Modeling and Simulation of Plain and Corrugated Shell and Tube Heat Exchanger

Abstract

AbstractIn this paper, the shell and tube heat exchanger is analyzed with ANSYS Fluid Flow (Fluent), where the shell contains of tubes inside it. The hot water flows through the tubes and cold water flows through the shell side. The heat transfer, velocity, temperature, pressure, and streamline flow of the fluid are analyzed in this study. The analysis is undertaken for (a) single shell and tube heat exchanger (b) single shell and tube heat exchanger using a corrugated tube. The experimental study shows that the temperature drop (\(\Delta T\)) and pressure drop (\(\Delta P\)) of the heat exchanger in the tube side for counterflow is more than parallel flow configuration in both plain and corrugated pipes. Moreover, the corrugated pipe has approximately 6 K more temperature drop in the tube side than the plain pipe heat exchanger model. Consequently, the pressure drop in corrugated heat exchanger is 37.5 times more than that of the plain pipe heat exchanger. The results suggest that with increase of mass flow rates, the temperature difference between the inlet and the outlet of the pipe decreases. The variation of temperature in the shell and tube sides of the heat exchanger is found to be higher in case of few baffles are used as compared to no baffle conditions.KeywordsANSYSPressure dropSimulationPlainCorrugation