Performance Evaluation Criteria of Enhanced Heat Transfer Technologies Using Swirl Flow

Swirl flow devices are used in industry to enhance heat transfer. The purpose of these devices is to increase performance of an existing heat exchanger, to reduce a new exchanger cost by means of surface area reduction, or to provide a necessary function for the application, such as complete vaporization. At the same time these benefits are realized, swirl flow devices also impact the pressure drop characteristics of the equipment. In order to quantify the benefits of various configurations, select Performance Evaluation Criteria (PEC) are utilized to gauge the impact of several devices by evaluating a wide set of data against constant parameters. This allows the range of effectiveness for the swirl flow devices to be presented.