Experimental Investigation on Flow Characteristics in a Tube-Bundle Channel

Experiments were carried out to investigate the flow characteristics with/without heat exchange in vertical and inclined tube-bundle channels. In the experiments, the influences of flow directions and heat exchange upon the flow characteristics were studied. Experiments showed that the flow friction in tube-bundle channels had relations to the flow directions, and the liquid temperature difference at the inlet and outlet of tube-bundle channels. And these influences were comparatively obvious in the laminar flow regime. In the experiments, the transition from laminar to turbulent flow was carefully observed. The flow characteristics of single phase flow through tube-bundle channels were different from those in circular tubes and those in annular channels. The flow friction in tube-bundle channel is larger than that in normal circular tube. And the transition from laminar flow to turbulent flow in tube-bundle channel is different from that in normal circular tube. The influences of flow direction and heat exchange on the friction were also studied. The results were gained to provide the basis for the further investigations on the two-phase flow in tube-bundle channels.