Detailed comparison of the methods used in the heat transfer coefficient and pressure loss calculation of shell side of shell and tube heat exchangers with the experimental results

Abstract

ABSTRACT In this study, results of HTRI Xchanger software used in the analysis of shell and tube heat exchangers (STHE), and Kern and Bell-Delaware methods, which are the conventional methods used for calculation of shell side heat transfer coefficient (SSHTC) and pressure loss (PL), were compared with experimental data. An experimental study was considered for Heat exchanger (HE) dimensions and fluid properties from literature. Then SSHTC and PL values were calculated using Kern and Bell-Delaware methods and HTRI Xchanger software for the measured shell side flowrates. SSHTC and PL values calculated for lower shell side mass flowrates by Kern method deviated from experimental results at low ratios. In addition, deviations in high flowrates values increasingly moved away from experimental results. In the Bell-Delaware method, although low deviations were observed in the high shell-side mass flowrates, the deviations increased at low flow rates and diverged from the experimental results. The deviation of SSHTC values calculated by the HTRI Xchanger program was found to be massively independent from the shell side flowrate. In addition, as in Bell-Delaware method, it has been observed that deviations in the shell side pressure loss (SSPL) calculations increased with increasing shell-side mass flowrate. As a result, SSHTC was calculated with average deviations of + 17, −11, and + 18%, by Kern and Bell-Delaware methods and HTRI Xchanger software respectively. Similarly, shell side PL was found with + 64, −25, and −32% average deviation, respectively.