The enhancement effect due to the helical coiling is due to the fact that the fluid experiences a centrifugal force, depending on the local axial velocity and on the radius of curvature of the coil.This causes the fluid from the core region to be pushed towards the outer wall by producing a thinning of the boundary layers. This phenomenon causes the generation of counter-rotating vortices,generally called secondary flows, that produce additional transport of fluid over the cross section of the pipe, by increasing both heat transfer and pressure drop when compared to that in a straight tube [18]. A comprehensive literature review of flow in curved pipes has been presented by Berger et al. [19] and Naphon and Wongwises [20]. The fluid flow is generally described by adopting the Dean number which couples together inertial and centrifugal effects. It was originally derived by Dean by non-dimensionalizing the Navier–Stokes equations for torii of small curvature ratio [21].
The torsion induced on the flow field by the helix pitch, expressed by the Germano number which is related to the ratio of the twisting to the viscous forces [21], is considered by many Authors to have a higher order effect with respect to curvature and therefore a toroidal model is often assumed both in the laminar and in the turbulent flow regime.