Journal of Shanghai University (English Edition), 2006, 10(4) : 362 - 365 Article ID: 1007-6417(2006)04-0362-04

3D simulation on the unit duct in the shell side of the ROD baffle heat exchanger
W U J i n - x / n g ( ~ : , ~ ) 1'~, DONG Q / - w u ( ~ ) 1'2, L I U M i n - s h a n ( ~ J ~ ) ~, WEIXin-li(~#~]) ~ 1. School of Chemical Engineering, Zhongzhou University, Zhongzhou 450002, P. R . China 2. School of Mechanical and Power Engineering, East China University of Science and Technology, Shanghai 200237, P . R . China
Abstract

The R O D baffle heat exchanger can slightly enhance the shell side heat transfer coefficient with the significantreduction of

pressure loss due to the shell side fluid flowing longitudinallythrough tube bundle, which leads to the reduction of the manufacture and

running cost and in some cases to the dimensions reduction of the heat exchangers. Because of the complexities of fluid dynamics equations and the stxucture of heat exchangers, few theoretical researches have been accomplished to specify the shell side chaxacteristics of the ROD baffle heat exchanger. A unit duct model in the shell side of the longitudinal flow type heat exchanger has been developed based on suitable simplification. A numerical analysis on shell side of the ROD baffle heat exchanger has been carried out at constant wall temperature to obtain the characteristics of heat transfer and pressure drop. The numerical results show that the ROD baffles placed vertically and horizontally in the unit duct continue to shear and comminute the streamline flow when the fluid crosses over the ROD-baffles, and change the fluid flow directions, and then the coni2nuityand stability of the fluid are destroyed. The effect of disturbing flow can promote fluid turbulent intensity and effectively enhance heat transfer. The numerical analyses can provide the theoretical bases for op'tuuizing the structure of ROD baffle heat exchanger and improving its performance. Key words ROD baffle heat exchanger, unit duct, numerical simulation, shell side characteristics. The RHE can slightly enhance the shell side heat transfer coefficient with the significant reduction of pressure loss due to the shell side fluid flowing longitudinally through tube bundle, which leads to the cost reduction and in some cases to the reduction of the measurement of heat exchangers. However the collocation of heat transfer tubes in the RHE is conventionally square, which leads to less heat transfer area in unit volume. The RHE is superior to the SHE only when the Reynolds number is higher ~2~ . So the integrated performance of the RIlE is not optimal yet. Because of complexities of fluid dynamics equations and the structure of heat exchangers, few theoretical researches can specify the shell side heat transfer characteristics of the RHE. The experimental methods are. often used to investigate the performance of heat exchangers and can obtain overall pressure drop and total heat transfer coefficients, but they are often expensive and difficult. However the detailed field values of fluid velocity, pressure, temperature and turbulence intensity are crucial for better understanding the operation Rceived Dec. 25, 2004; RevisedJun. 20, 2005 WU Jin-~dng, Ph.D., Assoc. Prof., E-mall: wtljx@zzu.edu.cn of heat exchangers and for the design of heat exchangers. With the development of computational fluid dyna-

1 Introduction
The traditional segmental baffle heat exchangers (SHE) can be simply manufactured and run reliably, but they are mainly suitable for the situation of lower flow velocity. When fluid velocity becomes higher in the shell side, the pressure drop increases more quickly, and the fluid-induced vibration will probably happen, and even the heat exchanger will be destroyed. In order to prevent the tube bundle from vibration, the ROD baffle heat exchanger ( R H E ) was firstly developed by the Phillips Petroleum Co. C 1 ~ with the segmented baffles replaced by ROD baffle, which are inserted between tubes and normal to the tubes in the RHE. The shell side fluid flows entirely in an axial direction along the shell, and fluid flows essentially parallel to the tubes rather than across them. This arrangement claims to eliminate tube failure resulting from the vibration of the tubes in the holes of the segmental baffles.

Vol. 10 No. 4 Aug. 2006 mics ( C F D ) ,

WU J X, eta/. : 3D simulation on the unit duct in the shell side ...

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the method of numerical simulation is

extensively applied in the study of heat exchangers. Nowadays, there axe mainly two methods to simulate flow and heat transfer in heat exchangers. The first method, referred to as the distributed resistance approach I3~ , assumes that the shell is filled with porous medium through which a fine-scale resistance to the fluid motion is distributed. This allows the shell cross section to be modeled by a relatively coarse grid where a single computational cell may have multiple tubes present. So this method cannot predict the detailed flow, pressure, temperature and turbulence information in a heat exchanger. The second is the detailed representation of all the tubes in the heat exchanger. However this method is computationaUy very expensive. A small heat exchanger with 500 tubes and 10 baffles would require at least 150 million computational cells to resolve the geometry ISj . In this p a p e r a new kind of numerical model, called as the unit duct model, is presented on the basis of the second method for predicting the detailed distribution of the shell side fluid flow, pressure and temperature of the RHE.

Fig.1 Unit duct model of the RHE

duct, such a s density p, viscosity/~ and specific heat Cp e t c . , are constant for given situation. (3) The fluid is incompressible and flows steadily. (4) The flow is periodically fully developed. (5) The fluid boundaries between every two adjacent unit ducts are the symmetrical boundaries.

2.2

Boundary conditions and numerical methods

According to the above physical models and assumptions of the shell side of the RHE, the m a s s , m o m e n tum and energy conservation equations for turbulent fluid flow and heat transfer at steady state can apply the normal governing equations. The boundary conditions of the fluid in the unit duct are as follows. (1) The fluid medium of shell side is air at certain temperature, i . e . , Tm= 300 K. (2) The heat transfer tube Tw = 400 K. (3) wall temperature is constant, i . e . ,

2 2.1

Unit duct model and numerical methods Unit duct model

Due to the square collocation of the heat transfer

Suppose that fluid mass flow rate M is 0.005 kg/s. (4) The fluid adjacent to all of solid wall has no slippage,

tubes in the RHE, and in the light of the symmetry of the heat transfer tubes in the shell of the RHE, except for ones adjacent to shell wall, the fluid flow region among the adjacent four tubes is regarded as a unit duct of the shell side of the RHE, as shown in Fig. 1. So it can be regarded that the shell side of the RHE is made up of many identical and parallel unit ducts, and the fluid mainly flows in tube axial direction in the unit duct C41. Supposing that the inner diameter of heat transfer tube is 0.02 m , and the distance between the two adjacent tubes center is 0. 032 m , and the length of the unit duct is 0.16 m . There are two ROD baffles which are respectively arranged in horizontal and vertical directions at the distance of 0.08 m in a unit duct, and the diameter of the ROD is 0.006 m . For simplification of computation of flow field, the following suppositions are put forward. (1) The flow and heat transfer characteristics of the two adjacent unit ducts donot interact with each other. ( 2 ) T h e thermo physical parameters of the fluid in the unit

i.e.,U=O. During the numerical computation the commercial FLUENT software is used, the standard k - e turbulent model is applied to simulate the fully developed turbulent flow and heat transfer of the unit duct. The algorithm of SIMPLE proposed by Patankar ~61 is employed to solve coupling relations of pressure and velocity. The shell and ROD baffle walls are modeled using the wall function approach. The conservation equations are solved by the finite volume method.

Results and discussions

According to above physical models and computa-

tional methods, the flow field, pressure field and temperature field, and their distributing characteristics in the unit duet are obtained. 3.1

Velocity contour and turbulence intensity contour plots

Fig. 2 and Fig. 3 show the X = 0 axial section velocity contour and turbulence intensity contour plots respectively. The plots indicate that the ROD baffles have great influence on the flow field of the unit duct

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Journal of Shanghai University

baffle and turbulence intensity becomes more and more strenuous as shown in Fig. 4. The high velocity fluid continuously scours the tube wall so that the liquid boundary layer on the tube wall becomes very thinner, which is very beneficial to heat transfer enhancement. But there is a residence region at the b a c k side of every ROD baffle that reduces heat transfer especially in the gap of the two adjacent tubes.
F " ~

except for supporting tube bank. When the fluid crosses over the ROD baffles, the ROD baffles continues to shear and comminute the streamline flow along the horizontal and vertical directions in the unit duct, and the fluid flow direction changes and the continuity and stability of the fluid axe destroyed. The circulation area at the location of ROD baffle is decreased so that the fluid is accelerated at the sections vertical to ROD
:"~:"-'~:

:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

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Y
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~(~

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I
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Fig.2

X = 0 axial section velocity contours plots in a periodic domain

xt..
Fig.3
X = 0 axial section turbulence in~nsity contours plots in a periodic domain

Y
*z

Fig.4

X = 0 axial section pressure contours plots in a periodic domain

3.2

Pressure contour plot

Pig. 4 shows the X = 0 axial section pressure contour distribution in a periodic domain. It can be seen that the pressure drop is periodic and symmetrical about center axis in the shell side of RHE. Due to the influence of ROD baffle the pressure lifts at windward side of ROD baffle in unit duct, and meanwhile the pressure decays at leeward side of ROD baffle. This is the main reason of increase of dynamic consumption. On the other wise, the high pressure in fore part of the ROD baffle makes the fluid velocity increase at the two side of the ROD baffle. This is the main source of heat transfer enhancement.

direction. The Z = - 0.06 m cross section is near to fluid inlet of the unit duct, hence the indistinct temperature difference happens. The Z = - 0.04 m cross section is just the location of ROD baffle, the fluid temperature of this section still changes little, but the ROD baffle makes the fluid temperature of the Z = - 0.02 m cross section get obviously higher. The temperature difference at the Z = 0.02 m cross section is getting small between interior and exterior regions of the unit duct. Until the fluid encounters the next ROD baffle, the abrupt change of fluid temperature does not happen. That is to say, if no ROD baffle is placed in the unit duct, the change of the fluid temperature will always be smaller along whole duct like the Z =

3.3

Temperature contour plots

The temperature contour plots of cress sections are shown in Fig. 5. The plots indicate that the fluid temperature is becoming higher and higher along the flow

- 0.06 m cross section. Therefore it can be concluded

that it is the ROD baffle that has enhanced convective heat transfer of fluid in the unit duct.

Vol. 10 No. 4

Aug. 2006

WU J X, et al. :

3D simulation on the unit duct in the shell side . . .

365

Fig.5

Cross sections temperature contours in the unit duct at Z= - 0 . 0 6 m , - 0 . 0 4 m , - 0 . 0 2 m, 0.02 m, 0.04 m, 0.06m

3.4

The heat transfer and pressure drop characteristics

Conclusions
In order to fully understand the shell side character-

Fig. 6 s h o w s that the heat transfer coefficient h is always ascending with augmentation o f R e n u m b e r in the unit duct. This is because o f the influence of ROD baffles on the flow field and temperature field in unit duct. The ROD baffles firstly break streamline flow, and the circulation area at the location of ROD baffle is abruptly r e d u c e d so that fluid is accelerated, and then fluid s c o u r s and disturbs the b o u n d a r y layer, and improves turbulent flow intensity. All the transformation o f the fluid flow conformation is advantageous to heat transfer e n h a n c e m e n t . H o w e v e r the pressure gradient o f fluid increases distinctly with augmentation of R e n u m b e r in the unit duct, as s h o w n in Fig. 7.
100

istics of the RHE, a n e w kind of numerical model o f the shell and tube heat exchanger is presented, w h i c h is called as the unit duct model. The numerical simulation has achieved the following conclusions. The shell side structure o f the RHE is very complicated, but the unit duct m o d e l c a n perfectly predict the distributions o f the flow, pressure and temperature field, w h i c h is advantageous to analyze the e n h a n c e d h e a t transfer m e c h a n i s m o f the ROD baffles. The ROD baffle can change the fluid flow direction and strongly increase the flow velocity. This function of disturbing flow c a n a u g m e n t turbulence intensity, consequently e n h a n c e convective heat transfer o f shell side fluid.

~,~ 8O

60

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t 0.5 ~ 1.0 ~ 1.5
i

References
[ 1] [2 ] Gentry C C. ROD baffle heat exchanger technology [J]. Chemical Engineering Progress, 1990, (7): 48-57. Yah Liang-wen, Wu Jin-~dng, Wang Zhi-wen. Industrially experimental invesfigatious and development of the curveROD baffle heat exchanger [J]. Journal of Shanghai University ( English Edition ), 2004, 8(3) : 337- 341. Prithiviraj M, Andrews M J. Three-dimensional numerical simulation of shell and tube heat exchangers. Part I: foundation and fluid mechanics [J]. Numerical Heat Transfer, Part A, 1998, 33. 799-816. Greiner M, Faulkner R J, Van V T, et al. Simulations of three-dimensional flow and augmented heat transfer in a symmetrically grooved channel [J]. Journal of Heat Transfer, 2000, 122(11) : 653 - 659. Patankar S V. Recent development in computational heat transfer IJ]. Journal of Heat Transfer, 1988, 110( 11 ): 1037-1045. Patankar S V. Numerical Heat Transfer and Huid Flow [M]. McGraw-Hill, New York, 1980. ( Editor YAO Yne-yuan)

20 0

~ 2.0

~ 2.5

3.0

Re (xl0 -4)

E3 ]

Fig.6
0 -200 .-. -400 B
-600 -800 -1 000 -1 200 0

Relation of h and Re number [4 ]

[5 ]

[6 ]

Re (xl0 -4)

Fig.7

Relation of pressure gradient and Re number