Application of Nanofluids in a Shell-and-Tube Heat Exchanger

Author(s):  
Jonathan Cox ◽  
Anoop Kanjirakat ◽  
Reza Sadr

Innovations in the field of nanotechnology have potential to improve industrial productivity and performance. One promising applications of this emerging technology is using nanofluids with enhanced thermal properties. Nanofluids, engineered colloidal suspensions consisting of nano-sized particles (less than 100nm) dispersed in a basefluid, have shown potential as industrial cooling fluids due to the enhanced heat transfer characteristics. Experiments are conducted to compare the overall heat transfer coefficient and pressure drop of water vs. nanofluids in a laboratory scale industrial type shell and tube heat exchanger. Three mass particle concentrations, 2%, 4% and 6%, of SiO2-water nanofluids are formulated by dispersing 20 nm diameter nano particles in desalinated water. Nanofluid and tap water are then circulated in the cold and hot loops, respectively, of the heat exchanger to avoid direct particle deposition on heater surfaces. Interestingly, experimental result show both augmentation and deterioration of heat transfer coefficient for nanofluids depending on the flow rate through the heat exchangers. This trend is consistent with an earlier reported observation for heat transfer in micro channels. This trend may be explained by the counter effect of the changes in thermo-physical properties of fluids together with the fouling on the heat exchanger surfaces. The measured pressure drop in the nanofluids flow shows an increase when compared to that of basefluid that could limit the use of nanofluids in heat exchangers for industrial application.

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.


Author(s):  
S. V. Sridhar ◽  
R. Karuppasamy ◽  
G. D. Sivakumar

Abstract In this investigation, the performance of the shell and tube heat exchanger operated with tin nanoparticles-water (SnO2-W) and silver nanoparticles-water (Ag-W) nanofluids was experimentally analyzed. SnO2-W and Ag-W nanofluids were prepared without any surface medication of nanoparticles. The effects of volume concentrations of nanoparticles on thermal conductivity, viscosity, heat transfer coefficient, fiction factor, Nusselt number, and pressure drop were analyzed. The results showed that thermal conductivity of nanofluids increased by 29% and 39% while adding 0.1 wt% of SnO2 and Ag nanoparticles, respectively, due to the unique intrinsic property of the nanoparticles. Further, the convective heat transfer coefficient was enhanced because of improvement of thermal conductivity of the two phase mixture and friction factor increased due to the increases of viscosity and density of nanofluids. Moreover, Ag nanofluid showed superior pressure drop compared to SnO2 nanofluid owing to the improvement of thermophysical properties of nanofluid.


Author(s):  
Guidong Chen ◽  
Jing Xu ◽  
Ming Zen ◽  
Qiuwang Wang

In order to improve heat transfer performance of conventional segmental baffled shell-and-tube heat exchangers (STHXs), the shell-and-tube heat exchanger with combined helical baffles (CMH-STHX) were invented. In the present study, the CMH-STHX is compared with three other STHXs which were set up with continuous helical baffles (CH-STHX), discontinuous helical baffles (DCH-STHX) and segmental baffles (SG-STHX), by Computational Fluid Dynamics method. The numerical results show that, for the same mass flow rate at the shell side, the overall pressure drop of the CMH-STHX is about 50% and 40% lower than that of SG-STHX and CH-STHX. The heat transfer coefficient of the CMH-STHX is between those of CH-STHX and DCH-STHX and it is 6.3% lower than that of SG-STHX. The heat transfer coefficient under unit pressure drop h/Δp is introduced to evaluate the comprehensive performance of STHXs. The h/Δp of the CMH-STHX is 7.5%, 6.5% and 87.4% higher on average than those of the CH-SHTX, DCH-STHX and SG-STHX. Furthermore, the total heat transfer rate of CMH-STHX is about 25% higher than that of SG-STHX for the same total pressure drop of shell side. Supported by these results, the new heat exchanger (CMH-STHX) may be used to replace the conventional shell-and-tube heat exchanger in industrial applications.


Author(s):  
S. Mohanty ◽  
R. Arora

In this investigation, a comprehensive approach is established in detail to analyse the effectiveness of the shell and tube heat exchanger (STE) with 50% baffle cuts (Bc) with varying number of baffles. CFD simulations were conducted on a single pass and single tube heat exchanger(HE) using water as working fluid. A counterflow technique is implemented for this simulation study. Based on different approaches made on design analysis for a heat exchanger, here, a mini shell and tube exchanger (STE) computational model is developed. Commercial CFD software package ANSYS-Fluent 14.0 was used for computational analysis and comparison with existing literature in the view of certain variables; in particular, baffle cut, baffle spacing, the outcome of shell and tube diameter on the pressure drop and heat transfer coefficient. However, the simulation results are more circumscribed with the applied turbulence models such as Spalart-Allmaras, k-ɛ standard and k-ɛ realizable. For determining the best among the turbulence models, the computational results are validated with the existing literature. The proposed study portrays an in-depth outlook and visualization of heat transfer coefficient and pressure drop along the length of the heat exchanger(HE). The modified design of the heat exchanger yields a maximum of 44% pressure drop reduction and an increment of 60.66% in heat transfer.


Author(s):  
Tariq S. Khan ◽  
Hasan Fawad ◽  
Kashif Nawaz

Abstract An optimized heat exchanger design is always a challenge to designers. This study presents a simplified simulation study on thermal-hydraulic of a small heat exchanger. Both the heat transfer coefficient and pressure drop are simulated for a nine tube shell and tube heat exchanger. A detailed mesh sensitivity analysis is performed to arrive at numerically converged solution. The results of the study are compared with Bell Delaware (BD) and Flow Stream (FS) analytical methods. Results obtained using all three methods show similar trends. Heat transfer coefficient determined using Bell Delaware method is found to be in good agreement with that of ANSYS CFX, whereas pressure drop calculated using Flow stream method is within small percentage difference with CFX results. Overall, the simulation results are verified by the results obtained using analytical methods.


2007 ◽  
Vol 129 (10) ◽  
pp. 1425-1431 ◽  
Author(s):  
B. Peng ◽  
Q. W. Wang ◽  
C. Zhang ◽  
G. N. Xie ◽  
L. Q. Luo ◽  
...  

Two shell-and-tube heat exchangers (STHXs) using continuous helical baffles instead of segmental baffles used in conventional STHXs were proposed, designed, and tested in this study. The two proposed STHXs have the same tube bundle but different shell configurations. The flow pattern in the shell side of the heat exchanger with continuous helical baffles was forced to be rotational and helical due to the geometry of the continuous helical baffles, which results in a significant increase in heat transfer coefficient per unit pressure drop in the heat exchanger. Properly designed continuous helical baffles can reduce fouling in the shell side and prevent the flow-induced vibration as well. The performance of the proposed STHXs was studied experimentally in this work. The heat transfer coefficient and pressure drop in the new STHXs were compared with those in the STHX with segmental baffles. The results indicate that the use of continuous helical baffles results in nearly 10% increase in heat transfer coefficient compared with that of conventional segmental baffles for the same shell-side pressure drop. Based on the experimental data, the nondimensional correlations for heat transfer coefficient and pressure drop were developed for the proposed continuous helical baffle heat exchangers with different shell configurations, which might be useful for industrial applications and further study of continuous helical baffle heat exchangers. This paper also presents a simple and feasible method to fabricate continuous helical baffles used for STHXs.


2019 ◽  
Vol 29 (6) ◽  
pp. 2103-2127 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ahmed Youcef ◽  
Rachid Saim ◽  
Hakan F. Öztop ◽  
Mohamed Ali

Purpose This work presents a numerical study of the dynamic and thermal behavior of a turbulent flow in a shell and tube heat exchanger equipped with a new design of baffle type wing. The implementation of this type of baffle makes it possible to lengthen the path of the fluid in the shell, to increase the heat flux exchanged on the one hand and is to capture the weakness of the shell and tube heat exchanger with segmental baffles on the other hand. Design/methodology/approach This paper aims to analyze numerically the thermo-convective behavior of water using CFD technique by solving the conservation equations of mass, momentum and energy by the finite volume method based on the SIMPLE algorithm for coupling velocity-pressure. To describe the turbulence phenomenon, the Realizable k–ε model is employed. The analysis is done for different mass flow rates. The parameters studied are: the fluid outlet temperature, the average heat transfer coefficient, the pressure drop, the total heat transfer rate, the effect of the geometric shape of the baffle on the thermal behavior. The purpose of this study is to propose a new design of a shell and tube heat exchanger with a high heat transfer coefficient and a lower pressure drop compared to a shell and tube heat exchanger with transverse and segmental baffles. Findings The results showed that the use of the wing baffles enhanced the heat transfer coefficient significantly and reduced the friction coefficient. Compared with segmental baffles, the wing baffles are 11.67, 18.53 and 11.5 per cent lower in the pressure drop and 1.79, 1.9 and 2.39 per cent higher in the Nusselt number for the three mass flow rates 0.5, 1 and 2 kg/s, respectively. Originality/value The originality of this work lies in proposing a three-dimensional analysis for a novel heat exchanger.


Energies ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (21) ◽  
pp. 4138 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yue Sun ◽  
Xinting Wang ◽  
Rui Long ◽  
Fang Yuan ◽  
Kun Yang

In this work, a shell and tube heat exchanger with inclined trefoil-hole baffles (STHX-IT) is proposed, and the numerical simulation is conducted to investigate the flow and heat transfer characteristics. A shell and tube heat exchanger with segmental baffles (STHX-SG) is also studied for the performance comparison. The results show that the heat transfer coefficient and pressure drop of the STHX-IT is averagely lower by 23.89% and 44.19% than those of the STHX-SG, but the heat transfer coefficient per pressure drop is higher by 36.38% on average. Further, the parametric studies of the inclination angle θ, trefoil-hole number n, and baffle cut δ are carried out for the STHX-IT. According to the numerical results, n and δ have more notable influence on shell side performance than θ. In detail, the heat transfer coefficient and pressure drop decrease slightly with θ increasing, and the overall performance is approximately equal; both the heat transfer coefficient and pressure drop decrease with the respective rising of n and δ, but the comprehensive performance shows a growing trend. Considering the synthetic effects of structural parameters, the multi-objective structure optimization using the genetic algorithm combined with the artificial neural networks is fulfilled. As a result, the Pareto front is obtained to characterize the behaviors of the maximum heat transfer rate and minimum pressure drop. The STHX-IT with the θ = 5.38°, n = 6, and δ = 43% is decided as the optimal solution by the TOPSIS method, whose Q/Δp is 2.34 times as much as that of the original STHX-SG.


2013 ◽  
Vol 832 ◽  
pp. 160-165 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohammad Alam Khairul ◽  
Rahman Saidur ◽  
Altab Hossain ◽  
Mohammad Abdul Alim ◽  
Islam Mohammed Mahbubul

Helically coiled heat exchangers are globally used in various industrial applications for their high heat transfer performance and compact size. Nanofluids can provide excellent thermal performance of this type of heat exchangers. In the present study, the effect of different nanofluids on the heat transfer performance in a helically coiled heat exchanger is examined. Four different types of nanofluids CuO/water, Al2O3/water, SiO2/water, and ZnO/water with volume fractions 1 vol.% to 4 vol.% was used throughout this analysis and volume flow rate was remained constant at 3 LPM. Results show that the heat transfer coefficient is high for higher particle volume concentration of CuO/water, Al2O3/water and ZnO/water nanofluids, while the values of the friction factor and pressure drop significantly increase with the increase of nanoparticle volume concentration. On the contrary, low heat transfer coefficient was found in higher concentration of SiO2/water nanofluids. The highest enhancement of heat transfer coefficient and lowest friction factor occurred for CuO/water nanofluids among the four nanofluids. However, highest friction factor and lowest heat transfer coefficient were found for SiO2/water nanofluids. The results reveal that, CuO/water nanofluids indicate significant heat transfer performance for helically coiled heat exchanger systems though this nanofluids exhibits higher pressure drop.


2013 ◽  
Vol 655-657 ◽  
pp. 461-464 ◽  
Author(s):  
Su Fang Song

The three-dimensional model of heat exchangers with continuous helical baffles was built. The fluid flow dynamics and heat transfer of shell side in the helical baffled heat exchanger were simulated and calculated. The velocity, pressure and temperature distributions were achieved. The simulation shows that with the same baffle pitch, shell-side heat transfer coefficient increased by 25% and the pressure drop decreases by 18% in helical baffled heat exchanger compared with segmental helical baffles. With the analyzing of the flow and heat transfer in heat exchanger in 5 different inclination angles from 11°to 21°, it can be found that both shell side heat transfer coefficient and pressure drop will reduce respectively by 86% and 52% with the increases 11°to 21°of the inclination angles. Numerical simulation provided reliable theoretical reference for further engineering research of heat exchanger with helical baffles.


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