International Research Journal of Engineering and Technology (IRJET) e-ISSN: 2395-0056

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CHIMNEY WASTE HEAT RECOVERY USING HELICAL COIL HEAT

EXCHANGER
Mr. Prasad Ashok Adsule1, Mr. Varad Sanjay Kumbhar2, Mr. Mangesh Vijaykumar Mali3, Mr.
Rahul Prakash Soudagar4
1Assistant
Professor, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, Padmabhooshan Vasantraodada Patil Institute of
Technology, Budhgaon, Sangli, Maharashtra, India
2UG Student, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, Padmabhooshan Vasantraodada Patil Institute of Technology,

Budhgaon, Sangli, Maharashtra, India

3UG Student, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, Padmabhooshan Vasantraodada Patil Institute of Technology,

Budhgaon, Sangli, Maharashtra, India

4UG Student, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, Padmabhooshan Vasantraodada Patil Institute of Technology,

Budhgaon, Sangli, Maharashtra, India

---------------------------------------------------------------------***---------------------------------------------------------------------
Abstract - The aim for this research study was to recover chimneys, discharge of hot waste water, heat transfer form
heat lost through flue gases exhaust at the chimney stage and hot surfaces. This energy loss can be recovered through heat
use it for the further industrial applications or drying. The exchangers and be put to other use such as preheating the
device designed and developed during this study is simply a other industrial fluids such as water or air.
copper coil pipe heat exchanger placed inside the chimney. In The paper focuses on recovering heat that is lost through
a market with rising energy prices, where the focus is on the boiler chimney flue gas. The advantages of heat recovery
efficient use of resources, it makes sense to take advantage of include:
the considerable amount of energy present in flue gases i) Increasing the energy efficiency of the boiler.
otherwise it have been vented through chimney. This paper ii) Decreasing thermal and air pollution dramatically.
deals with the parametric analysis of the helical coiled heat
exchanger with various correlations given by different iii) Decreases the auxiliary load of the plant.
researchers for specific conditions. We have also done
1.2 Basic Theory of Heat Exchangers
theoretical calculations and the same cross verified with the
result obtained with the CFD analysis of the system.
Heat exchangers are the devices that facilitate the exchange
Key Words: Heat Exchanger, Waste Management, Helical of heat between two fluids that are at different temperatures
coil heat exchanger, CFD analysis, Heat transfer, while keeping them form mixing with each other. Heat
Industrial waste heat, transfer in heat exchangers involves convection in each fluid
and conduction through the wall separating the two fluids. In
order to account for the contribution of all the effects of
1. INTRODUCTION
convection and conduction, an overall heat transfer
coefficient, U, is used in the analysis. Heat transfer rate
As we know Helical Coil heat exchangers are of great use in
depends on the temperature differences between the two
industrial applications such as process plats, heat recovery
fluids at the location and the velocity of the fluids (time of
systems, refrigeration, power generation, nuclear industry,
interaction) between the fluids.
food industry and various other applications due to its
compact structure and high heat transfer coefficient. There
are also several studies that indicated that helical coiled 1.3 Helical Coil Heat Exchanger
tubes are superior to straight tubes when employed in heat
transfer applications. So with the help of coiled heat A helical design was chosen due to its combination of
exchanger, we can recover maximum the waste (heat) going simplicity, low potential cost, size and high effectiveness. It
out of chimney by employing the heat exchanger at the end basically consists of a single component i.e. a copper coil. It
of the chimney. In this paper we have covered the theoretical can be easily retrofitted and modified. It is very compact and
calculations and the CFD analysis of the heat exchanger. the design sixe can be modified by simply changing the
number of turns, pitch and coil diameter. Thus, it can
adapted to diverse flue pipe configurations and sizes. A
1.1 Industrial Waste Heat
helical design offers a large heat transfer area which is
proportional to the heat transfer rate.
The heat lost in industries through various ways such as
discharge of hot combustion gases to the atmosphere through

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1.4 Overall Heat Transfer Coefficient

In analysis of heat transfer in heat exchangers, various
thermal resistances in the path of heat flow from the hot to
cold fluid are combined. Heat is first transferred from the hot
fluid to the wall by convection, through the mass by
conduction and from the wall to the cold fluid by convection.
Any radiation effects are usually included in the convection
heat transfer coefficients.
The total thermal resistance (R), for the whole system is
given by,

Fig 1.1. Helical coil heat exchanger

Where,
hi & ho = heat transfer coefficients for inside and outside flow
Helical coil configuration is very effective for heat
respectively
exchangers because they can accommodate a large heat
k = thermal conductivity of the exchanger material
transfer area in a very small space, with very high heat
R = total thermal resistance from inside to outside flow
transfer coefficients. The flow through a curved pipe has
t = thickness of the heat exchanger material
been attracting much attention of researchers. The fluid
flowing through curved tubes induces secondary flow in the
tubes.
The curved shape of the tube causes the flowing fluid to
experience centrifugal force. The extent of centrifugal force Ao & At = Inside and outside surface areas of the heat
experienced by flowing fluid depends on the local axial exchanger surfaces respectively.
velocity of the fluid particle and radius of curvature of the Expressing the thermal resistance R as an overall heat
coil. The fluid particles flowing at the core of the pipe have transfer coefficient based on either the fluid inside or outside
higher velocities than those flowing near to the pipe wall. surface of the heat exchanger surface areas:
Thus the fluid particles flowing close to the tube wall
experience a lower centrifugal force than the fluid particles
flowing in the tube core. This causes the fluid from the core
region to be pushed towards the outer wall. This stream 2. LITERATURE REVIEW
bifurcates at the wall and drives the fluid towards the inner
wall along the tube periphery, causing generation of Pramod S. Purandarea, Mandar M. Leleb, Rajkumar
secondary flows which produce additional transport of the Gupta [1], carried out the analysis for laminar and turbulent
fluid over the cross section of the pipe. This additional region separately for tube side heat transfer coefficient (hi)
convective transport increases heat transfer and the and Nu. The calculations are performed as per the data
pressure drop when compared to that in a straight tube. This reduction procedure for helical coil configuration and the
secondary flow in the tube has significant ability to enhance results are tabulated for heat transfer analysis. Four
the heat transfer due to mixing of fluid. Forced convection in different correlations of Nu are selected from the literature
a heat exchanger transfers the heat from one moving stream for the analysis, the correlations fulfil the conditional
to another stream through the wall of the pipe. The cooler requirements of the data selected for the analysis.
fluid removes heat from the hotter fluid as it flows along or
across it. Surendra Vishvakarma, Sanjay Kumbhare, K. K. Thakur
[2], done experimental analysis to calculate the effectiveness
of helical coil heat exchanger and compared it with that of
straight tube heat exchanger and they found that the
effectiveness of the helical coil heat exchanger is greater
than the straight tube heat exchanger.

Shokouhmand et. al. [3] experimentally studied to optimize

the Re of laminar viscous flow in a helically coiled tube
subjected to constant wall temperature by minimizing
entropy generation.
Fig 1.2. Secondary flow in curved tube

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Ramchandra K. Patil, B.W.Shende, Prasanta K. Ghosh [4], Jayakumar and Grover 1997 [9], studied that the
designed a helical coil heat exchanger for water to water performance of the residual heat removal system, which uses
heat transfer application and performed a detailed a helically coiled heat exchanger, for various process
procedure to calculate the number of turns required. parameters.

Ali [10], obtained average outside heat transfer coefficients for

turbulent heat transfer from vertical helical coils submersed in
water.

Nandakumar and Masliyah, 1982 [11], concluded that

heat transfer coefficients are for simplified boundary
conditions such as constant wall temperature or constant
heat flux.

White [12] has continued the study of Dean for the laminar
Fig 2.1. Reference figure to [4] flow of fluids with different viscosities through curved pipes
with different curvature ratios (δ). The result shows that the
Ignacio Becerril Romero, Graeme Flett, Noel Gancedo onset of turbulence did not depend on the value of the Re or
Feito [5], designed a helical coil tube heat exchanger to the the De. He concluded that the flow in curved pipes is more
water from using the heat from the flue gas of biomass stove. stable than flow in straight pipes. White also studied the
resistance to flow as a function of De and Re. There was no
difference in flow resistance compared to a straight pipe for
values of De less than 11.6.

Guo et al. [13] experimentally studied, the two-phase flow

of a steam-water mixture in a helical coil.

3. DESIGN PROCESS

Fig 2.2. Reference figure to [5] 3.1 Design Considerations

In the designing of the exchanger following factors were put
M.R. Salimpour [6], investigated the heat transfer to consideration,
coefficients of shell and helically coiled tube heat exchangers. i) The exchanger has to be the most efficient and
Three heat exchangers with different coil pitches were suitable for gas-gas heat exchange.
selected as test section for both parallel-flow and counter- ii) The design has to allow for quick maintenance.
flow configurations. All the required parameters like inlet iii) The design has to conform to the boiler chimney
and outlet temperatures of tube-side and shell-side fluids, design.
flow rate of fluids, etc. were measured using appropriate Based on the above factors, the exchanger was designed to
instruments. Totally, 75 test runs were performed from be of helical coil type.
which the tube-side and shell-side heat transfer coefficients The helical coil type was found to be more efficient and
were calculated. Empirical correlations were proposed for simpler in design. It was also more suitable for gas to gas
shell-side and tube-side. The calculated heat transfer heat exchange as it offers higher surface for heat transfer for
coefficients of tube-side were also compared to the existing available space.
correlations for other boundary conditions and a reasonable Properties of exhaust are taken as properties of air.
agreement was observed.

Manna et al., 1996 [7], investigated Heat exchanger with

helical coils is used for residual heat removal systems in
islanded or barge mounted nuclear reactor system,
wherein nuclear energy is utilised for desalination of
seawater.

Naphon and Wongwises 2006 [8], provided the latest

Review of flow and heat transfer characteristics.

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3.2 Design of Helical Coil

Where,
r = dti/2
dti = inner tube diameter
Rc = Dhe/2
Dhe = mean coil diameter
Hence,
Recr = 16171.9

Now by using velocity and Reynolds number relation,

Critical Velocity = 7.06 m/s

Mass flow rate,
= 0.01384 kg/sec
Re = 22915.16722

The velocity of inlet air must be greater than the critical

velocity to maintain the flow turbulent.
Hence the selected velocity = 10 m/s

Properties of air inside the tube

Tavg = (Tin + Tout)/2 = 42.5°C
Cp = 1007.42 j/kgK
Fig 3.1. Heat Exchanger installation diagram Pr = 0.71
K = 0.3 W/m-k
3.2.1 Inputs Available μ = 1.92396E-05 N-s/m2
Height of chimney available = 1m Heat transfer
Diameter of chimney = 150mm
Mass flow rate of exhaust gas in the chimney = 0.013kg/sec
Q = 488.121491 Watt
3.2.2 Desired Output
The hot air temperature depends on the type of application. Inside heat transfer coefficient (hi)
For the initial design it is taken as 60 degree Celsius and The nusselt number is given by Roger et al. is used to
number of turns of coil required is calculated and then for calculate the inside heat transfer coefficient.
different temperature requirements the same number of
coils is taken and temperatures are adjusted by changing the
velocity of the inlet air.

3.3 Dimensions of Coil Where,

By considering the available space for heat exchanger, the Re = Reynolds number
following dimensions are considered for helical coil. Pr = Prandtl number
Outer tube diameter = 42 m δ = dti/Dhe
Inner tube diameter = 40 mm Nu = 93.95621257
Outer coil diameter = 130 mm Now,
Mean coil diameter = 88 mm

3.4 Design Procedure

Here is simple procedure for designing helical coil heat hi = 64.55565948 W/m^2-K
exchanger
Properties of exhaust gas inside the chimney
Inlet velocity of air: - To maintain the flow inside the tube For determination of Cp,20 degree temp difference is
turbulent, the Reynolds number should be greater than assumed as variation in Cp with temp is very small.
critical Reynolds number. The critical Reynolds number for Tavg gas = [Tgas in + (Tgas in + 20)]/2 = 160°C
the helical coil can be calculated as given below, Cp = 1019.54 J/kgK

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Now, Now,

Area Ao = 0.115171457 m2
Actual Tout of exhaust gas
Tout = 133.171857°C
Length of Coil
Tavg = (Tin + Tout actual)/2 = 151.585928°C
Pr = 0.83
K = 0.04 W/m-K Where,
μ = 2.40E-05 N-s/m2 dto = outside tube diameter
Lc = length of the coil
Outside heat transfer coefficient Hence,
The nusselt number correlation given by M.R. Salimpour is
Lc = 0.873304949
used to calculate the outside heat transfer coefficient.
Number of turns required (N)
Where,
Reo = Reynolds number for gas flow inside the chimney.
Where,
Lc = length of coil
Rc = mean coil radius
= 4.60E+03 p = pitch of the coil
Pr = Pradntl number for exhaust gas Hence,
y = dimensionless pitch = P/2πRc N = 7.494614492 = 8
P = Pitch of the Coil Hence the number of coils required for 60 degree outlet
Nu = 4.46E+02 temp are equal to 8.

3.5 CFD Analysis

Where, 3.5.1 Process of CFD analysis of heat exchanger
Dh = hydraulic diameter The software used for CFD analysis is ANSYS. CFD Analysis is
carried out in following steps
1 Modelling
2 Meshing
ho = 105.5932133 W/m2-K
3 boundary conditions
4 Run
Overall Heat transfer coefficient The method used is SIMPLE algorithm (Richard et al, 2013)
for this analysis. Let us look at each step in detail.

Where, 3.5.2 Modelling

Uo = overall heat transfer coefficient based on outside heat The heat exchanger can be drawn as a 2-D diagram (as done
transfer area. by Patel D. et al.); although 3-D drawing will be better in all
hi = inside het transfer coefficient respect. Hence, a 3-D drawing is modeled using CATIA.
ho = outside heat transfer coefficient
Ai = inside heat transfer area
Ao = outside heat transfer area
K = thermal conductivity of material of coil
L = length of coil
1/Uo = 0.025738042 Fig 3.2. 3D Modeling of heat exchanger
Uo = 38.85299496 W/m2 –K
3.5.3 Meshing
LMTD Meshing is dividing an entity into smaller elements. Meshing
are of various types like tetra, hexa meshing. In free meshing
a relatively coarse mesh is generated. It contains both
tetrahedral and hexahedral cells having triangular and
= 109.0833753 quadrilateral faces at the boundaries. Later, a fine mesh is
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generated using edge sizing. In this, the edges and regions of

high pressure and temperature gradients are finely meshed.

Fig 4.2. Temperature contour of exhaust gas outlet

Fig 3.3. Meshing of heat exchanger

3.5.4 Boundary Conditions

Different boundary conditions were applied for different
zones. Since it is a coil heat exchanger, there are two inlets
and two outlets. The inlets were defined as velocity inlets
Fig 4.3. Temperature contour of heat exchanger
and outlets were defined as pressure outlets. The mass flow
rate of inlet cold fluid was kept 0.013843587 kg/s, whereas
mass flow rate of exhaust gas was kept 0.013 kg/s. The 5. CONCLUSIONS
outlet pressures were kept default i.e. atmospheric pressure.
The exhaust gas temperature at inlet was 170℃ and cold The objective of this project was design and verification of
fluid inlet temperature was kept 25℃. The other wall chimney heat recovery heat
conditions were defined accordingly. Exchanger system that could be used to recover heat lost
through flue gases. A helical type heat exchanger was used.
3.5.5 Run Calculations The design calculations was completed and tested with the
The number of iteration is set to 2000 and the solution is results obtained from CFD analysis.
calculated and various contours, vectors and plots are It is found that the parameters obtained from theoretical
obtained. calculations well matched with the results obtained from the
CFD analysis.
The parameters were obtained as:
4. RESULT AND DISCUSSION
Overall heat transfer coefficient U= 38.85299496 W/m2-K
Amount of heat recovered Q = 488.121491 W
CFD Results
T air in = 25°C,
T air out = 60°C,
T g in = 170°C,
T g out = 133.171857°C
The temperatures other than 60°C can be obtained by simply
changing the air velocity from the blower.

Fig 4.1. Temperature contour inside the chimney

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6. REFERENCES BIOGRAPHIES

[1] Pramod S. Purandare, Mandar M. Lele, Rajkumar Gupta,

(Oct 2012), ”Parametric analysis of helical coil heat Mr. Prasad Ashok Adsule1
exchanger”, IJERT- vol. 1 issue 8. Assistant Professor at
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August, 2016, a review on heat transfer through helical Patil Institute of Technology, Sangli
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coil heat exchanger. Student: B.Tech (Pursuing) in
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Energy Recovery System for Vehicular Application. Patil Institute of Technology, Sangli
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shell and coiled tube heat exchangers”, Experimental Mr. Mangesh Vijaykumar Mali3
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