International Journal of Current Engineering and Technology E-ISSN 2277 – 4106, P-ISSN 2347 – 5161

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Research Article

Fabrication of Shell and Tube Heat Exchanger using Helical Baffles

based on Kern’s Principle
Kallalu Harika†*, Tummala Likhitha† , Karnati Hema† and Penumala Pavani†
†Department of Mechanical Engineering, Vidya Jyothi Institute of Technology, Hyderabad, T.S., India

Accepted 01 May 2017, Available online 02 May 2017, Vol.7, No.3 (June 2017)

Abstract

Shell and tube heat exchanger is a class of heat exchanger. Heat exchanger is a device used to transfer heat between a
solid and a fluid or between two or more fluids. This paper is concerned with the study of shell and tube heat
exchanger. Also the main components of shell and tube type heat exchanger are shown in drawing and its detail
discussion is given. Moreover the constructional details and design methods of shell and tube heat exchangers are
given from which kern’s method for design is described in detail with step inside the paper. Also other research papers
are studied and the review from those papers is also describes in this paper with some of the review work in detail

Keywords: Helical baffles, Kern’s method, square pitch, triangular pitch.

1. Introduction  Heat exchangers are also classified based on

different parameters like flow direction, compactness
1 Heat exchangers are always been important part to the of the body, transfer type and construction.
lifecycle and operations of many systems. Over the past
quarter century, the importance of heat exchangers has  Parallel flow heat exchangers: Parallel flow heat
increased from the viewpoint of energy conversion and exchangers are the one in which two fluids flow in
performance recovery. Much more attention is paid to parallel to each other.
heat exchangers because of environmental concerns  Counter flow heat exchangers: In counter flow heat
such as thermal, air and water pollution, as well as exchangers the fluid flows in opposite direction.
waste heat recoveries. It can be considered as key  Cross flow heat exchangers: It is a combination of
equipment in the chemical process industry. Heat both parallel and counter flow.
exchanger is a device of finite volume used to transfer
heat between a solid and a fluid or between two or
Heat exchangers are globally assumed to be operating
more fluids. These two fluids are separated by solid
under adiabatic conditions. It therefore means that
wall to prevent mixing and also to prevent direct
contact between them. Typically one system is been heat losses or gains between the heat exchangers and
cooled while the other is heated. More than 30-40% of the environment can be assumed. The thermal inertia
heat exchangers used in various industries are of this for heat exchangers is negligible and therefore mostly
type due to their robust geometry construction, assumed therefore the general balance equation of
(Master, B. I., Chunangad, et al, 2003) easy energy is reduced to where the total energy ht is a
maintenance and possible upgrades. One common value that can be approximated by enthalpy and stands
example of heat exchanger is the radiation in the car, in for the difference between the output and the input. A
which it transfers heat from the water (hot engine- primary objective in the heat exchanger Design is the
cooling fluid) in the radiator to the air passing through estimation of the minimum heat transfer area required
the radiator. There are two main types of heat for a given heavy duty (Schlünder, et al 1983)
exchangers (Bell, K. J et al 1981)
2. Methods and material
 Direct contact heat exchanger, where both media
between which heat is exchanged are in direct contact 2.1 Shell and Tube Heat Exchanger
with each other.
 Indirect contact heat exchanger, where both the This type of heat exchanger is said to have originated
media are separated by a wall through which heat is from the jacketed coil distiller. Shell and tube heat
transferred so that they never mix. exchanger is an indirect contact type heat exchanger.
In this we make use of both parallel and counter flow.
*Corresponding author: Kallalu Harika Shell and tube heat exchangers in various sizes are
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Kallalu Harika et al Fabrication of Shell and Tube Heat Exchanger using Helical Baffles based on Kern’s Principle

widely used in industrial operations and energy corrosion .The tube sheets are made from low carbon
conversion systems. As the name suggests this type of steel with a thin layer of corrosion resisting alloy
heat exchangers consists of a shell (a large pressure metallurgic ally bounded to one side (Stehlik, et al ,
vessel) with a bundle of pipes inside it. The shell is a 1994 )
container for the shell fluid. Usually, it is cylindrical in
shape with a circular cross section, although shells of 2.3.3. Shell
different shapes are used in specific applications. For
this particular study E shell is considered, which is The shell is simply the container for the shell side fluid,
generally a one pass shell. E shell is the most and the nozzles are the inlet and exit ports. The shell
commonly used due to its low cost and simplicity, and normally has a circular cross section and is commonly
has the highest long-mean temperature-difference made by rolling the metal plate of appropriate
(LMTD) correction factor. One fluid runs through the dimensions in to cylinder and welding the longitudinal
tube and the other fluid flows over the tubes (through joint. In large heat exchanger, the shell is made out of
the shell) to transfer heat between the two fluids. The low carbon steel wherever possible for the reason of
set of tubes is called tube bundle pipes composed in it the economy, though other alloys can be and are used
can be plain, longitudinally finned etc. Although the when corrosion or to high temperature strength
tubes may have single or multiple passes, there is one demand must be made.
pass on the shell side, while the other fluid flows within
the shell over the tubes to be heated or cooled. Tubular 2.3.4 Channel Covers
Exchanger Manufacturers Association (TEMA)
regularly publishes standards and design
recommendations. Shell and tube heat exchangers are The channel covers are round plates to bolt to the
designed normally by using Kern’s method o Bell- channel flanges and can be removed for the tube
Delware method .Kern’s method is mostly used for the inspection without disturbing the tube side piping. In
preliminary design and provide conservative results smaller heat exchangers, bonnets with flanged nozzles
whereas; the Bell –Delaware method is more accurate or threaded connections for the tube side piping are
method and can provide detailed results. It can predict often used instead of channel and channel covers.
and estimate pressure drop and heat transfer
coefficient with better accuracy. 2.3.5. Baffles

2.2. Basic components of a shell and tube heat exchanger Baffles serve two functions: Most importantly, they
support the tubes in the proper position during
The major components of a shell and tube heat assembly and operation and prevent vibration of the
exchangers are tubes (tube bundles), tube sheets, shell, tubes caused by flow induced eddies, and secondly,
impingement plates, channel covers, baffles. they guide the shell side flow back and forth across the
field, increasing the velocity and heat transfer
2.2.1. Tubes coefficient.

2.3 Kern’s Method

The tubes are the basic components of the shell and
tube heat exchanger, providing the heat transfer
Kern provided a simple method for calculating shell-
surface between one fluid flowing inside the tube and
side pressure drop and heat transfer coefficient.
the other fluid flowing across the outside of the tubes.
However, this method is restricted to a fixed baffle cut
It therefore recommended that the tubes material
(25%) and cannot adequately account for baffle-to-
should be highly thermal conductive otherwise proper
shell and tube-to-baffle leakage. Kern method is not
heat transfer will not occur. The tubes may be seamless
applicable in laminar flow region where shell-side
or welded and most commonly made of copper or steel
Reynolds number is less than 2000. Although the Kern
alloys.
equation is not particularly accurate, it does allow a
very simple and rapid calculation of shell-side heat
2.2.2. Tube Sheets
transfer coefficient and pressure drop to be carried
out.
The tubes are held in place by being inserted into holes
in the tubes sheets and there either expanded into 2.4 Helical Baffles
grooves cut into the holes or welded to the tube sheet.
The tube sheet is usually a single round plate of metal The Helical Baffle heat Exchanger is otherwise known
that has been suitably drilled and grooved to take the as a Helix changer solution that removes many of the
tubes however where the mixing between two fluids deficiencies of Segmental Baffle Heat Exchanger. It is
must be avoided, a double tube sheet may be provided. very effective where heat exchanger are predicted to
The space between the tube sheets is open to the be faced with vibration condition Quadrant shaped
atmosphere so any leakage of either fluid should be baffle segment are arranged right angle to the tube axis
quickly detected. The tube sheet must withstand to in a sequential pattern that guide the shell side flow in
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Kallalu Harika et al Fabrication of Shell and Tube Heat Exchanger using Helical Baffles based on Kern’s Principle

a helical path over the tube bundle. The Helical flow  Note that the 30°,45° and 60° are staggered, and
provides the necessary characteristics to reduce flow 90° is in line.
dispersion and generate near plug flow conditions. The  For the identical tube pitch and flow rates, the tube
shell side flow configuration offers a very high layouts in decreasing order of shell-side heat transfer
conversion of pressure drop to heat transfer. coefficient and pressure drop are: 30°,45°,60°, 90°.
Advantages over segmental STHE are increased heat  The 90° layout will have the lowest heat transfer
transfer rate, reduced bypass effects, reduced Shell coefficient and the lowest pressure drop.
Fouling Factor, Prevention of flow induced vibration &  The square pitch:(90° or 45°) is used when jet or
Reduces Pumping cost. For the convenience of mechanical cleaning is necessary on the shell side.In
manufacturing, up to now all helical baffles actually that case, a minimum cleaning lane of ¼ in. (6.35 mm)
used in Shell and tube heat exchangers arenon- is provided. The square pitch is generally not used in
continuous approximate helicoids. The non-continuous the fixed header sheet design because cleaning is not
helical baffles are usually made by four elliptical feasible.
sector-shaped plates joined in succession. The elliptical  The triangular pitch: provides a more compact
sector shaped plates are arranged in a pseudo helical arrangement, usually resulting in smaller shell, and the
(non continuous) manner, with each baffle occupying strongest header sheet for a specified shell-side flow
one-quarter of the cross section of the heat exchanger area. It is preferred when the operating pressure
and being angled to the axis of the heat exchanger. The difference between the two fluids is large.
two adjacent baffles may be joined end to end at the  The selection of tube pitch is a compromise
perimeter of each sector, forming a continuous helix at between a
the outer periphery (Fig. 1(a)); this structure of  Close pitch (small values of PT/do) for increased
connecting baffles together is called a single helix shell-side heat transfer and surface compactness, and
manner. Another connection between two adjacent an
sectors is the middle-over lapped connection, as shown  Open pitch (large values of PT/ do) for decreased
in Fig. 1(a) where the helix angle, designated by, helical shell-side plugging and ease in shell-side cleaning.
pitch, B, and baffle thickness, sp, are presented. As
shown in Fig. 1(c), the helix angle is referred to as the Tube pitch Pt is chosen so that the pitch ratio is 1.25 <
angle between the normal line of the elliptical sector- PT/do < 1.5.
shaped plates and the heat ex-changer axis. The
research results of experimental measurements and When the tubes are to close to each other (PT/do less
numerical simulations provide the bases of engineering than 1.25), the header plate (tube sheet) becomes to
design method, for which the primary objects are to weak for proper rolling of the tubes and cause leaky
determine the required heat transfer surfaces and the joints.
fluid pressure drops of shell-and-tube sides. In the Tube layout and tube locations are standardized for
design method, the input data are flow rates and at industrial heat exchangers.
least three of the inlet and outlet temperatures of both However, these are general rules of thumb and can be
sides in heat exchanger. After primary guessing for the violated for custom heat exchanger designs.
heat exchanger structure, the over-all heat transfer
coefficient and the pressure drop can be determined by 3. Literature Review
adopting correlations obtained from tests or
simulations. If the calculated heat transfer rate and A lot has been written about designing heat
pressure drops cannot satisfy the design requirements, exchangers, and specifically shell-and-tube heat
the heat exchanger is re-constructed, and the exchangers. For example, the book by Kern published
calculation is repeated again until the calculated heat in 1950 details basic design procedures for a variety of
transfer rate and the pressure drops can satisfy the heat exchangers. In the majority of published papers as
pre-conditions. It can be seen that the heat transfer and well as in industrial applications, heat transfer
pressure drop correlations are the basis for the design coefficients are estimated, based, generally on
method (J.P. Holman, et al, 2003) literature tables. These values have always a large
degree of uncertainty. So, more realistic values can be
2.5 Tube Layout obtained if these coefficients are not estimated, but
calculated during the design task. A few numbers of
 Tube layout is characterized by the included angle papers present shell and tube heat exchanger design
between tubes. including overall heat transfer coefficient calculations
 Two standard types of tube layouts are the square (Polley et al., 1990, Polley and Panjeh Shah, 1991,
and the equilateral triangle. Jegede and Polley, 1992, and Panjeh Shah, 1992,
 Triangular pitch (30o layout) is better for heat Ravagnani, 1994, Ravagnani et al. (2003), Mizutani et
transfer and surface area per unit length (greatest tube al., 2003, Serna and Jimenez, 2004, Ravagnani and
density.) Caballero, 2007a, and Ravagnani et al., 2009) Gang
 Square pitch (45 & 90 layouts) is needed for yong Lei et al [1] have showed the effects of baffle
mechanical cleaning. inclination angle on flow and heat transfer of a heat
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Kallalu Harika et al Fabrication of Shell and Tube Heat Exchanger using Helical Baffles based on Kern’s Principle

exchanger with helical baffles, where the helical baffles De=

( )
(3)
are separated into inner and outer parts along the
radial direction of the shell. While both the inner and
outer helical baffles baffle the flow consistently, From Figure, the equivalent diameter for the triangular
smoothly and gently, and direct flow in a helical pitch layout is
fashion so as to increase heat transfer rate and
decrease pressure drop and impact vibrations, the √
( )
outer helical baffle becomes easier to manufacture due
to its relatively large diameter of inner edge. Lutcha J et De= (4)
al have done experiments to the improvement of
tubular heat exchangers with helical baffles for
The cross flow area of the shell c A is defined as
investigation of the flow field patterns generated by
various helix angles which is expected to decline
pressure at shell side and increase heat transfer = (5)
process significantly (Kuppan, et al, 2000).
The diameter ratio dr is defined by
4. Boundary Conditions
= (6)
 The working fluid of the shell side is water
 The shell inlet temperature is set to 300k Some diameter ratios for nominal pipe sizes are
 The constant wall temperature of 450k is assigned illustrated in Table C.6 in Appendix C. The tube pitch
to the tube walls ratio Pr is defined by
 Zero gauge pressure is assigned to that outlet
nozzle
= (7)
 The inlet velocity profile is assumed to be uniform
 No slip condition is assigned to all surfaces.
The tube clearance Ct is obtained from Figure
The zero heat flux boundary conditions are assigned to
the shell outer wall (excluding the baffle shell Ct=Pt=d0 (8)
interfaces), assuming the shell is perfectly insulated.

5. Formulae used For Designing Shell and Tube The number of tube Nt can be predicted in fair
Heat Exchanger approximation with the shell inside diameter Ds.

Some of the following dimensions are pictured in Figure Nt=(CTP) (9)

L=length of the tube

where CTP is the tube count constant that accounts for
Nt=No. of tubes
the incomplete coverage of the
NP= No. of pass
shell diameter by the tubes, due to necessary clearance
Ds=Shell inside diameter
between the shell and the outer
Nb=No. of baffles
tube circle and tube omissions due to tube pass lanes
B=Baffle spacing
for multiple pass design .
The baffle spacing is obtained
CTP = 0.93 for one-pass exchanger
CTP = 0.9 for two-pass exchanger
B= (1)
CTP = 0.85 for three-pass exchanger

5.1 Shell-Side Tube Layout Shade Area =CL.P (10)

Figure shows a cross section of both a square and where CL is the tube layout constant.
triangular pitch layouts. The tube pitch t P and the
clearance t C between adjacent tubes are both defined. CL = 1 for square-pitch layout (11)
Equation of the equivalent diameter is rewritten here
for convenience CL = sin(60°) = 0.866 for triangular-pitch layout

De= (2)
Plugging in equation 10 and 11 gives

From Figure, the equivalent diameter for the square

pitch layout is Nt= ( ) = ( ) (12)
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Kallalu Harika et al Fabrication of Shell and Tube Heat Exchanger using Helical Baffles based on Kern’s Principle

6. Design and Fabrication of Components 6.2. Fabrication

6.1. Design

Figure 7 Shell fabrication

Figure 1 Dimensions of shell and tube heat exchanger

Figure 2 Square and triangular pitch Square and

triangular Figure 8 Copper Tubes Fabrication

Figure 3 Shell Design

Figure 9 Tube sheet Fabrication

Figure 4 Copper Tubes Design

Figure 10 Placing of Baffles

Figure 5 Baffles Design

Figure 6 Couplings Design Figure 11 Final Setup

825| International Journal of Current Engineering and Technology, Vol.7, No.3 (June 2017)
Kallalu Harika et al Fabrication of Shell and Tube Heat Exchanger using Helical Baffles based on Kern’s Principle

7. Geometric Modelling References

Heat exchanger length L 500 Master, B. I., Chunangad, K. S.,and Pushpanathan, V., 2003, Fouling
Shell inside diameter (Dᵢ) 108 Mitigation Using Helixchanger Heat Exchangers,Proceedings of the
ECI Conference on Heat Exchanger Fouling and Cleaning:
Tube outside diameter (dD) 10
Fundamentals and Applications, Santa Fe, NM, May 18–22, pp.
Tube inner diameter (di) 9.25 317–322
Number of baffles (Nb) 4 Bell, K. J., 1981, Delaware Method for Shell Side Design,Heat
Number of tubes (Nt) 16 ExchangersThermal Hydraulic Fundamentals and Design, S. Kakac,
Helix angles 50, 100,150,200 A. E. Bergles, and F.Mayinger, eds., Taylor & Francis, Washington,
Pitch diameter 1.25*d0 DC.
Bell, K. J., 1986, Delaware Method of Shell Side Design,Heat
Conclusions ExchangerSourcebook, J. W. Pallen, ed., Hemisphere, Washington,
DC.
Bell, K. J., 1988, Delaware Method of Shell-Side Design,Heat
After this study it is said that the shell and tube heat
TransferEquipment Design, R. K. Shah, E. C. Sunnarao, and R. A.
exchanger has given the respect among all the classes f Mashelkar, eds.,Taylor & Francis, New York.
heat exchanger due to their virtues like comparatively Schlünder, E. U., ed., 1983,Heat Exchanger Design Handbook, Vol. 3,
Hemi-sphere, Washington, DC
large ratios of heat transfer area to volume and weight
Stehlik, P., Nemcansky, J., and Kral, D., 1994, Comparison of
and many more. CorrectionFactors for Shell-and-Tube Heat Exchangers With
Segmental or HelicalBaffles, Heat Transfer Eng.,151, pp. 55–65.

Acknowledgement Schlünder, E. U., ed., 1983Heat Exchanger Design Handbook, Vol. 2,

Hemisphere, Washington, DC.
Gaddis, E. S., and Gnielinski, V., 1997, Pressure Drop on the Shell Side
The authors express their thanks to Head of the ofShell-and-Tube Heat Exchangers With Segmental Baffles, Chem.
Mechanical Engineering Department, Principal, Eng. Pro-cess.,362, pp. 149–159.
Kuppan, T., 2000,Heat Exchanger Design Handbook, Marcel Dekker,
Director and Correspondent of Vidya Jyothi Institute of NewYork.
Technology, Aziz Nagar, Hyderabad for the help and J.P. Holman, Heat Transfer, 9thEdition, McGraw-Hill, 2002.
support extended towards this work Peters, M.S., Timmerhaus, K.D., and West, R.E., Plant Design and
Economics for Chemical Engineers,McGraw-Hill, New York, 2003.

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