David Rodriguez-Sanchez

Research and study on heat exchangers is very interesting because of its widespread use and applications in industry. There are different methodologies to determine the heat transfer correlation of one fluid in a fixed heat exchanger geometry, which are usually expressed in non-dimensional form, given the Nusselt number as a function of the Reynolds and Prandtl numbers. The objective of this work is to compare different methods to obtain the heat transfer correlation: some of them are based on the original Wilson plot method, whereas recently, the minimum variance methodology has been also proposed by other authors as an alternative to the original Wilson method and its subsequent modifications. In this way, different experiments will be carried out in an experimental facility, which permits to work with three heat exchanger geometries: double and triple tube and multitubular, with a maximum flow rate of 3000 L/h and temperatures ranging between 0 and 70°C. In addition, in the experimental facility, smooth tubes, corrugated tubes and laminar breakers can also be used. The experimental data will be adjusted to a heat transfer correlation, obtained with different methodologies and the degree of accuracy of each method will be compared.