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

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.

Author(s):  
Ender Ozden ◽  
I˙lker Tarı

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.


2013 ◽  
Vol 860-863 ◽  
pp. 754-757
Author(s):  
Can Zheng ◽  
Fei Wang ◽  
Yong Gang Lei

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%.


Author(s):  
Bin Gao ◽  
Qincheng Bi ◽  
Zesen Nie

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.


2020 ◽  
pp. 293-293
Author(s):  
Ahmet Aydin ◽  
Halit Yaşar ◽  
Tahsin Engin ◽  
Ekrem Büyükkaya

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.


Author(s):  
Moses Omolayo Petinrin ◽  
Ademola Adebukola Dare

In this study, comparative performance of single-segmental baffle and a newly developed baffle – convex-cut in shell-and-tube heat exchanger were both numerically and experimentally investigated. For the numerical analysis, three working fluids (engine oil, water and air) were successively utilised on the shell-side of heat exchangers with 30, 35, 40 and 45% convex-cut (CeC_STHE) and 25% segmental (SS_STHE) baffles, and the resulting models were solved in COMSOL Multiphysics. Experiments were carried out on 30% CeC_STHE and SS_STHE exclusively running on water. The data obtained were used to determine the weighted shell-side heat transfer coefficient and weighted performance factor of each heat exchanger. Hence, the results for all the ranges of Reynolds number indicate that the shell-side heat transfer coefficients of all the CeC_STHEs are lower than that of SS_STHE except for the 30% CeC_STHE. However, the SS_STHE showed greater pressure drop than the CeC_STHEs. The choice of working fluid had more influenced on the weighted shell-side heat transfer coefficient CeC_STHE. Moreover, the weighted performance factors of the CeC_STHEs indicated positive values. Thus, 30% CeC_STHE demonstrated a better performance while the 45% had the lowest performance.


2013 ◽  
Vol 135 (6) ◽  
Author(s):  
J. F. Zhou ◽  
Y. Li ◽  
B. Q. Gu ◽  
C. L. Shao

Shell-and-tube heat exchangers are the most common type of heat exchangers in oil refineries and other large chemical processes. In this manuscript, we demonstrate that the shell-side flow in a cylindrical shell was not as homogeneous as that in a rectangular shell. According to the periodic flow field and the arrangement of tubes in the rectangular shell, the solid-fluid coupling heat transfer model consisting of a single tube section and the outer and inner fluids was developed to represent the whole heat exchanger. Using this model, the relationship among four temperatures, namely the inlet and outlet temperatures of tube-side fluid and the upstream and downstream temperatures of shell-side fluid, was established. By dividing each tube into several tube sections at the sites of baffles, a method for predicting the temperature field of the rectangular shell-and-tube heat exchanger was proposed. Based on the node temperature correlation, all the node temperatures were obtained by iterative computation using the established relationship between the four temperatures and the operating conditions. It was found that the temperature distribution of the fluid in tube was approximately linear along axial direction, but the temperature of tube showed nonlinear regularity. The axial deformation compatibility condition for the tube bundle and shell was considered when resolving the stresses in tubes. For the model established in this paper, the mean temperature of the tube at lower position was found to be larger than that at higher position; hence the thermal expansion of the tube at the lower end is larger. In the case the tube-side fluid was heated, all tubes were pulled because of the larger axial thermal expansion of shell, and the stress in the tube with higher temperature is smaller because of the smaller strain.


2020 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Swanand Gaikwad ◽  
Ashish Parmar

AbstractHeat exchangers possess a significant role in energy transmission and energy generation in most industries. In this work, a three-dimensional simulation has been carried out of a shell and tube heat exchanger (STHX) consisting of segmental baffles. The investigation involves using the commercial code of ANSYS CFX, which incorporates the modeling, meshing, and usage of the Finite Element Method to yield numerical results. Much work is available in the literature regarding the effect of baffle cut and baffle spacing as two different entities, but some uncertainty pertains when we discuss the combination of these two parameters. This study aims to find an appropriate mix of baffle cut and baffle spacing for the efficient functioning of a shell and tube heat exchanger. Two parameters are tested: the baffle cuts at 30, 35, 40% of the shell-inside diameter, and the baffle spacing’s to fit 6,8,10 baffles within the heat exchanger. The numerical results showed the role of the studied parameters on the shell side heat transfer coefficient and the pressure drop in the shell and tube heat exchanger. The investigation shows an increase in the shell side heat transfer coefficient of 13.13% when going from 6 to 8 baffle configuration and a 23.10% acclivity for the change of six baffles to 10, for a specific baffle cut. Evidence also shows a rise in the pressure drop with an increase in the baffle spacing from the ranges of 44–46.79%, which can be controlled by managing the baffle cut provided.


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