Numerical study on shell-side flow and heat transfer of spiral-wound heat exchanger under sloshing working conditions

Abstract

Spiral-wound heat exchanger (SWHE) is under sloshing working conditions when it is used on floating liquefied natural gas (FLNG), which can remarkably influence the efficiency of liquefaction and the stability of operation. In this paper, a numerical method for realizing the sloshing of SWHE shell side with different degrees of freedom (DOFs) was successfully proposed based on ANSYS software. The sloshing simulations were carried out, and the effects of sloshing motions on the shell-side flow and heat transfer characteristics were analyzed. By comparing, the uncertainty of simulation result was within ±10%. As a result, the shell-side flow and heat transfer characteristics were obviously influenced by sloshing motions and showed periodicity. The effects of pitching and heaving were more significant than that of rolling, and the effect of sloshing period was smaller than that of sloshing amplitude. At the same time, the fluctuations’ regularity of two-phase flow and heat transfer characteristics decreased with the increasing vapor quality.