Study on Vibration and Heat Transfer Performances of a Modified Elastic Tube Bundle Heat Exchanger

Abstract

Based on the bi-directional fluid-structure coupling method, the vibration and heat transfer performances of a modified elastic tube bundle heat exchanger are studied. The vibration frequency and amplitude of tube bundle are compared between different directions and tube row spacing. Furthermore, the Nusselt number of tube bundle are studied in vibrational and non-vibrational cases. The numerical results represent that the vibration amplitude of tube bundle is the largest in the z direction, which is 7.25 times that in the y direction (direction of the smallest amplitude). In the calculation scope, the vibration frequency and amplitude promote with tube row spacing. From 50 mm to 90 mm spacing, the vibration frequency and amplitude increase by 21.88% and 10.65%, respectively. The Nusselt number under the fluid-induced vibration increases up to 11.67% compared with non-vibration. Besides, the Nusselt number of tube bundle in the middle part is lower than that at the two ends. Within 50-90 mm interval, the enhanced heat transfer effect rises along with tube row spacing. The rising rate of the Nusselt number increases by 52.4%. in the range of computation.