An experimental study of the performance of novel stainless steel-made corrugated tubes and their intensified heat transfer

Corrugated tubes made of a new type of stainless steel are multi-layer ones fabricated by the use of a special technique involving a concave wave formation process. In-tube flows are of an equal-diameter flow cluster type and arc-shaped flow cluster type, which can introduce a periodic change of flow speed and pressure. With the production of an intensive perturbation between cold and hot fluids a compound intensified heat exchange is realized. The corrugated tubes were tested for their pressure-bearing capacity and an experimental study of intensified heat exchange law was performed under water-water heat exchange conditions. The intensified heat exchange mechanism of the corrugated tubes was analyzed and an applicable range of optimized dimensions determined for the tubes, thus providing a theoretical basis for the use of corrugated tube-based heat exchangers.