CFD simulations of shell-side flow in a shell-and-tube type heat exchanger with and without baffles

2016 ◽  
Vol 143 ◽  
pp. 314-340 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eshita Pal ◽  
Inder Kumar ◽  
Jyeshtharaj B. Joshi ◽  
N.K. Maheshwari
Keyword(s):  
Heat Exchanger ◽  
Shell Side ◽  
Cfd Simulations ◽  
Tube Type ◽  
Shell And Tube ◽  
Side Flow

CFD Modeling and Analysis of a Shell-and-Tube Heat Exchanger

2008 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ender Ozden ◽  
I˙lker Tarı
Keyword(s):  
Heat Exchanger ◽  
Turbulence Modeling ◽  
Turbulence Models ◽  
Temperature Fields ◽  
Cfd Modeling ◽  
Shell Side ◽  
Cfd Simulations ◽  
Tube Heat Exchanger ◽  
Shell And Tube ◽  
Side Flow

A shell-and-tube heat exchanger is modeled and numerically analyzed using a commercial finite volume CFD package. The heat exchanger is small, has a single shell and a single tube pass, and its shell side is baffled. The baffles are 25% or 36% cut single-segmental baffles. Tube layout is the staggered layout with a triangular pitch. There is no leakage from baffle orifices and no gap between the baffles and the shell. It is observed that the shell side flow and the temperature distributions are very sensitive to modeling choices such as mesh, order of discretization and turbulence modeling. Various turbulence models are tried for the first and second order discretizations using two different mesh densities. CFD predictions of shell side pressure drop and overall heat transfer coefficient are obtained and compared with Kern and Bell-Delaware method results. After selecting the best modeling approach, the sensitivity of the results to flow rates and the baffle spacing is investigated. It is observed that the flow and temperature fields obtained from CFD simulations can provide valuable information about the parts of the heat exchanger design that need improvement. Correlation based approaches may indicate the existence of the weakness but CFD simulations can also pin point the source and the location of it. Using CFD together with experiments may speed up the design process and may improve the final design.

scholarly journals Performance Analysis and Design Optimization of Shell and Tube Heat Exchangers

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
praveen math
Keyword(s):  
Heat Transfer ◽  
Heat Exchanger ◽  
Heat Exchangers ◽  
Pressure Loss ◽  
Fluid Flows ◽  
Hot Water ◽  
Flow Conditions ◽  
Shell Side ◽  
Shell And Tube ◽  
Side Flow

Abstract Shell and Tube heat exchangers are having special importance in boilers, oil coolers, condensers, pre-heaters. They are also widely used in process applications as well as the refrigeration and air conditioning industry. The robustness and medium weighted shape of Shell and Tube heat exchangers make them well suited for high pressure operations. The aim of this study is to experiment, validate and to provide design suggestion to optimize the shell and tube heat exchanger (STHE). The heat exchanger is made of acrylic material with 2 baffles and 7 tubes made of stainless steel. Hot fluid flows inside the tube and cold fluid flows over the tube in the shell. 4 K-type thermocouples were used to read the hot and cold fluids inlet and outlet temperatures. Experiments were carried out for various combinations of hot and cold water flow rates with different hot water inlet temperatures. The flow conditions are limited to the lab size model of the experimental setup. A commercial CFD code was used to study the thermal and hydraulic flow field inside the shell and tubes. CFD methodology is developed to appropriately represent the flow physics and the procedure is validated with the experimental results. Turbulent flow in tube side is observed for all flow conditions, while the shell side has laminar flow except for extreme hot water temperatures. Hence transition k-kl-omega model was used to predict the flow better for transition cases. Realizable k- epsilon model with non-equilibrium wall function was used for turbulent cases. Temperature and velocity profiles are examined in detail and observed that the flow remains almost uniform to the tubes thus limiting heat transfer. Approximately 2/3 rd of the shell side flow does not surround the tubes due to biased flow contributing to reduced overall heat transfer and increased pressure loss. On the basis of these findings an attempt has been made to enhance the heat transfer by inducing turbulence in the shel l side flow. The two baffles were rotated in opposite direction to each other to achieve more circulation in the shell side flow and provide more contact with tube surface. Various positions of the baffles were simulated and studied using CFD analysis and th e results are summarized with respect to heat transfer and pressure loss.

scholarly journals Numerical Investigation on Double Shell-Pass Shell-and-Tube Heat Exchanger with Continuous Helical Baffles

2011 ◽  
Vol 2011 ◽  
pp. 1-7 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shui Ji ◽  
Wen-jing Du ◽  
Peng Wang ◽  
Lin Cheng
Keyword(s):  
Heat Exchanger ◽  
Mechanical Energy ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Transfer Coefficients ◽  
Shell Side ◽  
Flow Area ◽  
Tube Heat Exchanger ◽  
Shell And Tube ◽  
Side Flow ◽  
Single Shell

A double shell-pass shell-and-tube heat exchanger with continuous helical baffles (STHXCH) has been invented to improve the shell-side performance of STHXCH. At the same flow area, the double shell-pass STHXCH is compared with a single shell-pass STHXCH and a conventional shell-and-tube heat exchanger with segmental baffles (STHXSG) by means of numerical method. The numerical results show that the shell-side heat transfer coefficients of the novel heat exchanger are 12–17% and 14–25% higher than those of STHXSG and single shell-pass STHXCH, respectively; the shell-side pressure drop of the novel heat exchanger is slightly lower than that of STHXSG and 29–35% higher than that of single shell-pass STHXCH. Analyses of shell-side flow field show that, under the same flow rate, double shell-pass STHXCH has the largest shell-side volume average velocity and the most uniform velocity distribution of the three STHXs. The shell-side helical flow pattern of double shell-pass STHXCH is more similar to longitudinal flow than that of single shell-pass STHXCH. Its distribution of fluid mechanical energy dissipation is also uniform. The double shell-pass STHXCH might be used to replace the STHXSG in industrial applications to save energy, reduce cost, and prolong the service life.

Numerical Simulation of a Shell-and-Tube Heat Exchanger with Special Form Helical Baffles

2013 ◽  
Vol 860-863 ◽  
pp. 754-757
Author(s):  
Can Zheng ◽  
Fei Wang ◽  
Yong Gang Lei
Keyword(s):  
Numerical Simulation ◽  
Heat Exchanger ◽  
Pressure Drop ◽  
Heat Exchangers ◽  
Shell Side ◽  
Fluid Medium ◽  
Tube Heat Exchanger ◽  
New Type ◽  
Shell And Tube ◽  
Side Flow

A new type of helical baffles heat exchanger is presented in this paper. Comparative study, through numerical simulation, was undertook between the new helical baffles heat exchanger and segmental baffle board heat exchanger in shell side flow and heat exchange characteristics. Fluid medium in the shell side is air. At the same velocity in the same flow conditions, pressure drop of helical baffles heat exchangers fell by an average of 26.8% compared with segmental baffle board heat exchangers, and the unit pressure drop of the heat transfer ratio of helical baffles heat exchanger increased by an average of 40.6%.

Effects of Baffle Overlap Proportion on Shell-Side Performance of Shell and Tube Heat Exchanger With Helical Baffles

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bin Gao ◽  
Qincheng Bi ◽  
Zesen Nie
Keyword(s):  
Heat Transfer ◽  
Heat Exchanger ◽  
Flow Rate ◽  
Heat Transfer Performance ◽  
Transfer Performance ◽  
Shell Side ◽  
Tube Heat Exchanger ◽  
Flow And Heat Transfer ◽  
Shell And Tube ◽  
Side Flow

Different overlap configurations of discontinuous helical baffles affect the flow pattern of the shell-side fluid directly, and thus there is a significant impact on the flow and heat transfer characteristics of the shell-side fluid. In the present paper, experiments were carried out to study the impact of baffle overlap proportion on the shell-side flow and heat transfer performance of the shell-and-tube heat exchanger with helical baffles (STHEHB). Two different shell-side friction factors, the friction factor per helical pitch (fs,1B) and the friction factor per tube length (fs,1m), were defined based on different reference lengths. The results showed that, since the baffle overlap proportion leads to different helical pitch as well as flow fields in shell side, opposite conclusions are obtained by choosing different reference length. Based on the same Reynolds number, the shell-side Nusselt number of the STHEHB with 10% baffle overlap is higher than that with 50% baffle overlap. The reason is that the larger baffle overlap proportion produces more serious leak flows and weakens the heat transfer in shell side. The comparison of heat transfer coefficient per unit pressure drop versus shell-side flow rate showed that the STHEHB with smaller baffle overlap proportion has better comprehensive heat transfer performance, but the difference between the two decreases gradually with the increase of the flow rate.

scholarly journals Optimization and CFD analysis of a shell-and-tube heat exchanger with a multi segmental baffle

2020 ◽  
pp. 293-293
Author(s):  
Ahmet Aydin ◽  
Halit Yaşar ◽  
Tahsin Engin ◽  
Ekrem Büyükkaya
Keyword(s):  
Fluid Dynamics ◽  
Computational Fluid Dynamics ◽  
Heat Exchanger ◽  
Flow Field ◽  
Heat Exchangers ◽  
Operating Cost ◽  
Shell Side ◽  
Tube Heat Exchanger ◽  
Shell And Tube ◽  
Side Flow

The Shell-and-tube type heat exchangers have long been widely used in many fields of industry. These types of heat exchangers are generally easy to design, manufacturing and maintenance, but require relatively large spaces to install. Therefore the optimization of such heat exchangers from thermal and economical points of view is of particular interest. In this article, an optimization procedure based on the minimum total cost (initial investment plus operational costs) has been applied. Then the flow analysis of the optimized heat exchanger has been carried out to reveal possible flow field and temperature distribution inside the equipment using computational fluid dynamics. The experimental results were compared with computational fluid dynamics analyses results. It has been concluded that the baffles play an important role in the development of the shell side flow field. This prompted us to investigate new baffle geometries without compromising from the overall thermal performance. It has been found that the heat exchanger with the new baffle design gives rise to considerably lower pressure drops in the shell side, which in turn reducing operating cost. The new baffle design is particularly well suited for shell-and-tube heat exchangers, where a viscous fluid flows through shell side with/out phase change.

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