Simulation of Shell-Side Performance of Novel Heat Exchanger

2012 ◽  
Vol 201-202 ◽  
pp. 107-110
Author(s):  
Xing Cao ◽  
Wen Jing Du ◽  
Lin Cheng

Numerical simulation of shell-and-tube heat exchangers with novel helical baffles was carried out by using commercial codes to study shell-side flow and heat transfer characteristics. The results show that compared with shell-and-tube heat exchangers with conventional helical baffles, the ones with novel helical baffles can efficiently reduce the leakage from triangle zone so that the distributions of both the velocity field and heat transfer on tubes are more uniform. The comparison of comprehensive performance which is evaluated by heat transfer coefficient per unit pressure drop between conventional helical baffles and novel ones indicates that the latter performs better.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
praveen math

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.


Author(s):  
Yaping Chen ◽  
Cong Dong ◽  
Jiafeng Wu

The flow and heat transfer performances of three trisection helical baffle heat exchangers with different baffle shapes and assembly configurations, and a continuous helical baffle scheme with approximate spiral pitch were numerically simulated. The four schemes are two trisection helical baffle schemes of baffle incline angle of 20° with a circumferential overlap baffle scheme (20°TCO) and a end-to-end helical baffle scheme (20°TEE), a trisection mid-overlap helical baffle scheme with baffle incline angle of 36.2° (36.2°TMO), and a continuous helical baffle scheme with baffle helix angle of 16.8° (18.4°CH). The pressure or velocity nephograms with superimposed velocity vectors for meridian slice M1, transverse slices f and f1, and unfolded concentric hexagonal slices H2 and H3 are presented. The Dean vortex secondary flow field, which is one of the key mechanisms of enhancing heat transfer in heat exchangers, is clearly depicted showing a single vortex is formed in each baffle pitch cycle. The leakage patterns are demonstrated clearly on the unfolded concentric hexagonal slices. The results show that the 20°TCO and 18.4°CH schemes rank the first and second in shell-side heat transfer coefficient and comprehensive indexes ho/Δpo and ho/Δpo1/3. The 20°TEE scheme without circumferential overlap is considerably inferior to the 20°TCO scheme. The 36.2°TMO scheme is the worst in both shell-side heat transfer coefficient and comprehensive index ho/Δpo1/3.


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.


2009 ◽  
Vol 62-64 ◽  
pp. 694-699 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. Akpabio ◽  
I.O. Oboh ◽  
E.O. Aluyor

Shell and tube heat exchangers in their various construction modifications are probably the most widespread and commonly used basic heat exchanger configuration in the process industries. There are many modifications of the basic configuration which can be used to solve special problems. Baffles serve two functions: Most importantly, they support the tubes in the proper position during assembly and operation and prevent vibration of the tubes caused by flow-induced eddies, and secondly, they guide the shell-side flow back and forth across the tube field, increasing the velocity and the heat transfer coefficient. The objective of this paper is to find the baffle spacing at fixed baffle cut that will give us the optimal values for the overall heat transfer coefficient. To do this Microsoft Excel 2003 package was employed. The results obtained from previous studies showed that to obtain optimal values for the overall heat transfer coefficient for the shell and tube heat exchangers a baffle cut of 20 to 25 percent of the diameter is common and the maximum spacing depends on how much support the tubes need. This was used to validate the results obtained from this study.


2020 ◽  
Vol 24 (2 Part A) ◽  
pp. 767-775 ◽  
Author(s):  
Djamel Sahel ◽  
Houari Ameur ◽  
Touhami Baki

The baffling technique is well-known for its efficiency in terms of enhancement of heat transfer rates throught channels. However, the baffles insert is accompanied by an increase in the friction factor. This issue remains a great challenge for the designers of heat exchangers. To overcome this issue, we suggest in the present paper a new design of baffles which is here called graded baffle-design. The baffles have an up- or down-graded height along the channel length. This geometry is characterized by two ratios: up-graded baffle ratio and down-graded baffle ratio which are varied from 0-0.08. For a range of Reynolds number varying from 104 to 2 ? 104, the turbulent flow and heat transfer characteristics of a heat exchanger channel are numerically studied by the computer code FLUENT. The obtained results revealed an enhancement in the thermohydraulic performance offered by the new suggested design. For the channel with a down-graded baffle ratio equal to 0.08, the friction factors decreased by 4-8%


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