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Chemical Engineering and Processing 47 (2008) 2336–2345

Effects of baffle inclination angle on flow and heat transfer

of a heat exchanger with helical baffles
Yong-Gang Lei, Ya-Ling He ∗ , Rui Li, Ya-Fu Gao
State Key Laboratory of Multiphase Flow in Power Engineering, School of Energy & Power Engineering,
Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an, Shaanxi 710049, China
Received 23 August 2007; received in revised form 6 January 2008; accepted 20 January 2008
Available online 3 February 2008

Abstract
Numerical simulations were carried out to study the impacts of various baffle inclination angles on fluid flow and heat transfer of heat exchangers
with helical baffles. The simulations were conducted for one period of seven baffle inclination angles by using periodic boundaries. Predicted flow
patterns from simulation results indicate that continual helical baffles can reduce or even eliminate dead regions in the shell side of shell-and-tube
heat exchangers. The average Nusselt number increases with the increase of the baffle inclination angle α when α < 30◦ . Whereas, the average
Nusselt number decreases with the increase of the baffle inclination angle when α > 30◦ . The pressure drop varies drastically with baffle inclination
angle and shell-side Reynolds number. The variation of the pressure drop is relatively large for small inclination angle. However, for α > 40◦ , the
effect of α on pressure drop is very small. Compared to the segmental heat exchangers, the heat exchangers with continual helical baffles have
higher heat transfer coefficients to the same pressure drop. Within the Reynolds number studied for the shell side, the optimal baffle inclination
angle is about 45◦ , with which the integrated heat transfer and pressure drop performance is the best. The detailed knowledge on the heat transfer
and flow distribution in this investigation provides the basis for further optimization of shell-and-tube heat exchangers.
© 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Heat transfer; Inclination angle; Helical baffle; Three-dimensional computation; Pressure drop; Optimization

1. Introduction as deflector baffles, disk-and-donut configuration, and other con-

Shell-and-tube heat exchangers are widely used in vari-
ous industries such as chemical process, power generation,
petroleum refining and air-conditioning. The baffles are of pri-
mary importance in improving mixing levels and consequently
enhancing heat transfer of shell-and-tube heat exchangers. In the
past, various types of baffles have been used in shell-and-tube
heat exchangers to improve the shell-side performance. Seg-
mental baffles are most commonly used in shell-and-tube heat
exchangers. However, the segmental baffles have some adverse
effects such as large back mixing, fouling, high leakage flow,
and large cross flow. In addition, segmental baffles bring on sig-
nificant pressure drop across the exchanger when changing the
direction of flow. To improve the performance of conventional
segmental baffles, sealing strips, additional baffle segments such
∗ Corresponding author. Tel.: +86 29 8266 3300; fax: +86 29 8266 7745.
E-mail address: yalinghe@mail.xjtu.edu.cn (Y.-L. He).
figurations are used in shell-and-tube heat exchangers, but the
main shortcomings of segmental baffle design remain [1–8].
Recently, a new type of heat exchanger with helical baffles has
been proposed to improve the performance on the shell side
[9–11].
Compared to the conventional shell-and-tube heat exchang-
ers, heat exchangers with helical baffles have some advantages
such as reduced shell-side fouling, increased heat transfer rate
to pressure drop ratio, reduced bypass effects, and prevention
from flow-induced vibration. Because helical baffles have sig-
nificant advantages than conventional segmental baffles, some
experimental investigations of heat exchanger with helical baf-
fles have been conducted in the past. Lutcha and Nemcansky
[9] investigated the flow pattern and heat transfer of tubular
heat exchangers with helical baffles. They found that properly
arranged helix baffles in tubular heat exchanger could force the
shell-side flow field to approach a plug flow condition, which
increased the average temperature driving force due to the reduc-
tion of back mixing. The velocity gradient within the helical

0255-2701/$ – see front matter © 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.cep.2008.01.012
 Y.-G. Lei et al. / Chemical Engineering and Processing 47 (2008) 2336–2345 2337

channel induced by the baffles also caused the heat transfer on

the shell side to be increased markedly. Stehlik et al. [10] com-
pared heat transfer and pressure drop correction factors of an
optimized segmental baffle heat exchanger to those of a helical
baffle heat exchanger. In their studies, the correction factors for
helical baffles were examined as a function of baffle inclination
angle to gain an understanding of the underlying transport phe-
nomena as well as to characterize the baffle for design purpose.
Kral et al. [11] discussed the performance of heat exchangers
with helical baffles using the results of tests conducted on unit
with various baffles geometries. Wang [12] measured the flow
field in shell-and-tube heat exchangers with helical baffles using
laser Doppler anemometry. He pointed out that the optimum
helix inclination angle depends on the Reynolds number of the
working fluid on the shell side of the heat exchanger. Zhang et Fig. 1. Schematic of the computational domain.
al. [13] presented an experimental investigation of heat trans-
fer and pressure drop of a helically baffled heat exchanger with
petal-shaped finned tubes.
A comprehensive experimental investigation on heat trans- 2. Computational model and numerical method
fer and pressure drop characteristics of a shell-and-tube heat
exchanger with different baffles is very expensive. Although 2.1. Computational domain
experimental data can be used for design and validating numer-
ical simulation results, the high cost of experiments severely According to the periodic geometric characteristic of heat
restricts its application. Compared to experiments, a validated exchanger with continual helical baffles, heat exchanger with
computational fluid dynamics numerical method requires much various inclination angles is computed using periodic boundary
lower cost and can provide flow field information. Due to conditions in this paper [17]. Because of the helical configura-
extraordinary fast development of computer hardware, numer- tion, the symmetric condition at the central longitudinal section
ical simulations of the heat exchanger are already possible. is not suitable to be used. The whole region of the space, includ-
Prithiviraj and Andrews [14,15] simulated fluid flow and heat ing shell, heat transfer tubes and baffles, should be taken as
transfer in shell-and-heat exchangers using the distributed resis- the computational domain. The computational domain for the
tance method along with volumetric porosities and surface present problem is shown in Fig. 1.
permeabilities. Single computational cell may have multiple Figs. 2 and 3 show the side elevation of the configuration
tubes present. He et al. [16] presented a numerical investiga- and the continual helical baffles. The channel configuration of
tion of the shell-and-tube heat exchangers. In their research, the fluid flow and heat transfer is determined by parameters
the distributed resistance concept along with a porous medium such as tube diameter d, shell diameter D, pitch p and baffle
model was adopted. The model and developed codes were used inclination angle α. In this study, the d, D, and p are kept fixed,
to simulate three kinds of shell-and-tube heat exchangers (ver- while the baffle inclination angle varies from 15◦ to 50◦ . Their
tical baffles, helical baffles and finned tube banks). All the characteristics are summarized in Table 1.
simulation results achieved good agreement with the experi-
mental data specially obtained in their group. Nevertheless, it
is difficult to investigate the details of fluid flow of the entire
heat exchanger through three-dimensional simulation because
the configuration of a heat exchanger is very complex and the
required computational resources are not always available. In
order to find optimal baffles geometry, numerical investigation
of a period is effective considering the present computation
capability.
Despite all of the previous efforts, few numerical inves-
tigations of fluid flow and heat transfer for shell-and-tube
heat exchangers adopted periodic boundary conditions in the
inlet/outlet faces.
The objective of this work is to provide information of flow
and heat transfer in the shell side of a shell-and-tube heat
exchanger with continual helical baffles. The numerical inves-
tigation has been performed for several shell-side Reynolds
numbers ranging from 500 to 3500 and for different helical
inclination angles (from 15◦ to 50◦ ). Fig. 2. Side elevation of the configuration.
2338 Y.-G. Lei et al. / Chemical Engineering and Processing 47 (2008) 2336–2345

Table 2
Thermophysical properties of oil
Property Value

CP (J/kg K) 2316.2
Pr 110
μ (kg/m s) 0.006255
ρ (kg/m3 ) 814.3
λ (W/m K) 0.130

Fig. 3. Continual helical baffle.

2.2. Governing equations and boundary conditions

The governing equations for continuity, momentum and

energy in the computational domain can be expressed as follows.
Continuity:
∂
(ρui ) = 0 (1)
∂xi
Momentum:
  Fig. 4. Grid on the outside wall.
∂ ∂ ∂uk ∂p
(ρui uk ) = μ − (2)
∂xi ∂xi ∂xi ∂xk 3D geometries. The meshes on the outside walls and side ele-
Energy: vation grid of the configuration are shown in Figs. 4 and 5. The
  total number of elemental nodes varies from 151 705 to 321 646
∂ ∂ k ∂T according to different inclination angles. The region adjacent to
(ρui T ) = (3)
∂xi ∂xi CP ∂xi the heat exchange tube is meshed much finer with the help of
successive ratio scheme in GAMBIT.
Periodic boundaries are used for the inlet and outlet of the
Before any computational result can be deemed enough to
flow domain. In this study, oil is the working fluid. It is assumed
illuminate the physical phenomenon, the computational results
that temperature of oil is 335 K in the heat exchanger and the
must be justified through the grid independence test. In the
heat exchange tubes kept at a constant temperature of 300 K. The
present computation, a series of grid independence tests have
inlet and outlet profiles for the velocities must be identical. Con-
been conducted to ensure that optimized computational mesh
stant mass flow rate is assumed in the flow direction rather than
was obtained. Grid independence tests have been carried out for
constant pressure drop. It should be noted that the dimensionless
each mesh model. For example, the calculations were primarily
temperature must be identical between the inlet and outlet. To
carried out with four different grid densities: 190 356, 212 368,
save the computing time, the wall function approach is used to
model the near-wall regions. Thermophysical properties of the
fluid are assumed to be constant and are listed in Table 2.

2.3. Grid generation and numerical solution

The computational domain is meshed with unstructured

Tet/Hybrid grids, which are generated by the commercial code
GAMBIT due to its excellent merit of managing very complex

Table 1
Geometric parameters
Dimension Value

Shell inside diameter (mm) 110

Tube outside diameter (mm) 19
Tube pitch (mm) 25
No. of tube 9
Helical inclination angle (◦ ) 15, 20, 30, 40, 45, 50
Fig. 5. Side elevation grid of the configuration.
 Y.-G. Lei et al. / Chemical Engineering and Processing 47 (2008) 2336–2345 2339

286 282 and 350 556 mesh points for the model with inclination
angle 30◦ . It was found that the difference in heat transfer coeffi-
cient between the results of grid system of 286 282 and 350 556
is 2%. Considering both convergent time and solution precision,
the grid system of 286 282 was adopted for the computational
model.
The computer code FLUENT was used to solve the fluid flow
and heat transfer in the computational domain [18]. The gov-
erning equations were iteratively solved by the finite volume
method using SIMPLE pressure–velocity coupling algorithm.
This numerical approach stores scalar variables at the center of
the control volume. The face values of scalar variables are also
required for the convection terms and their values are gained
from interpolation. As regards the solution algorithm, the seg-
regated approach is used to solve a single variable field by
considering all cells at the same time, and then solves the next
variable field by again considering all cells at the same time. Fig. 6. Predicted average Nusselt number versus Res compared with the result
The convective term in governing equations is discretized by of Wang [20].
the QUICK scheme with three-order precision. Because of the
nonlinearity of the equation set being solved by FLUENT, the Tmax − Tmin
T = (10)
iterative technique with under-relax predictions of velocity and ln(Tmax /Tmin )
pressure is used. Default under-relaxation factors of the solver
where Q is heat transfer rate; A, heat transfer area;
are used, which are 0.3 and 0.7 for the pressure and momentum.
Tmax = max(Tw − Tin , Tw − Tout ), and Tmin = min(Tw − Tin ,
The convergence criterion is that the normalized residuals are
Tw − Tout ).
less than 10−5 for the flow equations and 10−8 for the energy
equation. The present computations were carried in a Pentium
4 workstation with 4 GB RAM. Each simulation took approxi- 3. Model validation
mately 8–10 h to converge.
In order to verify the present numerical work, the model vali-
2.4. Performance parameter dation was conducted at first. Figs. 6 and 7 show the comparison
of the present numerical results and experimental measurements
The shell-side Reynolds number and friction factor are of Wang [20] for heat exchanger with baffle inclination angle of
defined by Eqs. (4) and (5) [19]: 15◦ . The comparisons were carried out for the average Nus-
selt number and friction factor. It can be observed from Fig. 6
ρude that the numerically predicted average Nusselt number is 3–10
Res = (4)
μ percent higher than the experimental results of Wang [20]. The
P de discrepancies between the simulating results and the experimen-
f = 2
· (5) tal data may be explained as follows. The baffles may have
1/2ρu L
qm
u= (6)
ρAmin
where u is the mean velocity at the minimum transverse area; de ,
the characteristic dimension which takes the value of the tube
diameter d; qm , the shell-side mass flow rate; ρ, the fluid density.
Amin is the minimum transverse area, which is determined by
 
1 d
Amin = BD 1 − (7)
2 p
Here, B is the axial distance of a period; D, the diameter of shell
side; p, the tube spacing.
The heat transfer coefficient and Nusselt number are defined
by Eqs. (8) and (9):
Q
h= (8)
AT
hde
Nu = (9) Fig. 7. Predicted friction factor versus Res compared with the result of Wang
λ [20].
2340 Y.-G. Lei et al. / Chemical Engineering and Processing 47 (2008) 2336–2345
Fig. 8. Stream lines in the shell side for different baffle inclination angles (Res = 1 000, Pr = 110): (a) α = 15◦ ; (b) α = 30◦ ; (c) α = 40◦ ; and (d) α = 50◦ .
significant bypass streams and leakage streams during exper-
iment due to manufacturing tolerances and quality control, so
the effective mass flow rate across the tube bundle decreases
due to the bypass and leakage. Thus, the experimental shell-side
heat transfer data are smaller than those predicted. However, in
our numerical simulations, the effects of the bypass and leakage
streams are not taken into account, and this leads to a higher
numerical prediction. The numerically predicted results might
be still acceptable as an engineering computation. As shown in
Fig. 7, the deviations of the numerical results of friction factor
from the experimental ones are 5–15%. Because of the effects
of the bypass and leakage streams were not taken into account in
the numerical simulation, such an agreement should be regarded
reasonable in the engineering computations.
4. Results and discussion
In order to understand the flow field and heat transfer charac-
teristics of this problem, a total of 49 cases were considered in
the present research. The effects of baffle inclination angles on
the shell-side performances were studied. The performances of
a heat exchanger with 25% cut segmental vertical baffles were
also computed in order to compare with the one with helical
baffles.
4.1. Flow characteristics and heat transfer
The flow behavior in the shell side of the heat exchanger with
continual helical baffles is different from that of a conventional
segmental heat exchanger. Fig. 8 shows the stream lines in the
shell side of heat exchanger with baffle inclination angles of
15◦ , 30◦ , 40◦ , and 50◦ . The flow patterns inside the shell of the
heat exchangers with continual helical baffle have been revealed
rotational. The tube bundles are washed out by revolving fluid.
As can be seen from Fig. 8, the inclination angle of the path line
increases with the increase of baffle inclination angles. Because
of the effect of baffle inclination angle, the fluid flow in axial
direction is enhanced and the fluid flow is turned into a plug
flow.
Fig. 9 shows the velocity vectors in the cross-section plane
near the segmental baffle and helical baffle. As is shown in the
figure, because of the zigzag flow pattern caused by the con-
ventional segmental baffle, there are large dead spaces and a
significant back mixing at the back of the baffle, where fluid
 Y.-G. Lei et al. / Chemical Engineering and Processing 47 (2008) 2336–2345 2341

Fig. 9. Velocity vectors near the segmental baffle and helical baffle: (a) segmental baffle; and (b) helical baffle.

recirculates with low velocity and deteriorates heat transfer.
The dead spaces result in inefficient use of the heat transfer
area. Fluid flow with helical baffles is continuous and the dead
place does not occur near the helical baffle. The spiral motion
brings about better mixing, and the heat transfer in this region
is significantly enhanced.
Fig. 10 illustrates some characteristics of the flow field. These
plots report the velocity vectors in the cross-section planes at the
1/2 cycle of the heat exchanger with baffle inclinational angles
of 15◦ , 30◦ , 40◦ , and 50◦ . These planes are perpendicular to the
main flow direction. It can be seen that tubes are washed out
by flow stream with velocity gradient. The reason for the large
velocity gradient near the tube can be attributed to the helical
flow along the radius of shell and the free vortex generated by
the tangential velocity component. It is clear that the velocity
distribution and gradient are different with different baffle incli-
nation angles, thus affect the heat exchange of the tubes in the
shell side.
In the present study, the effect of the baffle inclination angle
on heat transfer has been investigated. The heat transfer coeffi-
cient is evaluated by using the Nusselt number, which is defined
by Eq. (9). The average Nusselt numbers of the tube bundle as
a function of the shell-side Reynolds number for different baf-
fle inclination angles are given in Fig. 11. For all inclination
angles, the value of Nu increase with the increase of shell-side
Reynolds number, but the changes become less obvious when
the baffle inclination angle are larger. For α < 30◦ , the increase
of baffle inclination angle leads to the increase of Nu because
the tube in the shell side is washed out by a nonuniform velocity
profile with a certain velocity gradient mentioned above and the

Fig. 10. Velocity vectors in the cross-section plane at the 1/2 cycle for different baffle inclination angles (Res = 1 000, Pr = 110): (a) α = 15◦ ; (b) α = 30◦ ; (c) α = 40◦ ;
and (d) α = 50◦ .
2342 Y.-G. Lei et al. / Chemical Engineering and Processing 47 (2008) 2336–2345

Fig. 11. Average Nusselt number of the tube bundle versus Res for different Fig. 13. Average Nusselt number over tube 1, 2, and 3 versus Res for α = 30◦ .
baffle inclination angles.

thickness of the thermal boundary layer is decreased. Whereas,

when the baffle inclination angle increases further, the increase
of the longitudinal velocity component causes the thickness of
the boundary layer to grow so that the heat transfer coefficient
decreases with the increase of baffle inclination angle. In order
to study the details of heat transfer in the complex configuration,
the average Nusselt numbers over specified tubes were computed
in the research. Figs. 12–15 show the average Nusselt number
over specified tubes (tube 1, tube 2, tube 3 as shown in Fig. 2)
versus shell-side Reynolds number with different baffle incli-
nation angles. It is evident that the Nu has the similar change
trend with Res , but different change trend with α. For the same
baffle inclination angle, Nu over central tube is lower than those
of other tubes for α > 30◦ . Whereas the Nusselt number of the
central tube when α = 15◦ is the highest.
Fig. 14. Average Nusselt number over tube 1, 2, and 3 versus Res for α = 40◦ .

Fig. 12. Average Nusselt number over tube 1, 2, and 3 versus Res for α = 15◦ . Fig. 15. Average Nusselt number over tube 1, 2, and 3 versus Res for α = 50◦ .
 Y.-G. Lei et al. / Chemical Engineering and Processing 47 (2008) 2336–2345
Fig. 16. Pressure drop versus Res for different baffle inclination angles
4.2. Pressure drop
The pressure drop is an important parameter in the design of
heat exchangers. Pumping costs are dependent on the pressure
drop of an exchanger; therefore lower pressure drop leads to
lower operating costs.
Fig. 16 depicts the variation of the pressure drop per unit
length of tube versus the shell-side Reynolds number for the
heat exchangers with different baffle inclination angles ranging
from 15◦ to 50◦ . The same function for the segmental baffles
is also shown in the figure for the comparison. It is clear that
the pressure drops of all helical baffle heat exchangers are lower
than that of the segmental heat exchanger for the same shell-
side Reynolds number. For segmental heat exchanger, the flow
pattern on the shell side is zigzag, flow separation at the edge
of baffles causes abrupt momentum change and severe pressure
loss. Whereas the primary flows direction of helical baffles does
not change dramatically.
It can also be seen from Fig. 16 that the pressure drop per unit
length of tube increases with the increase of shell-side Reynolds
number and its increase is more evident in large Res range. It
is very interesting to note that the effect of baffle inclination
angle on the pressure drop is relatively large for small inclination
angle. For the shell-side Reynolds number of 3500, the pressure
drop increases 40% when baffle inclination angle increases from
15◦ to 20◦ , while the pressure drop only increases 10% when
baffle inclination angle increases from 45◦ to 50◦ . It has also
been revealed that the effect of inclination angle on the pressure
drop is small in the low shell-side Reynolds number region and
becomes remarkable in high shell-side Reynolds number region.
It is understood that increasing inclination angle is more effec-
tive for decreasing pressure drop in higher shell-side Reynolds
number region.
4.3. Performance evaluation
Proper evaluation is important for comparing the integrated
performance of different heat exchangers. The heat transfer coef-
2343
Fig. 17. Heat transfer coefficient versus pressure drop for different baffle incli-
nation angles
ficient and pressure drop are both significant parameters of heat
exchanger performance. In the present study, the ratio of heat
transfer coefficient to pressure drop is used as a comparison
criterion.
Fig. 17 reported the heat transfer coefficient to the pressure
drop per unit length of tube with different baffle inclination
angles. Same function for segmental heat exchanger (0◦ ) is also
shown in the figure for the comparison. A higher position in
this plot signifies a better integrated performance, which means
less pumping power is required to reach the same heat trans-
fer rate. It can be seen that all types of heat exchangers with
helical baffles have much higher heat transfer efficiency at a
given pressure drop than that of the heat exchanger with seg-
mental baffles, which means that the integrated performance of
heat exchangers with helical baffles is superior to that of heat
exchangers with segmental baffles. The heat transfer coefficient
of the same press drop increases with the increase of baffle incli-
nation angle when α < 45◦ , decreases with the increase baffle
inclination angle when α > 45◦ . The reason for this phenomenon
appears to be as follows. It was mentioned earlier that with
the increase of baffle inclination angle, the decrease in pres-
sure drop is larger and the heat transfer coefficients increase
in the small inclination angle region. However, with the fur-
ther increase of baffle inclination angle, the decrease of the
pressure drop becomes smaller and the heat transfer coefficient
even decreases in the large inclination angle region. From the
results computed, it is observed that the best integrated heat
transfer and pressure drop performance occurs at approximately
α = 45◦ .
5. Conclusion
In this paper, three-dimensional numerical simulations for
heat exchangers with different baffle inclination angles are per-
formed to reveal the effects of baffle inclination angle on the heat
transfer and pressure drop characteristics. The major findings are
summarized as follows:
2344 Y.-G. Lei et al. / Chemical Engineering and Processing 47 (2008) 2336–2345
(1) The flow pattern in the shell side with continual helical
baffle is near-plug flow. Therefore, the dead region is elim-
inated and the heat transfer area is used more effectively.
The average Nusselt number of the tube bundle increases
with the increase of baffle inclination angle when α < 30◦ ,
and decreases if the baffle inclination angle increases
further.
(2) As the shell-side Reynolds number is increased, the pres-
sure drop increases for all the cases considered. For
all helical baffle heat exchangers studied, the pressure
drops are lower than those of the conventional segmen-
tal heat exchangers. The pressure drop decreases with the
increase of baffle inclination angle in all the cases con-
sidered. The change of the pressure drop is large in the
small inclination angle region. However, the effects of
baffle inclination angle on pressure drop are small when
α > 40◦ .
(3) For all the helical baffle heat exchangers studied, the
ratios of heat transfer coefficient to pressure drop are
higher than those of a conventional segmental heat
exchanger. This means that the heat exchangers with
helical baffles will have a higher heat transfer coeffi-
cient when consuming the same pumping power. The
enhanced performance increases with the increase of baf-
fle inclination angle when α < 45◦ , and decreases when
α > 45◦ .
(4) It can be concluded that proper baffle inclination angle will
provide an optimal performance of heat exchangers. The
detailed knowledge of the heat transfer and flow distribu-
tion provided in this investigation may serve as a basis
for further optimization of shell-and-tube heat exchang-
ers.
Acknowledgements
This work was supported by the Key Project of National
Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 50736005), and the
National Key Project of Fundamental R&D of China (Grant No.
2007CB206902).
Appendix A. Nomenclature
A heat transfer area (m2 )
Amin minimum transverse area (m2 )
CP specific heat (J kg−1 K−1 )
D shell diameter (mm)
d tube diameter (mm)
de characteristic dimension (mm)
f friction factor
h heat transfer coefficient (W m−2 K−1 )
Nu Nusselt number
p tube pitch (mm)
Pr Prandtl number
Res shell-side Reynolds number
Tin temperature of the fluid at inlet (K)
Tout temperature of the fluid at outlet (K)
Tw temperature of the tube (K)
u shell-side velocity (m s−1 )
Greek symbols
α baffle inclination angle (◦ )
P pressure drop (Pa)
λ thermal conductivity (W m−1 K−1 )
μ dynamic viscosity (Pa s)
ρ density of oil (kg m−3 )
Subscripts
in inlet
max maximum
min minimum
out outlet
w wall
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