Simulation of shell and tube heat exchanger using COMSOL software

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to propose a model to simulate the behaviour of water flows in shell and tube heat exchanger. Particularly, the continuity equation, the general heat transfer equations and the energy equation in COMSOL Multiphysics software were implemented in the numerical modelling. Besides, the experiment was also conducted to validate the proposed COMSOL model. The water temperature at locations close to the inlet and outlet of the shell side was respectively predicted at 31.5 C and 34.6 C in the simulation, and it was respectively measured at 31.5 C and 35 C in the experiment. These findings showed that the simulation results had a good agreement with the experiment. Next, this model was extended to simulate the overall heat coefficient and the pressure drops of the water flows in such heat exchanger. The overall heat coefficient was at 736.62 W/m2K. The pressure drops at the inlet/outlet areas of the shell and tubes were at 849.93 Pa and 6255.50 Pa, respectively. Conclusive evidence showed that the proposed model is a reliable method for studying the heat transfer behaviour of the shell and heat exchanger.