Numerical investigation on flow and heat transfer performance of non-Newtonian Bingham fluid in novel spiral wound tube heat exchangers

Based on the field of the coal chemical industry, exploring the applicability of high-performance heat exchangers for coal water slurry and their flow and heat transfer mechanism is of great significance for promoting the development of clean coal technology. In this paper, the flow pattern and forced convection heat transfer of a pair of tandem heated cylinders with different distances were discussed using the bi-viscous Bingham model by numerical simulation. And a novel spiral wound heat exchanger with variable diameter tubes was proposed. The results illustrate that the heat transfer coefficient under unit pressure drop h/△P of the heat exchanger decreases with the increase of the diameter of the variable tubes. When the diameter of variable tubes is 12 mm, h/△P is 19.83% larger than that of the original structure with uniform tube diameter. The empirical correlation between operating and structural parameters and heat exchanger performance is obtained. The research results provide guidance for the design of coal water slurry preheaters and the structural optimization of spiral wound tube heat exchangers.