Heat-Transfer Enhancement by Chaotic Advection in the Eccentric Helical Annular Flow

Abstract

Chaotic advection in the eccentric helical annular heat exchanger is investigated as a means to enhance its thermal efficiency. Chaotic streak lines are generated by steadily rotating one boundary while the other is counter-rotated with a time-periodic angular velocity. The effects of the eccentricity ratio and modulation frequency on the heat-transfer rate are analyzed by numerically solving the 3D convection-diffusion equation for a broad range of parameter values. For the frequency range over which chaotic advection can be effectively promoted, the efficiency of the heat exchanger is enhanced over that obtained for steady boundary rotation. Other tools, such as stretching field calculations and streak-line plots, applicable for dissipative dynamical systems, are implemented. These tools qualitatively confirm the quantitative heat-transfer results obtained.