Cryogenics 47 (2007) 322–332

www.elsevier.com/locate/cryogenics

Design and optimization of coil finned-tube heat exchangers

for cryogenic applications
a,*
Prabhat Kumar Gupta , P.K. Kush a, Ashesh Tiwari b

a
Cryogenics Section, Raja Ramanna Centre for Advanced Technology (RRCAT), Indore 452013, India
b
Institute of Engineering and Technology, DAVV, Indore (MP), India

Received 7 March 2006; received in revised form 14 March 2007; accepted 24 March 2007

Abstract

Coiled finned-tube heat exchangers have been used in small and medium helium refrigerators/liquefiers, miniature J–T refrigeration
systems for many years. The efficiency of these cryogenic systems strongly depends on the thermal and pressure drop performance
of these heat exchangers. A considerable improvement in the performance of heat exchanger is possible by choosing an appropriate
geometrical configuration for a given process requirement. In the present study, geometry of heat exchanger has been derived taking into
consideration the clearance provided for manufacturing of the heat exchangers and an optimized geometrical configurations have been
find out. The results show the possibility of adjusting the thermal and pressure drop performance by varying the clearance. The predic-
tions of four end temperatures from present design method have been compared with the actual experimental results of one of the
prototypes fabricated in our lab.
 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Helium (B); Heat transfer (C); Heat exchangers (E)

1. Introduction mechanisms that affect the performance of heat exchanger

A series of coiled finned-tube heat exchanger is used in a
cryogenic refrigerator/liquefier. These heat exchangers were
first used by Collins in his helium liquefier [1]. The main
requirements of these heat exchangers are high effectiveness
and low pressure drops in both of fluid streams to stipulated
limits. These parameters govern the performance of the
whole system. In fact, a cryogenic liquefier will produce
no liquid if the heat exchanger effectiveness is less than
approximately 85% in contrast to a conventional heat
exchanger, used in other process plants, with lesser effective-
ness [2]. Atrey [3] has shown in his analysis that decrease in
heat exchanger effectiveness from 97% to 95% reduces the
liquefaction yield in helium liquefier by 12%. This necessi-
tates thorough understanding of different loss contributing
*
Corresponding author. Tel.: +91 731 2488336; fax: +91 731 2488300.
E-mail address: prabhat@cat.ernet.in (P.K. Gupta).
to arrive at an optimum geometrical configuration.
One of the major issues of developing these heat exchang-
ers are to ensure uniform flow distribution over the finned
tubes of heat exchanger by controlling the manufacturing
clearance to achieve the higher order of magnitude of effec-
tiveness. However, some diametrical clearance is provided
in order to ease the assembly of the finned-tube bundle and
there is always some leakage of flow through the diametric
clearance. Hence, in addition to other losses, there is always
detrimental effect on the thermal performance of heat
exchanger due to leakage of flow through clearance. This
is due to the fact that there is no heat exchange with the
finned tube as the flow passes through this clearance. On
the other hand, the pressure drop performance is improved
due to increase in available cross-section area.
The design of cryogenic heat exchangers is always sub-
ject to limited pressure drop conditions. If the clearance
effect is not considered for predictions of pressure drops
then it may be overestimated and it will require the larger

0011-2275/$ - see front matter  2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.cryogenics.2007.03.010
 P.K. Gupta et al. / Cryogenics 47 (2007) 322–332 323

Nomenclature

As surface area (m2) Re Reynolds number

Afc free flow area of fins (m2) s perimeter of tube (m)
Acc clearance cross-section area (m2) t mean thickness of fin (m)
Asc total projected shell side free flow area (m2) T temperature (K)
C heat capacity rate of fluids defined by the prod- Tm fluid mean temperature (K)
uct of mass flow rate, m_ and specific heat, cc or DTLMTD log mean temperature difference (K)
ch (W/K) U overall heat transfer coefficient(W/m K) as
c diametrical clearance (m) defined in Eq. (14)
df fin diameter (m)
do fin root diameter (m) Greeks
De mean diameter of shell (m) l viscosity of fluid(kg/m s)
Dh hydraulic diameter (m) q density of fluid (kg/m3)
f friction factor g fin efficiency
G mass velocity (kg/m2s) e effectiveness of heat exchanger
h heat transfer coefficient (W/m2 K)
hf fin height (m) Subscripts
Jsh correction factor for shell side heat transfer c cold fluid
coefficient h hot fluid
Jsp correction factor for shell side pressure drop i inner
k bypass area factor = Acc/Afc o outer
L axial length of shell (m) in inlet
l length of finned tube (m) out outlet
m_ mass flow rate (g/s) t tube
m_ f actual mass flow rate passes through fins (g/s) s shell
n number of fins per meter length max maximum
NTU overall number of transfer units
P absolute pressure (bar) Superscript
DP pressure drop (bar) * non-dimension quantity
Q heat transfer from either fluid (W)

shell diameter to keep the pressure drop with in stipulated
limits. This will result in lower flow velocity within heat
exchangers and therefore lower heat transfer coefficient in
the shell side. Hence, it will require larger unit and as a con-
sequence of this there is a need to optimize the geometry of
heat exchanger to
• minimize the cool down time of the system,
• minimize the refrigeration loss to cool the unit,
• minimize the radiation loss, and to
• reduce the cost of the system.
So, fact is that the clearance provided for ease of manufac-
turing can be used for adjusting the thermal and pressure
drop performance of finned-tube heat exchangers. To the
best of the knowledge of present authors, a little informa-
tion has been published in open literature regarding the
designing of coiled finned-tube heat exchangers. Geist
and Lashmet [4] presented the heat transfer factor and fric-
tion factor for different fin geometries. Croft and Tebby [5]
presented the expressions for thermal design and they have
suggested the correlations for calculation of heat transfer
coefficients for shell side and tube side flow. They used their
designing method for the Clarendon laboratory helium liq-
uefier heat exchangers [6]. Croft and Cosier [7] also
designed a new form of finned-tube heat exchanger by
applying the design method described by Croft and Tebby
[5]. However, design proposed by Croft et al. does not con-
sider the effect of diametrical clearance on thermal and
pressure drop performance.
In the present work, the expressions have been derived
taking in to account of clearance. These presented expres-
sions can be used as design charts for thermal and pressure
drop design of finned-tube heat exchanger. The methodol-
ogy prescribed in the present work has been used to com-
pare four end temperatures of one heat exchanger tested
in our lab. The main system parameters are given in Table
1. These parameters correspond to one of the units fabri-
cated in our laboratory and may be suitable for medium
size helium liquefiers/refrigerators. Using these charts, the
optimization for thermal and pressure drop performance
has been carried out for the operating parameters listed
in Table 1 as an example. The geometry of heat exchanger
has been optimized for the selection of
324 P.K. Gupta et al. / Cryogenics 47 (2007) 322–332

Table 1
Geometry of the coiled finned-tube heat exchanger and its operating
parameters
Geometry of heat Inner tube diameter, di 8.2 mm
exchanger Finned-tube diameter, df 13.5 mm
No. of fins per meter, n 1024
Axial length, L 1000.0 mm
Mean diameter, De 145.0 mm
Fin type Integrated copper low height radial fins
Operating parameters Working fluid Helium
Temperature range 300–90 K
Mass flow rate 3.0 g/s
High pressure 15.0 bars
Low pressure 1.0 bar

• A suitable mean diameter and an appropriate diametri-

cal clearance for given fin geometries.
• An appropriate fin geometry for given mean diameter
and diametrical clearance.

The correction factor in respect of ideal finned-tube

bundle for heat transfer coefficients and pressure drop per-
formance has been presented in graphical form which can
be useful for practicenor engineers for quick estimation.
The maximum allowable diametrical clearance (when
50% flow passes through clearance) for different fin height
and number of fins has been presented in graphical form
for quick reference.
2. Geometry for thermal and pressure drop design
In this section, we have presented the derived formulae
by considering the diametrical clearance. Fig. 1 shows the
typical geometrical parameters of coiled finned-tube heat
exchangers.
The total shell side free flow area Asc, is given by
Asc ¼ pDe ðd f þ cÞ  pDe ½ðd f  d o Þnt þ d o  ð1Þ
Free flow area offered by the fins cross-section, Afc
Afc ¼ pDe ½ðd f  d o Þð1  ntÞ ð2Þ
Free flow area offered by the clearance cross-section, Acc
Acc ¼ pDe c ð3Þ
If free flow area offered by the fins is greater than free flow
area offered by the clearance then maximum flow will pass
through the fins. If the free flow area offered by the fins is
equal to the area offered by the clearance, then half of the
flow of total flow rate will be diverted through the clear-
ance. In the present analysis, it is assumed that the maxi-
mum area offered by the clearance should be equal or
less than the actual area offered by the finned-tube cross-
section. On the basis of above assumptions, the maximum
allowable clearance for the thermal and pressure drop
performance, the case when 50% flow passes through clear-
ance, can be given by
cmax ¼ ½ðd f  d o Þð1  ntÞ ð4Þ
Fig. 1. Sectional view of heat exchanger.
It should be noted that if there is no clearance (c = 0) then
Eq. (1) is reduced to Eq. (2). It means that the total pro-
jected free flow area Asc will be equal to the free flow area
offered by the fins, Afc.
The surface area offered by the outer finned surface in
one coil; As
hn i
As ¼ p2 ðd 2f  d 2o Þ þ d o ð1  tnÞ þ d f  t  n De ð5Þ
2
The perimeter of outer finned surface (surface area per unit
axial length), so
hn iD
e
so ¼ p2 ðd 2f  d 2o Þ þ d o ð1  tnÞ þ d f  t  n ð6Þ
2 df
The perimeter of inner tube surface (surface area per unit
axial length), si
De
si ¼ p2 di ð7Þ
df
The equations derived above considering the effect of clear-
ance can be used for the heat exchanger optimization. The
heat transfer coefficients and pressure drop coefficients will
be calculated on the basis of these areas prescribed above.
3. Design fundamentals
In a coiled finned-tube heat exchanger, the high pressure
gas passes through finned tube in spiral form from top to
bottom and the low pressure cold gas passes over the
finned tube in cross flow pattern as shown in Fig. 1. There-
fore, the advantage of this design is the high cross flow heat
transfer coefficient on the shell side and high overall effec-
tiveness of counter-flow globally.
 P.K. Gupta et al. / Cryogenics 47 (2007) 322–332 325

The assembly of these heat exchangers consists of the
inner shell, outer shell and finned tube. The finned tube is
wound on the inner shell and then it is jacketed by the
outer shell. The dead space between two consecutive coils
has to be filled by some cord as shown in Fig. 1. A diamet-
rical clearance between the shell and tube periphery has to
be provided in order to make the assembly easy. The ther-
mal and pressure drop performance of heat exchanger is
influenced by this clearance. A part of the cold stream
passes through this clearance without taking part in heat
exchange process, making the heat exchanger ineffective.
On the other hand, the pressure drop performance will be
improved by increasing the available cross-section area.
The effect of clearance on the thermal and pressure drop
performance of heat exchangers is considered in the present
study and optimum geometries have been found out for
given operating parameters as given in Table 1.
If we assume the mass flow rate of the cold stream flow-
ing in the shell side is given by m_ c then the actual mass flow
rate passing through the fins is
m_ c
m_ f ¼
kþ1
where k is bypass area factor and it is given by
Acc
k¼
Afc
The Reynolds number will be calculated based on the
actual flow passes through the fins and can be given by
ReWOC
Ref ¼ ð10Þ
kþ1
where ReWOC is the Reynolds number based on the total
cross-section area available for shell side flow when there
is no clearance and can be calculated as follows:
m_ c Dh
ReWOC ¼ ð11Þ
Afc l
2. All thermo physical properties have been calculated at
the mean temperature Tm of the individual fluid stream.
5. Design and optimization
5.1. Thermal design
For the usual heat exchanger design problem, where all
end temperatures are given, the heat transfer area can be
calculated by using the overall heat transfer coefficient
based on either hot fluid heat transfer area or cold fluid
heat transfer area. In the present study, we will follow
the design procedure described by Croft and Tebby [5].
And therefore, the overall heat transfer coefficient,
U (W/m K), will be based on axial length of the heat
exchanger instead of the heat transfer area of either fluid
by applying the concept of wetted perimeter of heat
exchanger per unit axial length.
Fluid properties are evaluated at mean temperature
given by
ð8Þ
T h;in þ T h;out T c;in þ T c;out
Tm ¼ or
2 2
where Th, Tc are the respective inlets and outlets tempera-
ð9Þ
tures of hot and cold streams of heat exchanger.
_ of the hot fluid which has to be
The total heat duty ðQÞ
removed by exchanging the energy with the cold fluid is
expressed as follows:
Q_ ¼ C h ðT h;in  T h;out Þ ¼ ULDT LMTD ð14Þ
where L is the axial length of heat exchanger and DTLMTD
is the log mean temperature difference, given by
DT hot end  DT cold end
DT LMTD ¼   ð15Þ
DT hot end
ln DT
cold end

The characteristic dimension for the Reynolds number in where DThot end and DTcold end are the hot and cold end
Eq. (11) is the equivalent diameter, or the hydraulic dia- temperature differences
meter Dh DT hot end ¼ T h;in  T c;out ð16Þ
4Asc
Dh ¼ ð12Þ and
As =L
m_ c DT cold end ¼ T h;out  T c;in ð17Þ
G¼ ð13Þ
Asc The overall heat transfer coefficient U (W/m K) based on
where G is the mass flow rate per unit free-flow area and per unit axial length of heat exchanger can be given by
will be used for calculating the heat transfer coefficients.  1
1 1
In Eqs. (12) and (13) Asc will be equal to Afc, if there is U¼ þ ð18Þ
hi si gho so
not any clearance.
where hi and ho are the heat transfer coefficients defined as
4. Assumptions the rate of heat transfer across unit area of separating wall
for unit temperature difference between gas stream and sep-
Following assumptions are made for carrying out the arating wall (W/m2 K). si and so are the perimeters (surface
analysis. area per unit axial length) as defined in Eqs. (6) and (7)
across which heat is transferred. The thermal resistance
1. The pressure drops due to other effects are negligible in of separating wall is omitted in Eq. (18) as it is small en-
comparison to the core frictional pressure drop. ough as compared to fluid resistances. The fin efficiency g
326 P.K. Gupta et al. / Cryogenics 47 (2007) 322–332
 
can be assumed 100% for cupper finned tube in Eq. (18) di
f ¼ 0:184Re0:2 1 þ 3:5 ð25Þ
[5,9]. De
The value of heat transfer coefficients for the inner and
outer stream is calculated using the same correlations as For shell side flow:
described by Croft and Tebby [5] and are reproduced here The shell side flow is generally laminar in the coiled
finned tube heat exchanger and the friction factor for the
0:2 1:8
hi ¼ 0:033ch m_ 0:8
h lh d i ð19Þ shell side is given by [11]
and for 400 < Re < 104 f ¼ 1:904Re0:2 ð26Þ
0:2 1:0 0:2
ho ¼ 0:021cc m_ 0:8
f lc Asc s ð20Þ In the present analysis, the pressure drop for the tube side
Eq. (20) can directly be used for calculating the heat trans- and shell side is presented as dimensionless quantity and it
fer coefficient in the shell side as used by Croft and Tebby is defined as follows:
[5] for calculating the overall heat transfer coefficient, U DP
DP  ¼ ð27Þ
(W/m K). However, it can also be deduced in terms of Rey- Pc
nolds number based on the actual flow passes through the
fins.
Eq. (20) can be written as 5.3. Optimization procedure
1:0 0:2
ho ¼ 0:021cc m_ f m_ 0:2
f l0:2
c Asc s ð21Þ In any helium refrigerator/liquefier, the multiple num-
The above Eq. (21) can be rearranged as follows: bers of heat exchangers are used. These heat exchangers
 0:2 are used at different temperature levels. The typical work-
4m_ f ing temperature range of first heat exchanger is 300–90 K
ho ¼ 0:027cc Gf ð22Þ
lc so for medium size helium refrigerator/liquefier and the typi-
cal thermal size (NTU) of this heat exchanger is 21. The
Eq. (22) can be expressed in terms of Reynolds number as stringent requirements of these heat exchangers are higher
follows: effectiveness and low pressure drops in both of the streams.
ho ¼ 0:027cc Gf Ref0:2 ð23Þ These heat exchangers can be made in different geometrical
configurations such as by changing the mean diameter of
heat exchanger, by opting the different inner diameter of
5.2. Pressure drop design finned tube or by choosing the different fin geometries to
satisfy the fixed thermal size (NTU) requirement and low
The pressure drop design is equally important as the pressure drop design criteria. Furthermore, for the fixed
thermal design of heat exchanger for any cryogenic sys- values of NTU, one can obtain the heat exchanger config-
tems. The tube side pressure drop across the heat exchan- urations in different sizes and weight to fulfill the effective-
ger will reduce the amplitude of high pressure stream ness and pressure drops requirements but these heat
thereby reducing the area of the expansion space in PV dia- exchangers may not be suitable from system performance
gram and the gross refrigeration produced by the refriger- point of view due to higher thermal mass. The geometrical
ator/liquefier. configurations of these heat exchangers much depend on
On the other hand, pressure drop in the shell side is how one has selected the mean diameter of heat exchanger
extremely important for any cryogenic systems such as for the fixed fin geometries or for the fixed mean diameter,
helium liquefier/refrigerator. In a helium liquefier/refriger- how one has selected the finned tube geometries such as
ator (helium normal boiling point 4.2 K and critical pres- inner diameter of finned tube, fin height and number of
sure 2.2 bar), the total pressure drop of the shell side fins. Therefore, it is necessary to choose the right combina-
should not be more than 0.2 bar because of the constraint tions of different geometrical parameters for obtaining the
of critical pressure of the helium. optimum size of heat exchanger for the given NTU.
The amplitude of the pressure drop (DP), either shell In the present study, the first heat exchanger of
side or tube side, per unit working length through the heat NTU = 21 has been chosen as an example for the optimi-
exchanger is given by zation purpose while keeping the operating parameters,
fG2 as described in Table 1, fixed. The expressions derived in
DP ¼ ð24Þ the preceding sections have been used for the optimization
2qDh
purpose. The calculations are performed for different val-
In Eq. (24) the value of friction factor, f, has to be calcu- ues of bypass factors, mean diameters, inner tube dia-
lated as follows: meters, fin height and number of fins to obtain the
For the tube side: corresponding pressure drops in tube side and shell side
For turbulent flow inside a smooth tube of any cross- and surface area requirements for the fixed values of
section, the friction factor was calculated by the empirical NTU and mass flow rate. These calculations were carried
equation as suggested by Timmerhaus and Flynn [10] out to study the effect of clearance, for selecting the suitable
 P.K. Gupta et al. / Cryogenics 47 (2007) 322–332 327

mean diameter for given finned tube geometries or for Table 3

selection of the proper finned tube geometries for given Comparison of theoretical predictions of present analysis with experi-
mental results [8]
mean diameter.
Methodology Th,in Th,out Tc,in Tc,out e (%)
(K) (K) (K) (K)
6. Results and discussion Theoretical results
c = 0.3 mm 296.0 157.00 151.00 289.10 95.8
In this section, we apply the geometrical expressions c = 0.5 mm 296.0 159.00 151.00 289.0 94.5
derived above for the design and optimization of coil c = 1.2 mm 296.00 163.00 151.00 285.50 91.7
finned-tube heat exchangers. The actual four end tempera- Experimental results 296.00 165.00 151.00 284.00 90.3
tures of one heat exchanger tested in our lab have been (for c = 1.2 mm)
compared with the predicted end temperatures from the
present design methodology. The results of the present
analysis show that the heat exchanger geometrical configu- heat exchangers. Hence, diametrical clearance between
ration can be optimized in respect of the thermal and pres- inner shell, finned surface and outer shell has to be chosen
sure drop performance and therefore, the heat exchanger carefully for manufacturing of these heat exchangers and
can be reduced significantly both in terms of size and necessary allowance has to be provided at the design stage
weight. In this way, we show how our optimization can only.
be implemented in real practice for designing such heat
exchangers. 6.2. Maximum allowable clearance

6.1. Comparison of experimental results with the present
analysis
Recently, Gupta et al. [8] presented detailed description
of experimental set-up and the results obtained from one of
the prototypes designed and manufactured in our lab based
on the geometrical parameters given in Table 1. The pres-
ent analysis considers the effect of leakage of flow through
clearance provided for the ease of manufacturing and it is
one of the important causes to deteriorate the performance
of coiled finned-tube heat exchangers. The predictions of
four end temperatures based on the present analysis con-
sidering the clearance effects, are compared with the actual
results published earlier [8].
Table 2 gives the details of experimental parameters for
which results have been compared. The quantitative com-
parison of four end temperatures of a heat exchanger with
the experimental results has shown in Table 3. It is
observed from the experimental results that the present
analysis show good agreement with theoretical results. It
can be noted from Table 3 that the heat exchanger effec-
tiveness can be increased from 91.7% to 95.8% by reducing
the clearance from 1.2 mm to 0.3 mm and establish the
importance of the effect of clearance for designing of such
Fig. 2 shows the maximum allowable clearance that can
be provided for the manufacturing of a heat exchanger for
different fin height and number of fins. The figure shows
that the maximum allowable clearance is either increased
with the fin height for given number of fins or increased
with the lesser number of fins for given fin height. This
can be attributed as either the larger fin height or the lesser
number of the fins can be used to reduce the effect of leak-
age of flow through the clearance. For an example, the
maximum allowable clearance required for 2 mm fin height
for 1024 fins per meter (26 fins per inch) is 2.77 mm.
Generally, 1.5–2 mm diametrical clearance is sufficient for
the assembly of a medium size heat exchanger during fab-
rication. Therefore, in this case the bypass area will be less
as compared to the cross-sectional area offered by the fins
and the maximum flow will be diverted through the fins.
Hence, it will reduce the effect of leakage of flow on the
thermal performance of the heat exchanger. In another
case, the maximum allowable clearance required for
1.5 mm fin height for 1024 fins per meter (26 fins per inch)

Table 2
Details of experimental parameters
Working fluid Nitrogen
Hot end temperature 296.0 K
Cold end temperature 151.0 K
Hot stream pressure 15.0 bar
Cold stream pressure 1.0 bar
Mass flow rate 9.5 g/s
Number of transfer units, NTU 12.0
Overall heat transfer coefficient 142.2 W/m K
Ratio of the finned side to tube side area 4.4
Fig. 2. Maximum allowable clearance as a function of fin height and
Manufacturing clearance, c 1.2 mm
number of fins.
328 P.K. Gupta et al. / Cryogenics 47 (2007) 322–332

will be approximately 2 mm. In this case, if the clearance

given for the manufacturing of a heat exchanger is equal
to 2 mm, then half of the flow will be diverted through
the clearance. This will affect the thermal performance of
heat exchanger significantly. Here, it can be recommended
that for the given input specifications, the total clearance
has to be provided less than 2 mm to reduce the effect of
leakage of flow through clearance for the fin height of
1.5 mm. Therefore, one has to make good engineering
judgment while selecting the clearance for designing and
manufacturing of these heat exchangers.

6.3. Correction factors for heat transfer coefficient

and pressure drop
Fig. 4. Pressure drop correction factor as a function of bypass area factor.

The thermal and pressure drop performance of these

heat exchangers are affected significantly by the clearance
provided for the manufacturing point of view. The neces-
sary design allowance has to be provided to take into
account the effect of clearance at the design stage only. In
the present analysis, the correction factors for the thermal
and pressure drop design have been determined with
respect to the ideal finned-tube bundle (when clearance is
zero). Figs. 3 and 4 show the correction factors for the dif-
ferent values of bypass area factors (k). It could be noted
from these figures that the values of Jhs and Jps are 1.0
for the value of k = 0.0 and the values of the heat transfer
coefficients and pressure drops calculated from Eqs. (20)
and (24) can be used for final design purpose. If there is
clearance then some correction factor corresponding to
the value of k obtained form these figures has to be multi-
plied for getting the actual heat transfer coefficient and
pressure drop. It could also be seen from Fig. 3 that if
the clearance area is only 10% of the cross-section area
offered by the fins (k = 0.1), the effect of clearance is not
significant and the thermal performance of the heat
exchanger will not be affected much. These graphs are par-
ticularly useful for the quick estimation of heat transfer
coefficients and pressure drop design.
6.4. Effect of mass flow rate on sizing of heat exchangers
Fig. 5 shows the effect of mass flow rate on the pressure
loss of tube side and shell side of a heat exchanger. The
effect of mass flow rate variations on the size (axial length)
of a heat exchanger for the given value of temperature
range (300–90 K) is also shown in Fig. 5. The trend of
the figure shows that the tube and shell side pressure drop
increase sharply but the sizing of heat exchanger increases
only by 15% for the variation in mass flow rate from 2.5 g/s
to 4.5 g/s for given temperature range. The heat exchangers
for any helium liquefiers/refrigerators are designed for lim-
ited pressure drop conditions. Hence, it can be interpreted
from the figure that the same heat exchangers can be used
for the different capacity helium liquefiers/refrigerators,
however, the pressure drops within the heat exchangers
should be in the acceptable limits.
6.5. Effect of bypass area factor (k) on sizing and pressure
drops
The effect of bypass area factor (k) on the non-dimen-
sional frictional pressure loss of tube side, shell side across
the heat exchanger and on the surface area, As, requirement

Fig. 3. Heat transfer coefficient correction factor as a function of bypass Fig. 5. Non-dimensional pressure drops and axial length as a function of
area factor. mass flow rate.
 P.K. Gupta et al. / Cryogenics 47 (2007) 322–332
Fig. 6. Non-dimensional pressure drops and surface area as a function of
bypass area factor (k).
is plotted in Fig. 6. It can be shown from Fig. 6 that the
shell side pressure drop decreases significantly up to the
value of k = 0.5 and after that there is not much reduction
in the shell side pressure drop as the value of k increases.
This is due to the fact that the axial length of heat exchan-
ger goes up as the clearance increases and offset the advan-
tage of the reduction of total shell side pressure drop. On
the other hand the tube side pressure drop and surface area
requirement for the given heat duty increases continuously
as the value of the bypass area factor k increases. It can be
interpreted from the figure that the clearance provided for
the ease of manufacturing can be used for adjusting the
shell side pressure drop in a heat exchanger for the specific
range only. Fig. 6 shows that the shell side pressure drop
can be reduced up to 70% at the expense of the increase
in surface area and tube side pressure drop by providing
suitable clearance between the shell and finned tube. Here,
it can be concluded that the designer has the choice to
adjust the shell side pressure drop performance according
to their finned-tube geometries by providing suitable
clearance.
6.6. Optimization of mean diameter of shell
Fig. 7 plots the non-dimensional tube side, shell side
pressure loss across the heat exchanger and the correspond-
ing surface area requirement as a function of mean diame-
ter of the shell. It is apparent from Fig. 7 that the shell side
pressure drop decreases up to a mean diameter De =
185.0 mm and then it tends to become almost constant as
the mean diameter of shell increases. This can be explained
as the available cross-section area for the flow increases as
the mean diameter of shell increases and reduces the shell
side pressure drop up to mean diameter of 185.0 mm.
The shell side pressure drop curve becomes almost flattened
as the mean diameter of shell increases further. This is due
to the fact that the axial length of heat exchanger increases
as the mean diameter increases and offset the advantage of
selecting the higher mean diameter of shell for the reduc-
tion of the shell side pressure drop. On the other hand,
329
Fig. 7. Non-dimensional pressure drops and surface area as a function of
mean diameter.
the tube side pressure drop is almost constant up to the
mean diameter of 185.0 mm and then it tends to increase
as the mean diameter increases. This is related to the reduc-
tion in the shell side heat transfer coefficient due to increase
in shell diameter of a heat exchanger and the requirement
of the length of finned tube will be more in this case for
given heat duty. Therefore, the total tube side pressure
drop will increase after the certain value of the shell diam-
eter. The varying trend of the frictional pressure drop of
shell side with the mean diameter of the shell is a reverse
of varying trend of the frictional pressure drop of tube side
with the mean diameter of the shell. From Fig. 7 it can also
be observed that the heat transfer surface area is increases
with the mean diameter of the shell. This may be explained
that the value of shell side heat transfer coefficient
decreases due reduction in the flow velocity with the
increase of the mean diameter of shell. Therefore, it will
require more finned-tube surface area for the given heat
duty.
Based on the above discussion, it can be concluded that
the mean diameter of the shell can be optimized for the
thermal and pressure drop performance of a heat exchan-
ger for the given fin geometries. The shell side pressure
drop is the most crucial for any helium liquefier/refrigera-
tor and it can be observed that there is not much reduction
in the shell side pressure drop after a certain value of the
mean diameter of shell but on the contrary the surface area
requirement and tube side pressure drop increases. This
will result in the larger unit for the same cryogenic systems
which poses other problems like more heat-in-leaks to the
system and can affect the performance of the whole system.
This indicates that the choosing of an appropriate shell
diameter is one of the most important parameter of any
heat exchanger design.
6.7. Inner tube diameter optimization
Fig. 8 shows the non-dimensional shell side, tube
side pressure drop and surface area as a function of the
inner diameter of the finned tube for a mean diameter
330 P.K. Gupta et al. / Cryogenics 47 (2007) 322–332
Fig. 8. Non-dimensional pressure drops and surface area as a function of
inner tube diameter.
De = 145.0 mm. Fig. 8 shows that the tube side pressure
drop decreases drastically as the tube diameter increases,
but shell side pressure drop and surface area required for
the given heat duty increases. This is due to the fact that
the inner heat transfer coefficient decreases as the tube
diameter increases and hence reduces the over all heat
transfer coefficient. This will be resulted in the increase of
heat exchanger size (axial length) and increase the shell side
pressure drop. Therefore, the best practice for any designer
is to first select the inner tube diameter of the finned tube
according to the acceptable pressure drop in the tube to
keep the shell side pressure drop with in stipulated limits
with minimum surface area. For an example, if we select
the inner tube diameter di = 8 mm for which the tube side
pressure drop is 0.5 bar and shell side pressure drop is
0.05 bar approximately for the operating parameter
described in Table 1. It could be noted here that 0.5 bar
tube side pressure drop in the medium capacity helium liq-
uefier/refrigerator can be tolerated but on the other hand if
emphasis is given to reduce the tube side pressure drop fur-
ther by increasing the tube diameter, the surface area
requirement will increase accordingly and the system
becomes unnecessarily bulky. Therefore, the selection of
the larger diameter of inner finned tube has to be avoided.
6.8. Optimizations of fin height
Fig. 9 shows the non-dimensional shell side, tube side
pressure drop and surface area as a function of the fin
height for a mean diameter De = 145.0 mm and inner tube
diameter di = 8.2 mm. The figure shows that the tube side
pressure drop and shell side pressure drop decrease as the
fin height increases up to 1.8 mm and then the reduction
in the pressure drops is minimum or almost negligible as
the fin height increases but the surface area requirement
increases monotonously as the fin height increases. The
pressure drop for the shell side decreases due to the fact
that the available cross-section area increases as the fin
height increases and the flow velocity of the stream
becomes lower which reduces the pressure drop in the shell
Fig. 9. Non-dimensional pressure drops and surface area as a function of
fin height.
side. Similarly, the pressure drop for tube side decreases
due to the fact that the total finned-tube length required
for the given heat duty and tube diameter decreases and
hence total pressure drop of the tube decreases. From
Fig. 9, we can conclude that there is no advantage of
increasing the fin height beyond 1.8 mm as there is no mea-
surable reduction in the pressure drops performance but if
one selects the fin height more than 1.8 mm, the surface
area requirement will be more for the same operating
parameters with out gaining in pressure drop performance.
6.9. Effect of number of fins on the pressure drop
performance and sizing
Figs. 10–12 show the non-dimensional shell side, tube
side pressure drop and surface area requirement as a func-
tion of number of fins for the mean diameter of 120.0 mm,
145.0 mm and 175.0 mm. These figures show that the tube
side pressure drop decreases with the number of fins while
shell side pressure drop increases with the number of fins.
This can be explained as the more tube length is required
for the given heat duty for lesser number of fins which will
increase the total tube side pressure drop for given finned-
tube diameter. On the other hand the shell side pressure
Fig. 10. Non-dimensional pressure drops and surface area as a function of
number of fins for De = 120.00 mm.
 P.K. Gupta et al. / Cryogenics 47 (2007) 322–332
Fig. 11. Non-dimensional pressure drops and surface area as a function of
number of fins for De = 145.00 mm.
Fig. 12. Non-dimensional pressure drops and surface area as a function of
number of fins for De = 175.00 mm.
drop will be less for the lesser number of fins as the finned
tube will offer more cross-sectional area and reduces the
flow velocity through the finned tube. These figures also
show that the surface area first decreases with the number
of fins then increases for the given heat duty for the
De = 120.0 and 145.0 mm but as the De increases to
175.00 the surface area requirement decreases continuously
with the number of fins.
The above analysis clearly indicates that, there exists a
condition of minimum surface area for the smaller value
of the mean diameter of the shell where the shell side pres-
sure drop is also on the lower side. As the value of De
increases, the minimum surface area conditions shifted
towards the higher number of fins and ultimately it disap-
pears for the higher value of De.
7. Conclusions
The design and optimization of coiled finned-tube heat
exchangers with the consideration of clearance provided
for the ease of manufacturing have been presented. The
thermal and pressure drop performance of a coiled
finned-tube heat exchanger depend on the clearance
331
between the shell and finned tube in addition to other geo-
metric and operating parameters. The comparison of pre-
dictions of four end temperatures, obtained from present
study, with experimental results confirms the importance
of clearance effect on the final design calculations. The
results of the present study show that the effect of clearance
can be used for adjusting the thermal and pressure drop
performance of heat exchangers in many situations such
as to find out an optimum configuration for given fin
geometries. The results of the present study also indicate
that the heat exchanger can be optimized either by choos-
ing the suitable mean diameter of shell with an appropriate
clearance for given fin geometries or by selecting the opti-
mized fin geometries. From the present study, following
observations can be noted.
• For fixed operating and system parameters in the pres-
ent study, it was found that only a specific range of
clearance will help to reduce the pressure loss in the shell
side. For the case of De = 145.0 mm, di = 8.2 mm and
fin height 1.4 mm, the shell side pressure drop reduces
up to only 1 mm clearance. However, the tube side pres-
sure drop increases but remained with in acceptable lim-
its. Therefore, the existing fin geometries can be
accommodated in such a geometrical configuration
where the heat exchanger can satisfy both thermal and
pressure drop requirements for any cryogenics systems.
Moreover, the heat exchanger can be optimized in such
a way that thermal and pressure drop requirement sat-
isfy without making the unit bulky.
• In the present study, it is also found that only for a
range of shell mean diameter, the shell side pressure
drop decreases while the tube side pressure drop remains
nearly constant at the expense of increase in surface
area. For the case of di = 8.2 mm and c = 0.9 mm, the
shell side pressure drop decreases up to De = 185.0 mm
and tube side pressure drop remains constant at nearly
0.65 bar. This indicates that choosing the mean diameter
more than 185.0 mm will make the unit bulky without
decreasing the shell side pressure drop in addition to
increase in tube side pressure drop.
• The present study also makes clear that the inner diam-
eter of finned tube, number of fins and fin height can be
optimized for the given fixed parameters. The graphical
presentations for the correction factor for heat transfer
coefficient, pressure drop and maximum allowable clear-
ance for manufacturing of heat exchanger can be useful
for practicing engineers for designing such heat exchang-
ers for cryogenic applications.
Acknowledgements
The authors are grateful to Dr. Parthasarathi Ghosh,
Mr. Rupul Ghosh and Mr. R.C. Sharma for their useful
discussions, suggestions and fabrication of heat exchanger
during carrying out this work.
332 P.K. Gupta et al. / Cryogenics 47 (2007) 322–332
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