 LPM and
Air bubble injection
Different flow rate
5 LPM. Coil side water flow rate was kept at 1 LPM (inlet temperature of 40 °C) and shell side water flow
Overall heat transfer coefficient rate was varied between 1 LPM and 5 LPM (inlet temperature of 15 °C). Furthermore, pressure drop due
Pressure drop to bubble injection is measured in this paper for aforesaid heat exchangers as another new parameter.
Effectiveness Observations showed that the air flow rate and injection side (shell and coil) play key roles on the effect
of bubble injection into the heat exchangers. Findings showed that, increment of air flow rate causes
enhancement of overall heat transfer coefficient. Air injection into the shell side of the heat exchanger
increased the overall heat transfer coefficient 6–187% depending on air flow rate.
Ó 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
In recent years, researchers proposed different methods for
improving the thermal performance of heat exchangers. Some of
said methods such as using corrugated tubes, turbulators and fined
tubes are termed passive methods which do not need external
power. Other methods such as vibration and electrostatic fields
which require external powers are termed active methods. All
mentioned methods are based on increasing the turbulence level
of the fluid flow and mixing the thermal boundary layer of heat
exchanger.
Air injection into a liquid fluid causes creation of air bubbles
inside the said fluid. The number, shape, distribution and size of
these air bubbles depend on the method which is employed for
air injection. Obviously, upon the creation of an air bubble inside
a liquid, it began to move vertically through the liquid because of
the buoyancy force. Said natural behavior of air bubble can
increase the turbulence level of the liquid fluid. Hence, vertical
movement and mobility of small air bubbles can be used as an
appropriate active method to enhance the thermal performance
⇑ Corresponding author.
E-mail address: HamedSadighiDizaji@gmail.com (H. Sadighi Dizaji).
of heat exchangers in which water fluid (or other liquid) flows as
a working fluid. Aforesaid phenomenon is the main base of present
paper.
Most recently, Sadighi Dizaji et al. [1] suggested the air bubble
injection as a considerable method for effectiveness improvement
of vertical shell and coiled tube heat exchangers in which a liquid
(especially water) is used as the working fluid. They injected air
bubbles inside the shell side of heat exchanger with a constant
air flow rate. Indeed, holes number was the variant parameter in
said study. Nonetheless, three other most significant parameters
including air flow rate, injecting of air bubbles into the coil side
(in addition to the shell side), and pressure drop due to bubble
injection should be considered in these cases as well. Hence, in this
research all of the aforementioned parameters are comprehen-
sively investigated. Investigations on two phase follows, helical
tubes and bubble injection are summarized as follow.
Heat transfer efficiency and capital cost evaluation of a three-
phase direct contact heat exchanger for the utilization of low-
grade energy sources was experimentally studied by Mahood
et al. [2]. Their results showed that the thermal performance
increases with the increase of flow rates. Besides, according to their
report, mass flow rate of gas phase influences the minimum capital
cost. Simultaneous measurements of liquid and gas velocity have
been made in an air–water two-phase flow in a rectangular vertical

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.expthermflusci.2016.05.011
0894-1777/Ó 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
2 A. Moosavi et al. / Experimental Thermal and Fluid Science 78 (2016) 1–9
Nomenclature
A tube Area, m2
b coil pitch, m
C thermal capacity, J/kg K
c specific heat, J/kg K
D tube diameter, m
L tube length, m
LPM liter per minute
m_ mass flow rate, kg/s
N number of turns
NTU number of thermal units
P pressure, Pa
Pr Prandtl number, lkC
q heat transfer rate, W
Q flow rate, LPM
R coil radius, m
r radius of shell side inlet/outlet, m
Re Reynolds number
t coil thickness, m
Rc coil radius, m
Re Reynolds number, VD t
T temperature, K
U overall heat transfer coefficient, W/m2 K
V water mean velocity, m/s
VF volume fraction
duct by Vassallo et al. [3]. Their findings showed that, for gas flow,
the amount of relative velocity is increased with increment of void
fraction in large bubbles. Said phenomenon for small bubbles is
vice versa. Odaymet and Louahlia-Gualous [4] experimentally
studied on slug flow for condensation in a single square
microchannel. Local heat transfer was increased with enhance-
ment of vapor mass flow rate and more number of slugs was
observed. Characteristics of slug flow in a vertical narrow rectan-
gular channel were investigated by Wang et al. [5]. They found
that, the average length of bubbles increases with the increase of
gas flow rate. Increment of liquid flow rate caused reduction of
the rate of length increment of bubbles. Farisè et al. [6] investi-
gated experimentally how the heat transfer in a laminar flow can
be enhanced by using partially miscible binary liquid–liquid mix-
ture undergoing spinodal decomposition. The amount of heat
transfer rate was increased in said study for lower amounts of flow
rates. Sadighi Dizaji et al. [7] carried out experiments on the effect
of flow, thermodynamic and geometrical characteristics on exergy
loss through a shell and coiled tube heat exchanger. Kitagawa et al.
[8] studied on heat transfer enhancement for laminar natural con-
vection along a vertical plate due to sub-millimeter-bubble injec-
tion. They reported 1.35–1.85 times higher heat transfer
coefficient with sub-millimeter-bubble injection. Oh et al. [9] per-
formed experiments on bubble behavior and boiling heat transfer
enhancement under electric field. Their results revealed that the
effect of magnetic field on enhancement of boiling heat transfer
has some limitation conditions and it depends on type of working
fluid. Funfschilling and li [10] studied on the influence of injection
period on the bubble rise velocity and bubble shape in non-
Newtonian fluid. Ide et al. [11] measured the void fraction and
bubble size distribution in a michrochannel. Plug/slug length was
found to increase with the increasing superficial gas velocity, but
the liquid plug/slug length was found to decrease sharply as the
superficial gas velocity was increased, so that the total length of
the gas-liquid slug unit remained relatively constant or slightly
increased with the superficial gas velocity. Kitagawa et al. [12]
investigated the turbulent natural convection heat transfer in
water with sub-millimeter bubble injection. Their results showed
W total uncertainty in the measurement
X independent variable
Greek letters
m kinematic viscosity, m2/s
e effectiveness
DT temperature difference, K
Subscripts
a air fluid
co cold fluid
c coil side
h hot fluid
H hydraulic diameter, m
i inner
LMTD logarithmic mean temperature difference
NE non-enhanced
o outer
s shell side
in inlet
min minimum
out outlet
w water
that sub-millimeter bubble injection is effective in the laminar
region as well as the transition region with the maximum heat
transfer coefficient ratio of 1.9. The heat transfer coefficient ratio
was obtained 1.2–1.3 at turbulent region. Puli et al. [13] investi-
gated the bubble behavior in sub cooled flow boiling of water in
a horizontal annulus. Their observations showed that the bubbles
behavior is impressed by mass flow rate of working fluid and the
amount of mass flux. Samaroo et al. [14] performed an experiment
on the turbulent flow characteristics in an annulus under air bub-
ble injection and sub-cooled flow boiling conditions with water as
working fluid. Findings revealed that, existence of gas bubbles can
impress the velocity profile and also turbulence level of fluid flow.
In laminar flow a continuity behavior of bubbles was observed.
However in turbulent regime said continuity behavior was not
observed between bubbles because of the increment of bubbles
movement frequency. Recently Sadighi Dizaji et al. [15] studied
on exergetic characteristics of a shell and coiled tube heat exchan-
ger which is used in present paper. Higher hot water flow rate with
lower inlet temperature and also lower cold water flow rate with
higher inlet temperature can enhance the second law efficiency
of heat exchanger. Chang and Huang [16] experimentally studied
on thermal performances of upward concurrent air–water flow
through a furrowed narrow channel with skewed wall waves and
ribs.
The novelty of present paper can be observed in the third para-
graph of introduction. Indeed, the main scope of the present work
is to experimentally clarify the effect of air bubble injection with
various air flow rates on thermal and frictional characteristics of
a vertical shell and coiled tube heat exchanger. Air flow is injected
inside the shell or coil side of heat exchanger.
2. Experiments
2.1. Experimental set-up
A general view of the experimental set-up is shown Fig. 1. The
injection method was the same technique which was used in [1].
According to [1] a spiral tube was employed to inject the air flow
 A. Moosavi et al. / Experimental Thermal and Fluid Science 78 (2016) 1–9 3

Fig. 1. (a) A schematic illustration of the test set-up: 1 – test section, 2 – water-rotameter, 3 – warm water tank, 4 – dimmer and thermostat, 5 – heater, 6 – water pump, 7 –
codenser, 8 – compressor, 9 – cold water tank, 10 – evaporator, 11 – coiled tube, 12 – end plates of test section, 13 – air pump, 14 – spiral shape plastic tube, 15 – air-
rotameter, 16 – test section and (b) experimental setup.

Fig. 2. (a) Spiral tube, (b) air injection inside the shell side of heat exchanger and (c) air injection into the coiled tube.

inside the shell side (Fig. 2a). The number of holes on spiral tube
was 224 and the holes diameter was 0.3 mm in this study (case
‘‘4” in [1]). Injection method of the shell side and coil side are illus-
trated in Fig. 2(b) and (c) respectively. As seen in Fig. 1, hot water
and cold water was flowed inside the coil side and shell side of heat
exchanger respectively. Both hot and cold water were inserted
from the bottom inlet of test section (parallel flow). Air flow is
injected from the bottom side of test section too. If coil side water
flow is inserted from the top side of test section (for second mode,
Fig. 2c) a great pressure drop is created because of the contrary
contrast between the air flow and water flow. And presumably a
stronger air pump is required. Hot water was sent back into the
hot water tank (containing an electric heater) after passing through
the coiled tube. Cold water was sent back inside the cold water
tank containing an evaporator. Indeed, evaporator, condenser,
compressor and refrigerant act as a cooling unit. Water flow rate,
air flow rate, inlet and outlet temperatures, pressure drop are
measured by means of water-Rota-meter, air-Rota-meter, K type
thermocouple (TM947 SD Lutron Data logger), and digital
manometer (PM-9100 Lutron) respectively. The resolution of Data
logger and digital manometer were 0.1 °C and 1 mmHg respec-
tively. The amount of water or air flow rate was adjusted using
of some valves. Air flow was produced via a compressor.
2.2. Experiments procedure
Experiments were performed in two main modes. First mode
which is related to air injection into the shell side of heat exchan-
ger and second mode which is related to the air injection into the
coil side of heat exchanger. The ranges of water and air flow rate
are presented in Table 1. Coil side water flow rate was kept at
1 LPM in all experiments. Shell side water flow rate was changed
between 1LMP and 5 LPM. For each shell side water flow rate, five
different air flow rate was injected (1–5 LPM). Said process was
repeated for coil side (air bubble injection inside the coiled tube)
as presented in Table 1. Coil side water flow rate was kept constant
(1 LPM) during the all experiments. Tubes geometry is presented in
Table 2.
4 A. Moosavi et al. / Experimental Thermal and Fluid Science 78 (2016) 1–9

Table 1 The obtained uncertainty for each parameter is shown in

Test conditions. Table 3. As seen in Table 3, the amounts of uncertainty are in rea-
Shell side water Air flow Coil side water sonable ranges.
flow rate (LPM) rate (LPM) flow rate (LPM)
First mode: air injection 1 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 1 4. Results and discussion
inside the shell side 2 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 1
3 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 1
4.1. Thermal characteristics
4 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 1
5 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 1
Overall heat transfer coefficient is one of the best indicative for
Second mode: air 1 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 1
injection inside the 2 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 1 heat transfer rate in most heat exchangers. First law efficiency
coiled tube 3 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 1 (effectiveness) shows the thermal performance of the heat exchan-
4 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 1 ger. Besides Number of thermal units is the indicative of the size of
5 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 1
the heat exchanger so that The NTU–effectiveness charts can be of
great practical utility in design problems; and more elaborate
design procedures, requiring analytical expression for these curves
Table 2
[1]. Hence, the effects of hot water flow rate, cold water flow rate
Tubes geometry.
and air flow rate on overall heat transfer coefficient, effectiveness
Tube t L N 2Ri Di 2r b and number of thermal units are evaluated in this section for both
(mm) (mm) (mm) (mm) (mm) (mm) (mm)
first mode (air injection into the shell side) and second mode (air
Coiled tube 1.44 380 11 114 4.4 – 30 injection into the coil side).
Shell 3 420 – – 120 12.7 –

4.1.1. First mode: air injection into the shell side

Air flow was injected inside the shell side of heat exchanger as
3. Calculations method presented in Table 1. The relationship between overall heat trans-
fer coefficient and shell side water flow rate is presented in Fig. 3
3.1. Calculation method of thermal characteristics for different amounts of air flow rates. The effect of bubble injec-
tion on NTU and e are shown in Figs. 4 and 5 respectively.
Overall heat transfer coefficient, heat exchanger effectiveness The key findings from the thermal studies of first mode can be
and number of thermal units (NTU) are evaluated as shown below. presented as follow.
Heat transfer rate through an adiabatic heat exchanger (present
paper) can be evaluated from Eq. (1).  As seen in Figs. 3–5, air bubble injection can improve signifi-
cantly the performance of heat exchanger. Air bubble injection
_ h cp;h ðT h;in  T h;out Þ ¼ m
q¼m _ co cp;co ðT co;out  T co;in Þ ð1Þ inside the shell side of heat exchanger increases the overall heat
Overall heat transfer coefficient is calculated from Eq. (2). transfer coefficient, effectiveness and number of thermal units
in all conditions. Air injection into the heat exchanger increased
q
U¼ ð2Þ the overall heat transfer coefficient 6–187% depending on air
ADT LMTD flow rate. 187% is occurred in water flow rate of 5 LPM and air
Effectiveness and Number of thermal units (NTU) are evaluated flow rate of 5 LPM. The intensification of effectiveness due to
from Eqs. (3) and (4). air injection was observed between 3% and 56%. The enhance-
ment of heat exchanger thermal performance can be explained
actual heat transfer q
e¼ ¼ ð3Þ as follow. Air injection inside the shell side of heat exchanger
maximum possible heat transfer C min ðT h;inlet  T co;inlet Þ causes creation of many tiny air bubbles inside the shell side
of heat exchanger. Said air bubbles move vertically from the
AU bottom side of heat exchanger toward the top side of heat
NTU ¼ ð4Þ
C min exchanger because of the buoyancy force. Bubbles natural ver-
where Cmin is the minimum thermal capacity and it is defined as tical movement causes a significant turbulence inside the heat
bellow, exchanger which is the main reason of heat transfer augmenta-
tion. Mobility of air bubbles can mix the thermal boundary layer
_ h cp;h ; C co ¼ m
C min ¼ MinfC h & C co g; C h ¼ m _ co cp;co ð5Þ and increase the turbulence level of the shell side water flow.
It is noted that the maximum mass flow rate of air flow
15.42  105 kg/s (5 LPM) is really negligible in comparison with
minimum water mass flow rate (0.016 kg/s). Moreover, thermal Table 3
Maximum uncertainty of parameters.
capacity of air is less than water. Hence the amount of m _ h  cph
for air flow was ignored in this study. Parameter Unit Comment
Uncertainty in the temperature measurement °C
3.2. Uncertainty of measurements Hot fluid inlet temperature °C ±0.5
Hot fluid outlet temperature °C ±0.5
Cold fluid inlet temperature °C ±0.5
Uncertainty of measurements is calculated using of the method
Cold fluid outlet temperature °C ±0.5
which was employed in Sadighi Dizaji et al. [1] study (Moffat [17]
Uncertainty in the measurement of volume flow rate m3 h1
method). As described in [1], the uncertainties in calculating a
Water m3 h1 ±0.02
result (WR+) can be evaluated by following equation. Where, x1, Air m3 h1 ±0.01
x2 etc. are independent variables of a defined result.
Uncertainties in calculating a result %

þ 2
þ 2
þ 2 !12 Effectiveness % ±9.64
@R @R @R Overall heat transfer coefficient % ±8.37
W þR ¼ w1 þ w2 þ    þ wn ð6Þ
@X 1 @X 2 @X n Uncertainty in reading values of table (q, k, . . .) % ±0.1–0.2
 A. Moosavi et al. / Experimental Thermal and Fluid Science 78 (2016) 1–9
Fig. 3. The effect of air flow injection on overall heat transfer coefficient for first
mode (air injection into the shell side).
Fig. 4. The effect of air flow injection on NTU for first mode (air injection into the
shell side).
Creation of small bubbles is the main parameter for said expla-
nation. The second main reason can be related to the shell side
Reynolds number. It should be noted that, the shell side Rey-
nolds number may be evaluated based on the water flow rate
by the following correlations.
Vd
Reshell side ¼
t overall heat transfer coefficient is increased yet. For lower water
Q rapidly reduced. Indeed, higher values of water flow rate can
V ¼p 2
D
4 H
where the Q is water flow rate through the shell side of heat
exchanger. However, it is noted that the real water velocity
inside the shell side is more than the water velocity calculated
from Eq. (8). Because after the air flow injection inside the shell
5
Fig. 5. The effect of air injection on e for first mode (air injection into the shell side).
side of heat exchanger, more amount of fluid flow (water flow
+ air flow) should pass along the same shell. And obviously the
mixed fluid has to passes with higher velocity compared to the
pure water. Hence the real water velocity and consequently the
real shell side Reynolds number (can be termed apparent Rey-
nolds number of water) is higher than the Reynolds number
which is evaluated from Eq. (7). Hence, this extra Reynolds
number can be introduced as another positive behavior of air
injection which increases the heat transfer rate of heat
exchanger.
 The effect of air flow rate on overall heat transfer coefficient
intensifies by increasing the air flow rate. According to Fig. 3
for lower amounts of shell side water flow rate, the effect of
bubble injection on U is less than the higher amount of shell
side water flow rate. More amount of air flow rate creates extra
number of bubbles along the heat exchanger. These small air
bubbles can have two main behaviors. In their first role, they
can act as turbulator which causes more heat transfer rate
between hot fluid and cold fluid. However it should be noted
that air fluid has an isolation treatment which may be observed
in very high air flow rates. In this research, the maximum ratio
of air volumetric flow rate to water flow rate was 5 and it had a
positive behavior in all tested flow rates.
 Another memorable finding is related to the changes of U/UNE
with shell side water flow rate (Fig. 6). UNE is the overall heat
transfer coefficient for simple case (without air injection). As
seen in Fig. 6 the slope of U/UNE is reduced with the increase
of water flow rate. It is noted that, the reduction of U/UNE or
its slope does not mean the reduction of U. It just means that
the amount of positive effect of air bubble injection on U has
been reduced compared to the lesser water flow rate. But the
ð7Þ
flow rates (for example 1 LPM or 2 LPM) the slope of U/UNE is
ð8Þ
increase the turbulence level of the fluid flow and obviously
in order to extra intensify turbulence level, higher amount of
air flow rate should be employed. This phenomenon can be
explained using of the conception of volume fraction (as
described below) too.
6 A. Moosavi et al. / Experimental Thermal and Fluid Science 78 (2016) 1–9
Fig. 6. The effect of air injection on e for first mode (air injection into the shell side).
air flow rate
VF ¼
air flow rate þ water flow rate
Increment of water flow rate, reduces the amount of volume
fraction. And reduction of volume fraction means the reduction
of air flow (air bubbles) contribution in all fluid flow. Fig. 7 shows
the variation of U/UNE with volume fraction. Obviously for a con-
stant air flow rate in Fig. 7, increment of volume fraction is due
to the reduction of water flow rate not increment of air flow rate.
To this reason the amount of U/UNE is reduced with the increase
of volume fraction. However for a defined volume fraction, incre-
ment of air flow rate increases the U/UNE.
It should be noted that, identical volume fraction does not mean
the identical U because of the differences in water flow rate. Fig. 8
shows the amount of overall heat transfer coefficient for an identi-
cal volume fraction. Obviously this augmentation of overall heat
transfer coefficient is related to the enhancement of shell side
water flow rate which creates higher value of Reynolds number.
Fig. 7. Relationship between VF and U/UNE.
Fig. 8. The amount of U for an identical volume fraction.
ð9Þ
4.1.2. Second mode: air injection into the coil side
Air flow was injected inside the coil side of heat exchanger as
presented in Table 1. The relationship between overall heat trans-
fer coefficient and shell side water flow rate is presented in Fig. 9
for different amounts of air flow rates. The effect of air injection
on NTU and e are shown in Figs. 10 and 11 respectively.
The key findings from the thermal studies of the second mode
can be presented as follow.
 The mechanisms which enhance the performance of heat
exchanger in second mode are different from first mode. A com-
parison between Figs. 3 and 9 reveals that the air injection into
the shell side has higher effect on thermal performance of heat
exchanger compared to the air injection into the coil side. The
reason can be explained by two mechanisms. First, if air flow
is injected inside the coil side of heat exchanger, no consider-
able bubbles are created inside the coiled tube. As mentioned
above, the creation of small air bubbles and their random
mobility has significant effect on the enhancement of overall
heat transfer coefficient which does not occur in second mode.
Indeed, air flow and water flow move inside the coiled tube sep-
arately and slug by slug (in each moment and in each chosen
cross section there is only one of the water fluid or air fluid)
with a huge interaction between air flow, water flow and solid
boundary. Air flow and water flow push each other frequently
through the coiled tube and the fluid velocity (Reynolds num-
ber) is strongly increased. Consequently, more pressure drop
is observed. Secondly, it is noted that air flow may act as insu-
lation especially inside the coiled tube which is more compact
and slender. This phenomenon can explain why the air flow
injection into the coil side has less effect than the shell side.
Indeed the inside space of the coiled tube is very small com-
pared to the shell side for the same air flow rates. Accordingly,
each slug of air flow inside the coiled tube, occupies the entire
cross section of coiled tube which can act as an insulator
through the coiled tube. Said behavior of air flow does not
appear for first mode or may appear negligible. Fig. 12 shows
said explanation based on volume fraction. As seen in Fig. 12,
for identical volume fractions, the amount of overall heat trans-
fer coefficient of first mode in more than the second mode.
 A. Moosavi et al. / Experimental Thermal and Fluid Science 78 (2016) 1–9
Fig. 9. The effect of air flow injection on overall heat transfer coefficient for second
mode (air injection into the coil side).
Fig. 10. The effect of air flow injection on NTU for second mode (air injection into
the coil side).
 As a general result, if air flow is injected into the shell side, the
major reason of the effect of air flow is related to the creation of
tiny air bubbles along the heat exchanger which can mix the
thermal boundary layer without high pressure drop and any
considerable contact between fluid and solid boundary. To this
reason as seen in Fig. 3, a sharp increment of overall heat trans-
fer coefficient is obtained with the beginning of air injection
(even 1 LPM). This event is not observed in second mode. In sec-
ond mode the same air flows causes a very significant intensifi-
cation of fluid velocity inside the coiled tube because of the
compact and slander space. Indeed, contrary to the first mode,
in second mode, water flow and air flow were not able to pass
near each other (relative velocity) and they have to pass slug
by slug along the coiled tube with a higher velocity. And it
may be said that, no air–water mixed exists in a defined cross
section of coiled tube.
7
Fig. 11. The effect of air flow injection on e for second mode (air injection into the
coil side).
Fig. 12. The amounts of U in identical VF for both first mode and second mode.
4.2. Pressure drop
Pressure drop due to air flow injection is experimentally mea-
sured. The position of junction between heat exchanger and
manometer are shown in Fig. 13 for both shell side and coil side.
Shell side pressure drop with different water and air flow rates
are presented in Fig. 14(a). For coil side, water flow rate was kept
at 1 LPM and the air flow was varied from 1 LPM to 5 LPM and
the amounts of pressure drop are shown in Fig. 14(b).
As seen in Fig. 14, coil side pressure drop is more than the shell
side pressure drop. It should be noted that, both air and water or
one of them may pass from a defined cross section of coiled tube
(or outlet/inlet of shell) in any moment. Hence, monometer was
showing a fluctuating value (between two specific values) for each
case. Accordingly, each point of Fig. 14 shows an average amount
of aforesaid fluctuating values. Shell side pressure drop enhances
with the enhancement of water flow rate or air flow rate. Coil side
8 A. Moosavi et al. / Experimental Thermal and Fluid Science 78 (2016) 1–9

Fig. 13. Position of junction between heat exchanger and manometer (a) shell side and (b) coil side.

Fig. 14. (a) Shell side pressure drop and (b) coil side pressure drop.

pressure drop increases with the increase of air flow rate. Maximum
pressure drop was observed in water flow rate of 5 LPM and air flow
rate of 5 LPM. Coil side pressure drop is higher than the shell side
because of the slender space and higher Reynolds number. Indeed,
one of the effective parameters on pressure drop is Reynolds num-
ber. And obviously for an identical water flow rate the coil side Rey-
nolds number is more than the shell side. Moreover, centrifugal
forces influence on coil side fluid flow which is causes extra pressure
drop. However what it is considerable in this section is the amount of
added pressure drop due to air injection not pure water pressure
drop. According to Fig. 14(a) and (b), air flow injection into the shell
side of heat exchanger causes increment of pressure between 13%
and 225% (depending on water or air flow rate) compared to the pure
water. Air injection into the coil side of heat exchanger increases the
pressure drop between 49% and 370% compared to the pure water.
Hence, air injection into the shell side is more suitable than the air
injection into the coil side.
5. Conclusion
In this paper the air flow with different flow rates is injected
inside the shell or coil side of a shell and coiled tube heat exchan-
ger and its effects on thermal characteristics including overall heat
transfer coefficient, number of thermal units and effectiveness and
also pressure drop are experimentally investigated. Findings
showed that, the effect of air injection increases with the increase
of air flow rate. However, the amount of augmentation and curves
behavior were completely different when air flow was injected into
the shell side and coil side of heat exchanger. Besides, if the
amount of shell side water flow rate is increased more and more
(volume fraction is reduced), the amount of overall heat transfer
coefficient is increased as well, but the amount of U/UNE is reduced
in comparison with other points. Moreover, pressure drop due to
air bubbles injection for coil side was more than shell side of heat
exchanger.
 A. Moosavi et al. / Experimental Thermal and Fluid Science 78 (2016) 1–9 9

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