Study of air flow around flat and arc-shaped baffles in shell-and-tube heat exchangers

Abstract

Numerical studies of the steady incompressible turbulent forced-convection flow around top and bottom surface-mounted staggered baffles as a function of the Reynolds number are considered in this recent contribution in order to examine two various geometries of solid-type baffles, a flat rectangular baffle (simple obstacle) and an arc-shaped baffle (new obstacle). Air is the heat transfer fluid with the Reynolds numbers ranging from 12 × 10 3 to 32 ×10 3 . The dynamic thermo-energy model of air is governed by the Reynolds averaged Navier-Stokes equations with the Standard k-e turbulence model and the energy equation. These equations are discretized by the Quadratic Upstream Interpolation for Convective Kinetics Differencing (QUICK) numerical scheme and the Semi-Implicit Pressure Linked Equation (SIMPLE) algorithm is adopted. The impacts of obstacle geometries as well as flow rates are treated. The numerical plots are presented in terms of velocity, temperature, heat transfer, friction, and thermal enhancement factor, for the entire configuration under study and for various selected stations, namely, before, after and between the two baffles.