Numerical investigation on turbulent thermal performance of parallel flow heat exchanger with a novel polyhedral longitudinal vortex generator in shell side

Abstract

This work presents a parallel flow shell and tube heat exchanger with a novel clamping plate baffle and polyhedral longitudinal vortex generator (PLVG) in shell side. The parametric effectiveness of geometric parameters (width, height, pitch and attack angle) of PLVG on turbulent thermal performance is numerically explored using the Taguchi method to carry out the parameter optimization. The flow structure and heat transfer mechanism of PLVG is presented and revealed. The results show that the PLVG has a higher PEC than the equilateral triangle cross sectioned wire coil (ETWC) and sinusoidal wavy tape (SWT). The sequence of the parametric effectiveness for the Nu and PEC is PLVG height > attack angle > width > pitch, for the f is PLVG height > width > attack angle > pitch.