Experimental investigation of natural convection from vertical and horizontal helicoidal pipes in HVAC applications

Natural convection from uniformly heated helicoidal pipes oriented vertically and horizontally is experimentally studied. Four helicoidal pipes of different parameters are presented. The effects of pitch to pipe diameter ratio, coil diameter to pipe diameter ratio and length to pipe diameter ratio on the average heat transfer coefficient are found. The experiments covered a range of Rayleigh number based on tube diameter from 1.5 x 10(3) to 1.1 x 10(5). The results showed that the overall average Nusselt number, Nu(m), increases with the increase in pitch to pipe diameter ratio, coil diameter to pipe diameter ratio and length to pipe diameter ratio for vertical helicoidal pipes. For horizontal helicoidal pipes, the overall average Nusselt number, Nu, increases with the increase in pitch to pipe diameter ratio and length to pipe diameter ratio, but it decreases with the increase in coil diameter to pipe diameter ratio. New correlations are presented, and they can be used in HVAC applications. (c) 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.