Effect of the Flow Models on the Numerical Simulation of Shell and Tube Heat Exchanger

Abstract

The effect of the volumetric flow rate on the heat transfer of shell and tube heat exchangers was investigated. Furthermore, a comparison of four flow models using for numerical simulation was discussed to provide improved predictions of turbulent flow in the shell and tube heat exchangers. Four flow models tested were Reynolds stress model, k-ε Standard model, k-ε RNG model and k-ε Realizable model, respectively. Multi reference frame technique was used with Fluent software package. During the numerical simulation, the heat dissipation was shown to be strongly dependent on the choice of turbulence model. Compared with the cold model experimental result, k-ε RNG model was a better turbulence model for the prediction of the heat dissipation in the shell and tube heat exchangers among the four models. Furthermore, the good agreement between the numerical results and the experimental result confirmed the validity of the numerical method.