Computational Fluid Dynamics Analysis of Flow Patterns, Pressure Drop, and Heat Transfer Coefficient in Staggered and Inline Shell-Tube Heat Exchangers

Shubham Sharma,Mandeep Singh,Shalab Sharma,Nima Khalilpoor,Alibek Issakhov,Parampreet Singh,Rasmeet Singh,Sthitapragyan Maharana,Younes Menni

doi:10.1155/2021/6645128

Abstract

In this numerical study, the heat transfer performance of shell-and-tube heat exchangers (STHXs) has been compared for two different tube arrangements. STHX having 21 and 24 tubes arranged in the inline and staggered grid has been considered for heat transfer analysis. Shell-and-tube heat exchanger with staggered grid arrangement has been observed to provide lesser thermal stratification as compared to the inline arrangement. Further, the study of variation in the mass flow rate of shell-side fluid having constant tube-side flow rate has been conducted for staggered grid structure STHX. The mass flow rate for the shell side has been varied from 0.1 kg/s to 0.5 kg/s, respectively, keeping the tube-side mass flow rate as constant at 0.25 kg/s. The influence of bulk mass-influx transfer rate on heat transfer efficiency, effectiveness, and pressure drop of shell-tube heat exchangers has been analyzed. CFD results were compared with analytical solutions, and it shows a good agreement between them. It has been observed that pressure drop is minimum for the flow rate of 0.1 kg/s, and outlet temperatures at the shell side and tube side have been predicted to be 40.94°C and 63.63°C, respectively.

Highlights

Heat transfer analysis of shell-tube heat exchangers is critical owing to their applications in many of the engineering domains like energy production, industrial chemistry, bionics, nanotechnology applications, air conditioning, refrigeration, and food industries [1,2,3]
Results and Discussion e numerical analysis has been carried out on shell-and-tube heat exchangers (STHXs) with inline and staggered tube structure, and a comparison of results shows that the performance of STHX is better with staggered tube structure than that with the inline tube structure
It can be clearly identified that the heat transfer performance of shell-tube type heat exchanger with staggered grid structure is better than the heat exchanger with inline grid structure (Figures 2(a)–2(c) and Figures 2(d)–2(f ))

Summary

Research Article

Computational Fluid Dynamics Analysis of Flow Patterns, Pressure Drop, and Heat Transfer Coefficient in Staggered and Inline Shell-Tube Heat Exchangers. Received 16 November 2020; Revised 28 April 2021; Accepted 18 May 2021; Published 1 June 2021 In this numerical study, the heat transfer performance of shell-and-tube heat exchangers (STHXs) has been compared for two different tube arrangements. STHX having 21 and 24 tubes arranged in the inline and staggered grid has been considered for heat transfer analysis. Shell-and-tube heat exchanger with staggered grid arrangement has been observed to provide lesser thermal stratification as compared to the inline arrangement. The study of variation in the mass flow rate of shell-side fluid having constant tube-side flow rate has been conducted for staggered grid structure STHX. It has been observed that pressure drop is minimum for the flow rate of 0.1 kg/s, and outlet temperatures at the shell side and tube side have been predicted to be 40.94°C and 63.63°C, respectively

Introduction

Design values

Shell inlet Shell outlet Tube inlet Tube outlet

Analytical calculation results