Design and analysis of shell and tube heat exchanger for low temperature applications using CFD

Abstract

A shell and tube device is deployed for the applications such as oil refinery processes, chemical processes and high pressure technologies. The hot fluid flows to the tubes in the heat exchanger, and the cool fluid moves through the shell section. Hence, heat is transferred from the tube section to the shell section of the heat exchanger. This article is deals with the modelling and analysis of mini shell and tube heat exchanger (MSTHE) for low temperature applications which is less than 250°C. The design of the heat exchanger is made with nine tubes which are of 6 mm diameter and shell of 41 mm diameter. As conventional design does not result in the internal heat transfer, computational fluid dynamics scheme is adopted to design the modified heat exchanger by adopting the conditions such as velocity of tube fluid and pressure drop. The modelling of MSTHE is done by Pro/E whereas CFD analysis is done with ANSYS. The contour obtained from the analysis proves that the MSTHE is applicable for the temperature less than 250°C and have the potential to transfer heat effectively.