Optimal tube diameter on heat exchanger shell and tube type with 15 mega watt thermal power using fluent 6.3

Abstract

Heat exchanger shell and tube type is a set of tools that serve to move the heat from the side shell (hot fluid) to the tube (cold fluid). RSG-GAS Heat Exchangers is a heat exchanger shell and tube type 2-2. Since the age of Heat Exchanger operation long enough allow for new designs of heat transfer better. This is one reason the presence of micro modeling using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD), as one of them using the software FLUENT 6.3. Tube and shell modeled in GAMBIT with the variation ID (inner diameter) tube. As for the physical data such as flow rate, pressure, and temperature refers to the RSG-GAS Heat Exchangers. The first variation is the different mesh sizes for the tube that has the same diameter. Mesh size of 0.8 mm had the best result so do the meshing used as a benchmark for other models. Variations of 2D models use inner diameter from 20 mm until 26m. From CFD calculations using FLUENT 6.3 for 2D models, in the can that ID 20 mm, 23 mm and 26 mm can be used as models for 3D calculations. Of 3D calculations it can be concluded that the tube with an ID of 26 mm have the most optimal heat transfer is equal to 273,24669 K with a pressure drop of 450 Pa.