Numerical Simulations For Thermal Analysis Of A Shell And Tube Heat Exchanger

Abstract

In this study, numerical simulations are performed for a shell-and-tube heat exchanger in order to investigate the effects of mass flow rate on the heat transfer rate, outlet temperature, pressure drop, and local behavior of the fluid flow and heat transfer. The analysis is carried out for a single shell and seven tubes, one concentric with the shell, while the other six are uniformly distributed around the central tube with turbulent flow conditions. The cold fluid, with a 300 K temperature at the shell inlet, flows in the shell along the positive x-direction, while the hot fluid, with a 340 K temperature at the tubes inlet, flows in the tubes along the negative x-direction. The turbulence model used is the Standard k-ϵ model, which solves two additional equations along with the flow model comprising the three-dimensional continuity, Navier-Stokes, and the energy equations. The results obtained are quite consistent with the physics of the problem. All tasks of the simulations are carried out on ANSYS Workbench.