CFD Simulations of Shell and Tube Heat Exchanger in Counter-Current

Configuration

Abstract
Heat exchangers have different configuration, but their primary goal is to transfer heat from
one fluid to the other without mixing between the working fluids. This study provide insight to
pressure distribution inside a shell and tube heat exchangers which uses water and air for both hot
and cold fluids in different model of heat exchangers. Practically, heat exchangers have numerous
industrial and domestic applications and enhanced thermal efficiency of shells and tubes heat
exchanger has led research to focus on the more energy efficient design to decrease their carbon
footprints. The main objective of the study is to evaluate the pressure drop in the heat exchanger
and to optimize the overall heat transfer coefficient. Two CFD model are developed to compare
heat transfer characteristics of shells and tubes heat exchanger with different configuration of shell
and tube heat exchanger for the counter-current heat exchangers. In first model, water is used as
cold and hot fluid for which increasing the flow rate of cooling medium increase the pressure drop
and hence the heat transfer coefficient increase. The Nusselt number of cooling medium at inlet of
shell and tube heat exchanger increases but the Prandtl number remains almost constant. The
pressure drop across the heat exchanger decreases by decreasing the length of shell and tube heat
exchanger and heat transfer coefficient decreases accordingly.

Keywords: heat exchanger, carbon footprints, CFD model

 Contents

1 CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 5

1.1 CLASSIFICATION ACCORDING TO THE FUNCTIONAL POINT OF VIEW 5

1.2 CLASSIFICATION ACCORDING TO GEOMETRIC CONSTRUCTION 6
1.3 CLASSIFICATION ACCORDING TO FLOW ARRANGEMENT 6
1.4 SHELL AND TUBE HEAT EXCHANGER 7

2 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 10

2.1 RESEARCH GAP 16

3 CHAPTER 3: MODELING OF SHELL AND TUBE HEAT EXCHANGER 17

3.1 MODEL-1 17
3.1.1 DEFINING THE FLUID 17
3.1.2 DETERMINING THE PHYSICAL PROPERTIES 17
3.1.3 SPECIFYING THE GEOMETRY 18
3.1.4 ANALYSIS OF SHELL AND TUBE HEAT EXCHANGER 18
3.1.5 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 20
 Nomenclature
HX ____________________________________________ Heat Exchanger

CFD___________________________________________ Computational Fluid Dynamics

LMTD_________________________________________ Log Mean Temperature Difference

T _____________________________________________ Temperature

Q _____________________________________________ Heat Transfer

Nu____________________________________________ Nusselt Number

Pr _____________________________________________Prandtl Number

Re ____________________________________________ Reynold’s Number

V _____________________________________________ Velocity (m/s)

L _____________________________________________ Length of the pipe

U _____________________________________________ Overall Heat Transfer Coefficient

K _____________________________________________ Thermal Conductivity

 List of figures
Figure 1.1: recuperative HX (liu,2015) and Regenerative HX (Engineer edge,2021)___________________________ 5

Figure 1.2: Tabular HX (Honghui Wan, 2019) and Plate HX (Anup Kumar Deyin, 2020) _______________________ 6

Figure 1.3: HXs with different flow configuration (Libor Pekar, 2020) _____________________________________ 7

Figure 1.4: Shell and tube heat exchanger in industry (engr.colostate.edu, 2020) ___________________________ 7

Figure 1.5: Schematic of shell and tube heat exchanger (Austeng) _______________________________________ 8

Figure 1.6: (a) one-shell pass and two-tube passes shell and tube HX (b) Two-shell pass and four-tube passes HX,
(Cengel and Ghajar, 2015) _______________________________________________________________________ 8

Figure 2.1: ANSYS FLUENT simulation results for pressure drop variation in shell and tube heat exchangers with
vertical and horizontal baffle arrangements (Mohamaddi et al, 2009) ___________________________________ 11

Figure 2.2: Definitions of angle of attack and inclination (C. Albanakis, 2010) _____________________________ 12

Figure 2.3: Total pressure drop for isothermal-1 case for seven angles of attack and 0° angle (C. Albanakis, 2010) 12

Figure 2.4: Pressure: (a) Shell side pressure drop versus mass flow rate; (b) Pressure distribution (0.047 kg/s) of
SGCT-STHX ___________________________________________________________________________________ 13

List of tables
Table 1: Physical property of fluid (water) __________________________________________________________ 18

Table 2: General characteristics of geometry for model 1 of shell and tube HX _____________________________ 18

Table 3: Results for model 1 of shell and tube heat exchanger __________________________________________ 20
 Chapter 1

1 Introduction

A heat exchanger is a heat transfer device that exchanges heat between two or more process
fluids, at different temperatures, and in thermal contact. In heat exchangers, heat transfer takes
place from a high-temperature fluid to a low-temperature fluid. Usually, the phase of the fluids is
not changed during the heat transfer. Heat exchangers have many domestic and industrial
applications, such as in building heat and air conditioning systems, refrigeration units, steam power
plants, chemical processing plants, transportation power systems, etc.
Heat exchangers can be classified according to their transfer processes, flow arrangement, fluid
phase, and geometric construction. Several possible classifications are concisely given to the
reader in the following section:

1.1 Classification according to the functional point of view

Heat exchangers are divided into the following three groups according to their functioning.
(i) Recuperative heat exchangers
(ii) Regenerative heat exchangers
(iii) Heat exchangers with direct mixing

Figure 1.1: recuperative HX (liu,2015) and Regenerative HX (Engineer edge,2021)

1.2 Classification according to geometric construction
HXs can be arranged in groups according to their construction features. A possible
classification of heat exchangers based on their geometric construction can be as follows:
(i) Tubular heat exchangers
(ii) Plate heat exchangers
(iii) Compact heat exchangers
(iv) Regenerative heat exchangers

Figure 1.2: Tabular HX (Honghui Wan, 2019) and Plate HX (Anup Kumar Deyin, 2020)

1.3 Classification according to flow arrangement

The usual classifications of heat exchangers based on flow path configuration are:
(i) Co-current flow heat exchangers
(ii) Counter-current flow heat exchangers
(iii) Crossflow heat exchangers
 Figure 1.3: HXs with different flow configuration (Libor Pekar, 2020)

The heat transfer mechanism of heat exchanger is mainly of two types: convection and
conduction. The convection occurs from each of the fluids involved and the conduction occurs
though the walls where the two fluids are separated.

Out of these heat exchanger types; double tube heat exchanger is the simplest model and
the shell-and-tube heat exchanger is the most commonly used type in the industry.

1.4 Shell and tube heat exchanger

In shell and tube exchanger, there are large number of tubes placed closely to each other
parallelly in a shell. The heat transfer mechanism occurs between two fluids flowing in the
system. One of the fluids flows inside the tube and the other fluid flows in the shell. Baffles are
located inside the shell to promote proper flow of the shell-side fluid inside the shell to enhance
the performance of the heat exchanger. Another purpose of the baffles is to keep uniform
spacings between the tubes inside the shell. Before entering and after leaving the tubes, tube-side
fluid is accumulated in large flow areas called headers Even though the shell and tube heat
exchangers are widely used in industries, they are not suitable for automotive and aircraft
application due to their large size and weight.

Figure 1.4: Shell and tube heat exchanger in industry (engr.colostate.edu, 2020)
Figure3 shows industrial heat exchanger and figure4 shows schematic diagram of a typical shell
and tube heat exchanger.

Figure 1.5: Schematic of shell and tube heat exchanger (Austeng)

The shell and tube heat exchangers are classified according to the number of tubes passes
in the shell. As an example, if all the tubes have only one U-turn inside the shell, they are called
one-shell pass and two-tube-passes heat exchanger. If the number of passes is two, these are called
two-shell passes and four-tube-passes heat exchanger.

Figure 1.6: (a) one-shell pass and two-tube passes shell and tube HX (b) Two-shell pass and four-tube passes HX, (Cengel and
Ghajar, 2015)

In addition to the enhancing the efficiency of the heat transfer another important aspect is
to minimize the energy usage by having optimum pressure variations inside the shell and tube
heat exchanger. This project is focusing on characterization of the pressure variation in the shell
and tube heat exchanger.

In the initial phase, validation is carried out for a double tube heat exchanger by developing
a CAD model and using numerical techniques to simulate the flow conditions. SolidWorks
software will be utilized for the development of the CAD model and the ANSYS software’s
FLUENT module will be used to simulate the flow conditions.

Once the validation is complete, a shell and tube heat exchanger’s CAD model will be
developed and then the analysis of the pressure variations on different flow conditions will be
carried out from ANSYS Fluent software. In this project both the fluids running in the tubes and
the shell is air. The results will be compared with available experimental and other numerical
results. The variations of the pressure distributions for different flow conditions will help to
develop energy efficient shell and tube heat exchangers to the industry
 Chapter 2
2 Literature Review

In order to make more thermally efficient and energy efficient earlier days researchers used
theoretical analysis and experimental analysis. The theoretical analysis has limitations as all the
systems parameters cannot be found accurately and in addition to that, when the systems become
more complex, the accuracy becomes less. Experimental analysis is more accurate, but it is not
cost and time effective in making heat exchangers for the testing to be carried out.

Due to the development of computer technology, Computational Fluid Dynamic (CFD)

software are increasingly used to analyze the thermo-fluid systems such as heat exchangers. This
method provides highly accurate numerical methods to find the necessary parameters and their
variations under different conditions in simpler and less costly manner.

In another study carried out by Wang et al (2009), a shell and tube heat exchanger was used
to study the pressure drop variation for two types of shell and tube heat exchangers. They
considered combined multiple shell-pass shell and tube heat exchanger (CMSP – STHX) with
continuous helical baffles was compared with the conventional shell and tube heat exchanger with
segmented baffles (SG – STHX) focusing on the pressure drop. The CFD study carried out for
both types of shell and tube heat exchangers showed that the average pressure drop of the combined
multiple shell-pass shell and tube heat exchanger is 13% lower than the conventional shell and
tube heat exchanger with segmented baffle for the same mass flow rate and overall heat transfer
rate. For the same pressure drop on the shell side of the two heat exchangers, the overall heat
transfer rate of the combined multiple shell-pass shell and tube heat exchanger was 5.6% higher
than the conventional shell and tube heat exchanger with segmented baffles. The mass flow rate
of the combined multiple shell-pass shell and tube heat exchanger was 6.6% higher than the
conventional shell and tube heat exchanger with segmented baffles under the same shell side
pressure condition.

Mohomaddi et al (2009) conducted a CFD analysis using ANSYS FLUENT to find the
effect of the baffle orientation and the viscosity of the working fluid on the hat transfer and pressure
drop in shell and tube heat exchanger. They have considered vertical baffle orientation and the
horizontal baffle orientation in their study for the same shell and tube heat exchanger.
 Figure 2.1: ANSYS FLUENT simulation results for pressure drop variation in shell and tube heat exchangers with vertical and
horizontal baffle arrangements (Mohamaddi et al, 2009)

According to their results, the vertical baffle configuration performs better than the
horizontal baffle configuration in a shell and tube heat exchanger that they take for their study.
Moreover, this performance is more prominent for gases compared with the liquids as the gasses
have higher dissipation rate than the liquids.

C. Albanakis, K. Yakinthos, K. Kritikos, D. Missirlis, A. Goulas, et al..(2010) conducted

a research in which effect of heat transfer on the pressure drop through a heat exchanger for aero
engine applications was studied. In this work, an experimental attempt was made to correlate the
pressure drop through a specific type heat exchanger for aero engine applications with two main
parameters: the inlet temperature and the angle of attack and inclination of the hot-air mainstream
direction. These parameters have been investigated firstly by carrying-out isothermal
measurements (with no heat transfer). Additionally, the effect of heat transfer on the pressure drop
had been investigated, by carrying-out an-isothermal measurements (with heat transfer). All these
parameters are of critical importance since the heat exchanger is designed to operate as a
recuperator downstream the aero engine by cooling the hot exhaust gas.
 Figure 2.2: Definitions of angle of attack and inclination (C. Albanakis, 2010)

Especially for the angles of attack and inclination, their role is very important since the
flow development downstream the engine does not have a prescribed direction and enters in the
heat exchanger by having various angles of attack and inclination. The detailed measurements
showed that:

1) There was a direct correlation of the pressure drop with the inlet air temperature. Higher
temperatures led to higher pressure drops, for the same inlet air mass flow rate.

2) The angle of attack also played a major role to the pressure drop since; higher angles of attack
led to higher pressure drops.

3) The heat transfer rate regarding the cooling of the hot air was also a significant parameter. As
the temperature difference between the hot and the cooled air increases, the pressure losses are
also increasing.

Figure 2.3: Total pressure drop for isothermal-1 case for seven angles of attack and 0° angle (C. Albanakis, 2010)
 In another research, pressure drop and heat transfer effects of three types of shell and tube
heat exchangers were analyzed using numerical methods (Navi et al, 2019). The three types are
square twisted tubes heat exchanger (CBSTT - STHX), helical baffle with cylindrical tubes heat
exchanger (HBCT – STHX) and segmented baffles with cylindrical tubes heat exchanger (SGCT
– STHX).

Figure 2.4: Pressure: (a) Shell side pressure drop versus mass flow rate; (b) Pressure distribution (0.047 kg/s) of SGCT-STHX

Li et al (1998) conducted a study on the variation of the pressure with the baffle spacing
on shell and tube heat exchanger with segmented baffle. According to their study, for the same
Reynolds Number, the overall pressure drop increased with increment of baffle spacing.

In finding the shell side pressure drop in a shell and tube heat exchangers Parikshit et al
(2015) has proposed a simple method. This method involves finite element method (FEM)
technique, and it discretizes the shell side region to number of elements by considering the flow
pattern in the region. The authors claim that this simple calculation method agrees reasonably well
with the variety of experimental data found in reputed literature. This method is useful in this
project in verifying the simulation data obtained from the software

The pressure drops increase with the increase in baffle spacing, because of the higher flow
velocity in the cross-flow zone as well as through the window at a large baffle spacing. An
increasing baffle spacing can increase the heat transfer coefficient in the whole baffle compartment
both due to the reduction of the percentage of the leakage stream and due to the higher flow
velocity through the baffle opening. The local heat transfer coefficient distribution at an individual
tube is slightly affected by the baffle spacing. The pressure drop coefficient for a long baffle
spacing is higher than for a short one.
 A research on an experimental investigation of heat transfer enhancement for a shell and
tube heat exchanger conducted by Simin Wang, Jian Weng, Yanzhong Li (2008) stated that the
sealers installed inside the shell-and-tube heat exchanger effectively block the baffle-shell gap and
decrease the circular leakage flow. The original short-circuit flow then participates in heat transfer,
which intensifies the heat transfer performance inside the heat exchanger. Within operating
conditions, the shell-side heat transfer coefficient of the improved heat exchanger increased by
18.2–25.5% and the overall coefficient of heat transfer K increased by 15.6–19.1%. Pressure losses
increased by 44.6–48.8% with the sealer installation. However, the increment of pump power
consumption for the increase of pressure drop is very low compared with the increment of thermal
flux. With respect to the energy quality, the exergy coefficient increased by 12.9– 14.1% after the
configuration improvement. The energy utilization improves, which is of significance to the
energy conservation and optimum design to the shell-and-tube heat exchanger. The sealers are a
novel solution settling the puzzle of the effect of baffle-shell leakage flow in tube-and-shell heat
exchangers. They are cheap, firm, and convenient to install, guarantying safe and long-lasting
operation. The sealers can be used in new heat exchangers or retrofitted into existing installations.
The potential gain could be of benefit to many industries using shell-and-tube heat exchangers.

Ammar Ali Abda, Samah Zaki Naji give an analysis study of shell and tube heat exchanger
for their Clough company by using different parameters to improve the design of heat exchangers.
They use the specification of shell and tube heat exchanger of their own company, to improve the
design by reselect different parameters which can enhance the heat transfer through the exchanger.
As well as, new correlation is developed to predict Nusselt number for Tube side which reduces
the error percent with Kern’s method from 15.25% to 12.64% based on Simulation data. Where,
the proposed and Kern’s correlations compared against experimental Data to show that the
proposed correlation is quite accurate. After many iterations, the new the designed heat exchanger
is competent for the duty of heat transfer. It means the dry gas at 24.7 °C can be heated to 260 °C
by this exchanger with hot oil at 280 °C. Furthermore, the flow rates of fluids also can be achieved
with a pressure in the scope of demand. The presented method is Kern’s method, which can provide
satisfactory prediction of heat transfer coefficient. The core concept is using a trail-and-error
process to approach the feasible OHTC. However, it is criticized for its performance on the
prediction of pressure drop, which is more optimal to be examined with Bell’s method. In the
study, the numerical results of calculation validate the correlation between fluid velocity and heat
transfer coefficient. It demonstrates that the higher flow rate lead to higher heat transfer
coefficient. However, the high velocity will cause high pressure drop, which may reduce the useful
life of equipment . Therefore, it is significant to find the equilibrium between high heat transfer
coefficient and proper pressure drop. In addition , new correlation proposed based on kern’s
method to rich more accurate results. The proposed correlation reduces the error percentage and
can be applied easily.

Shung-Wen Kang, Shin-Chau Tseng gave theoretical model analysis of effectiveness and
pressure drop in cross flow heat exchangers in 2006. And their theoretical model predicts the
thermal and fluidic characteristics of a micro cross-flow heat exchanger is developed in this study.
This study examined the interactive effect between the effectiveness of the heat exchanger and
pressure drop of the micro channels. Under the same effectiveness, the heat transfer rate increases
with rising working fluid temperature in the hot and the cold flow side. The pressure drop decreases
because of the temperature influence, especially on the cold flow side. And the higher average
temperature situation has the larger heat transfer rate. Under the different effectiveness, the heat
transfer rate and pressure drop decrease with the increase in effectiveness . Contrasting the
increasing magnitude of the pressure drop, the cold flow side is larger than the hot flow side. At
this time, the better heat transfer rate is in the low effectiveness situation.

Although the thermal conductivity of the copper K = 400 W/m K exceeds the silicon k =
148 W/m K By two times, the influence is very small for a micro heat exchanger. This is because
the fin thickness between the hot and the cold flow channels is very thin, and the thermal resistance
of the fin is very small. Therefore, it reduces the influence of the material thermal resistance in the
micro heat exchanger. With the dimensions enlarged two times and the outer dimensions enlarged
two times, there are advantages and disadvantages in the pressure drop and the heat transfer rate.
The designer can choose the appropriate plan by their requirement.

Heat transfer characteristics of c-Al2O3-water and TiO2-water nanofluids were measured

in a shell and tube heat exchanger under turbulent flow condition by B. Farajollahi, S.Gh. Etemad
and M. Hojjat by their experimental results they conclude that the effects of Peclet number,
volume concentration of suspended nanoparticles, and particle type on the heat characteristics.
Based on their results, adding of naoparticles to the base fluid causes the significant enhancement
of heat transfer characteristics. For both nanofluids, two different optimum nanoparticle
concentrations exist. Comparison of the heat transfer behavior of two nanofluids andicates that at
a certain Peclet number, heat transfer characteristics of TiO2/water nanofluid at its optimum
nanoparticle concentration are greater than those of c-Al2O3-water nanofluid while c-Al2O3-
water nanofluid possesses better heat transfer behavior at higher nanoparticle concentrations.The
experimental results for both nanofluids indicate that the heat transfer characteristics of nanofluids
improve with Peclet number significantly. Addition of nanoparticles to the base fluid enhances the
heat transfer performance and results in larger heat transfer coefficient than that of the base fluid
at the same Peclet number. Both nanofluids have the different optimum volume concentration in
which the heat transfer characteristics show the maximum enhancement. The nanoparticle with
less mean diameter (TiO2 nanoparticle) has a lower optimum volume concentration. At different
nanoparticle concentrations the heat transfer enhancement of both nanofluids are not the same.
TiO2/water and c-Al2O3/water nanofluids possess better heat transfer behavior at the lower and
higher volume concentrations, respectively. ComPetition of thermal conductivity and particle size
of both nanoparticles may be the source of these differences for heat transfer Performances. For
both nanofluids the experimental results are very close to the predicted values of available
correlation at the lower nanoparticle volume concentrations.

2.1 Research gap

The reseach focus on the pressure drop of different configuration of shell and tube heat
exchanger. A lot of reserches helpful to readers to research in this specific area of field. Authors
contributed in different researches that pressure drop in the heat exchangers changes by varrying
different characteristics of fluid and geometrical parameters of shell and tube heat exchangers.
Pressure drop across the heat exchnager varries with changing baffle spacing and their types. It
varries with the angle of attack and angle of inclination and hence the heat transfer rate. Latest
researches give proper assistance in studying the effect of nano particles at different conditions in
shell and tube heat exchangers.

The literature needs to be explore the efficient design by inceasing thermal efficiency of of
shell and tube heat exchangers. The literature suggest that at different flow conditions and
geometrical parameters such as length of shell and tube heat exchanger have a great influence on
the heat transfer coefficient. By CFD simulation of different models having boundary conditions
approximately to some industrial scale and to validate the results.
 Chapter 3

3 Modeling of shell and tube heat exchanger

Two models of shell and tube heat exchanger which have different configuration and
analyzed with counter-current flow. Model 1 have water as a fluid for both hot fluid and cold fluid
whereas Model 2 uses air for both hot fluid and cold fluid.

The adaption of the model of shell and tube exchanger contains the following operation:

1. Defining the two fluids that make the heat exchange and their position in relation to the
structure of heat exchanger
2. Determining the physical properties of two fluids used as a hot and cold fluid.
3. Specifying the geometrical data of the shell and tube heat exchanger
4. Analysis of the shell and tube heat exchanger and calculate the pressure drop in different
configuration

3.1 Model-1
A model of shell and tube heat exchanger is simulated with defined geometry and the
properties to validate results.

3.1.1 Defining the fluid

The model has been used in the simulation of shell and tube heat exchanger represented by
water for both the hot and cold fluid

3.1.2 Determining the physical properties

The following physical properties of fluid: dynamic viscosity, density, heat capacity and
thermal conductivity are listed in the table below.
Table 1: Physical property of fluid (water)

Property index Physical properties Units Values

1 Dynamic viscosity Kg/ms 0.001003
2 Density Kg/m3 998.2
3 Heat capacity (Cp) J/kg oC 4182
4 Thermal conductivity w/m2 oC 0.6

3.1.3 Specifying the geometry

The geometry construction of shell and tube heat exchanger mainly includes interior and
exterior tube diameter, interior and exterior shell diameter, thickness, and length of the tube. The
geometrical construction is illustrated in the following table shown below:

Table 2: General characteristics of geometry for model 1 of shell and tube HX

Geometrical characteristics units Values

Interior diameter of shell mm 26
Exterior diameter of shell mm 28
Thickness of shell mm 2
Interior diameter of tube mm 12
Exterior diameter of tube mm 14
Thickness of tube mm 2

3.1.4 Analysis of shell and tube heat exchanger

The analysis of shell and tube heat exchnager follows the following step for Ansys 2019.

Step1:

At the very first, draw a 3D model of shell and tube heat exchanger of length 950mm by
using modelling software . Then insert in ansys for simulation process.
Step 2:

After inserting the model the 2nd step would be meshing.

A Mesh is a Mesh of cells and point, cross sections can be of various shape and any size
and is utilized to settle the halfway differential conditions. Each cell of work is a different answer
for the condition, which together permits the whole work to have fathomed for the entire work.
Arrangement of entire article without partitioning it into a few sections may not be conceivable
because of the unpredictability of the item. it hard to take care of the issue. Other hand, little cells
are anything but difficult to break up and, that is the reason this is the favored methodology.

In the mesh cells and points, cross section can be of various shape and size is utilize the
half way differential conditions. For meshing first of all to set inlets and outlets and then after that
it needs to make sure that right contact rergions have choosen because the contact regions will be
used as the interfaces. So first of all set the hot inlet and after selection of this inlet , choose the
hot outlet on the other side of heat exchanger. Then, select the cold fluid inlet and after selection
of this there will be cold outlet on the opposite side of heat exchanger.

So, after the inlet and out let check the interface between the soild tube and fluid domain
on both sides of heat exchanger, rename them and give a name which is called interface 1and
interface2 respectively on both face 1 and face 2.

For material first of all select the solid material which is copper in this case for shell and
tube heat exchanger and after that there would be fluid selection which is water liquid.

Now edit the cell zone conditions and select liquid by specifying water and shell domain
is solid of copper and tube should be of solid

Step 3:

Now move on to the boundary conditions where there are inlets, outlets, shell and cylinder
wall are under observation. Cold inlet with velocity magnitude is 1m/s and temperature is 25 oC
and keep the pressure at zero. Hot inlet will be 95 oC and with a velocity magnitude of 2m/s.

For shell wall impose a convection and set the heat transfer coefficient value in w/m 2K and
set the free stream temperature value. The same segment will be applied for cylinder wall and
specify all the operating conditions. After specifying all the required data initilize the solution and
run the solution after giving number of iteration

3.1.5 Results and discussion

At the end, the results are presented got from Ansys 2019 using 3d simulation. The pressure
drop is shown below for the different configuration of shell and tube heat exchanger for which
both the hot and cold flow were represented by water:

Table 3: Results for model 1 of shell and tube heat exchanger

Length Cold in Hot in Cold out Hot out Pressure at Pressure at

(oC) (oC) (oC) (oC) hot outlet cold outlet
(Pa) (Pa)
950mm 25 95 41.772 84.901 665.565 665.565
850mm 25 95 40.541 85.861 648.573 648.573
650mm 25 95 37.420 87.777 619.011 619.011
550mm 25 95 36.731 88.008 604.651 604.651
450mm 25 95 35.391 89.922 594.064 594.064

It has been observed from the results, by chnaging length of the shell and tube heat
exchanger the pressure drop and heat transfer rate changed accordingly. It is seen that when the
length of heat exchanger is 450mm and pressure drop across it is 594.064 pascal. When we increase
the length to 550mm the pressure drop increases to 604.651pascal. similarly, when the length is
furthur increase to 950mm the pressure drop across will be 665.565pascal. The results shows that
when the length of heat exchanger increases the pressure drop increase and hence the heat transfer
rate. By doubling the length of heat exchanger the pressure drop increase by 16%.