Abstract
Pool boiling on a tube bundle is one of the most important heat transfer modes in several industrial applications, including steam generators, shell and tube heat exchangers for waste heat recovery, and desalination. Although several enhanced tubes (e.g., external micro-finned tubes) have been extensively studied and commercialized, the studies that pertain to the metal foam enhanced tube bundles are limited in the open literature. The objective of the present study is to perform an experimental study to analyze the pool boiling heat transfer characteristics of a metal foam tube bundle and compare its performance with that of a tube bundle with no enhancement. The performance of the metal foam tube bundles with different porosities (81%, 75%, and 62%) is compared against the conventional bare tube bundle. The results showed that the heat transfer coefficients of the metal foam tube bundles are 100–212% higher than those of the bare tube bundle. Among the different porosities, metal foam with 75% porosity showed a higher heat transfer coefficient. Furthermore, the wall temperature of the metal foam tubes is nearly 5–14⁰C lower than that of the bare tubes. When compared with a tube pitch of 25.4 mm, a tube pitch of 19.05 mm showed a maximum of 9% and 14% enhancement in bare and metal foam tube bundles, respectively.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 121812 |
| Journal | Applied Thermal Engineering |
| Volume | 236 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Jan 10 2024 |
Funding
The authors greatly acknowledge the colleagues at Oak Ridge National Laboratory who provided useful comments and suggestions to improve the quality of the paper. In addition, the technical support provided by Anthony Gehl, Jeff Taylor, Brian Goins, and Michael Day is greatly appreciated. The authors also acknowledge the support provided by US Department of Energy Building Technologies Office (BTO) and the technology manager, Mr. Antonio Bouza. Notice: This manuscript has been authored in part by UT-Battelle, LLC, under contract DE-AC05-00OR22725 with the US Department of Energy (DOE). The US government retains and the publisher, by accepting the article for publication, acknowledges that the US government retains a nonexclusive, paid-up, irrevocable, worldwide license to publish or reproduce the published form of this manuscript, or allow others to do so, for US government purposes. DOE will provide public access to these results of federally sponsored research in accordance with the DOE Public Access Plan (http://energy.gov/downloads/doe-public-access-plan). Notice: This manuscript has been authored in part by UT-Battelle, LLC, under contract DE-AC05-00OR22725 with the US Department of Energy (DOE). The US government retains and the publisher, by accepting the article for publication, acknowledges that the US government retains a nonexclusive, paid-up, irrevocable, worldwide license to publish or reproduce the published form of this manuscript, or allow others to do so, for US government purposes. DOE will provide public access to these results of federally sponsored research in accordance with the DOE Public Access Plan (http://energy.gov/downloads/doe-public-access-plan). The authors greatly acknowledge the colleagues at Oak Ridge National Laboratory who provided useful comments and suggestions to improve the quality of the paper. In addition, the technical support provided by Anthony Gehl, Jeff Taylor, Brian Goins, and Michael Day is greatly appreciated. The authors also acknowledge the support provided by US Department of Energy Building Technologies Office (BTO) and the technology manager, Mr. Antonio Bouza.
| Funders | Funder number |
|---|---|
| DOE Public Access Plan | |
| U.S. Department of Energy | |
| Building Technologies Office | |
| Biological Technologies Office | DE-AC05-00OR22725 |
Keywords
- Heat transfer coefficient
- Metal foam
- Pool boiling
- Tube bundle
