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Shell Side PR Drop Page 2

Numerous methods have been cited in literature for designing shell and tube heat exchangers, considering factors like baffle spacing, tube layout, and baffle cut. Early methods from the 1930s-1960s provided shell-side heat transfer and pressure drop correlations but were limited by available data. Later methods in the 1960s-2000s used stream analysis to better model shell-side flow patterns and develop more accurate prediction methods. However, some effects like different baffle orientations and leakage flows were still not fully considered or analyzed. The present study aims to investigate these effects numerically to improve understanding of heat exchanger performance with variations in baffle orientation and treatment of leakage flows.

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Nirmal Subudhi
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75 views

Shell Side PR Drop Page 2

Numerous methods have been cited in literature for designing shell and tube heat exchangers, considering factors like baffle spacing, tube layout, and baffle cut. Early methods from the 1930s-1960s provided shell-side heat transfer and pressure drop correlations but were limited by available data. Later methods in the 1960s-2000s used stream analysis to better model shell-side flow patterns and develop more accurate prediction methods. However, some effects like different baffle orientations and leakage flows were still not fully considered or analyzed. The present study aims to investigate these effects numerically to improve understanding of heat exchanger performance with variations in baffle orientation and treatment of leakage flows.

Uploaded by

Nirmal Subudhi
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Numerous methods are cited in literature for the design of shell and tube heat exchangers, which

consider the effect of different geometrical factors like leakages, baffle spacing, tube layout and
arrangement and baffle cut on heat transfer and pressure loss:
Colburn [1933] suggested a correlation for the shell-side heat transfer coefficient, limited to
staggered tube layout and based on the assumption that shell-side flow behaves similarly to flow
across ideal tube banks. Grimison [1937] modified Colburns correlation by considering nonisothermal effects. Donohue [1949] and Kern [1965] published shell-side methods based on overall
data from baffled heat exchangers which assumed that the baffles are used to direct the shell fluid in
the tube bundle perpendicularly to the bundle. Due to the limited number of available data only an
insufficient variation of basic geometrical parameters like baffle spacing, baffle cut and tube layout
was presented. To overcome this deficiency, safety factors were introduced which lead to reduced
accuracies for the prediction of shell-side heat transfer coefficient and pressure drop. Tinker [1958]
suggested a schematic flow pattern where the shell-side flow is divided into a number of individual
streams and the pressure drop of the main effective cross-flow stream acts as driving force for the
other streams. This early analysis of shell-side flow was extended by Palen and Taborek [1969].
Heat Transfer Research, Inc. (HTRI) [1969] developed several methods for the for the shell-side
flow pressure drop and heat transfer based on stream analysis methods. Bell [1963] published the
so-called Delaware method which implies that the specific heat exchanger is described completely
geometrically and the process specifications for all streams are given. The VDI [2002] recommends
the calculation of the pressure loss and the mean heat transfer coefficient on the shell side according
to the Delaware method and studies published by Gnielinski [1977,1978,1983] and Gaddis
[1977,1978,1983]. Using the VDI method the heat transfer coefficient and pressure drop for pure
cross-flow in an ideal tube bank is calculated and then the effective average shell-side heat transfer
is evaluated by use of different stream-flow correction factors. The overall shell-side pressure loss
is the sum of the pressure drop for cross-flow between the baffle tips, the pressure drop in the end
zones, the pressure drop in the baffle windows and the pressure drop in both the inlet and outlet
nozzle. This method was checked by Gnielinski and Gaddis against a large number of
measurements from the literature. A maximum error of 15% for the overall heat transfer
coefficient and 35% for the pressure loss compared to the measurements was found. Mohammadi
et. al. [2006] investigated numerically the effect of baffle orientation and baffle cut on heat transfer
and pressure drop of a shell and tube heat exchanger. In order to perform the calculations for a heat
exchanger with 660 tubes the authors had to neglect leakage flows.
In summary, it can be noted that well-established calculation methods consider the effect of
different baffle orientations on heat transfer and pressure loss not or only insufficiently. Nowadays
available hard- and software for the calculation of heat transfer and pressure loss in complex heat
exchangers simplifies the investigation of such geometrical variations since no cumbersome
experiments are required. However, the effect of simplifying assumptions for the numerical
treatment, like the neglection of leakage flows (cf. Mohammadi et. al. [2006]) on the performance
of the heat exchanger has to be evaluated and assessed critically. Hence, in the context of the
present study, the performance of shell and tube heat exchangers with different baffle orientation
(horizontal and vertical) as well as with and without leakage flows are investigated numerically in
more detail.
NUMERICAL METHOD
Decription of problem Two standard shell and tube heat exchangers consisting of 76 tubes (HEX
1) and 660 tubes (HEX 2) are considered. Each heat exchanger consists of different flow sections
such as the inlet zone, several intermediate zones located between adjacent baffles and the outlet
zone. As an example a simplified sketch of the geometry of HEX 1 in which the tube bank is not

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