Performance evaluation of heat exchanger shell and tube with distinct fin configurations

Abstract

A heat exchanger could be an equipment piece built for heat move starting with one medium to another. The media might be isolated by a strong divider to envision mixing or they may be in direct contact. Nowadays heat exchanger shell and tube a quite common type device universally used in large chemical processes, hydraulic fluid cooling, and oil refinery, because it is suitable for temperature and pressure greater than 260 °C and 30 bar respectively. The Heat transfer rate and price considerably affect heat exchanger shell and tube typestyles. To enhance the heat exchange rate and to reduce the cost we are proving the radial fins on the tube surface, by doing this convective heat transfer surface is increased. By providing fins we can reduce the tube count which can transfer the same amount of heat like that of the heat exchanger without fins, which reduces the diameter of the shell and cost of the heat exchanger. This project objective is off investigating the performance of a device shell and tube with and while not fins on tube surface for 3 configurations. A numerical investigation is carried out utilizing monetarily accessible programming FLUENT. Using CATIA V5, the model of shell and tube device is designed. Later on, for rectangular finned, trapezoidal finned and blank tube, the method convective heat transfer is analyzed. In simulation pressure-based solvers are used. K-e turbulent model is used to visualize the flow of eddies. The fluid domain is assigned with the material of water inside the tubes surrounded by steam in the shell. Boundary conditions have been applied to both shell and tubes, at the inlet, the velocity with energy condition is assigned and outlet is treated as pressure outlet. An environment of convection was applied on walls of the tube concerning steady-state heat transfer and near temperature. Speed, pressure and temperature flow had been ascertained to judge the heat transfer in finned configurations individually. The results demonstrate that there's an improvement of heat transfer in trapezoidal finned tube device when contrast to the rectangular finned configuration because the drip of temperature across the trapezoidal finned configuration is more. The post-processes of FLUENT temperature results were utilized to ascertain the LMTD and overall heat transfer. The rectangular finned model showed a 32 % heat transfer more than a bare tube model. The trapezoidal finned model showed 56 % heat transfer more than the bare tube model. The trapezoidal finned model showed an 18 % heat transfer more than a rectangular finned model.