PERFORMANCE EVALUATION OF CONVECTIVE HEAT-TRANSFER ENHANCEMENT DEVICES USING ENERGY ANALYSIS

A new criterion for evaluating the effectiveness of a passive heat transfer augmentation device is proposed. This method is based on exergy analysis and can be applied to forced convection heat transfer systems, such as fluid to fluid heat exchangers. Use of heat transfer augmentation devices reduce the exergy destruction due to heat transfer across a finite temperature difference. However, the exergy destruction due to fluid flow friction increases. The net exergy destruction resulting from the above effects, thus, forms the evaluation criterion in the present work. Application of this technique to a tubular heat exchanger with wire-coil insert is presented.