Thermo-hydraulic performance evaluation of shell & tube heat exchanger with different tube geometries

Abstract

A heat exchanger is equipment that transfers heat energy from one fluid stream to another fluid stream across a solid surface by conduction and convection. Heat exchangers are used in air conditioning & refrigeration systems, power plants, automotive industries, chemical processing, waste heat recovery systems, and food industries. Shell & tube heat exchangers are the most widely used heat exchanger. Earlier many types of studies were carried out on baffle of heat exchanger, as the hydraulic performance of shell side of exchanger relies on baffle elements such as changing baffle types, baffle segments, baffle angles, baffle cuts, etc. are introduced. But only a few researches are concentrated on the tube side. In this paper, efforts have been made to design a shell & tube heat exchanger by using the kern method & referring TEMA standards. Also, the fluid flow behavior & heat transfer mechanism of shell & tube heat exchanger with four different cross-sections of the tubes i.e. Circular, Rectangular, Square & Triangular is numerically investigated using ANSYS-fluent. Numerical simulation was carried out for a single tube pass shell & tube heat exchanger with 25% baffle cut. Finally, from the simulation results, suggestions are made for the best geometry which gives the best thermo-hydraulic performance.