Turbulent Flow Inside Pipes with Two-Dimensional Rib Roughness

A commonly used internal enhancement for single-phase forced-convective turbulent flow applications is tranverse and/or near tranverse ribs. These enhanced surfaces consist of a uniform inside diameter with periodic and discrete disruption of ribs. Enhanced tubes of this type are made by an extrusion process and are used in some condensers and evaporators in refrigeration systems. Tubes of this type fall into an enhancement category called separation and reattachment that has been identified as one of the most energy efficient. Lacking are prediction methods that are mechanistic based that can be used to calculate the heat-transfer coefficients and friction-factors for tubes with this enhancement type. This program calculates the Nusselt number and friction factor for enhanced tubes with tranverse, rectangular ribs with a spacing exceeding the reattachment length. The input quantities are the enhancement height, spacing, and the width. The Nusselt number and friction factor are calculated for a specific Reynolds number or for a range of Reynolds numbers. Users of the program are heat-exchanger designers, enhanced tubing suppliers, and research organizations or academia who are developing or validating prediction methods. The manufacturers of refrigeration heat exchangers and enhanced tube suppliers are potential users of this software.