Performance Investigation of Baffled She

16th Conference On Fluid Dynamics, fd2015, Nov.
, 17-19
Razi University, Kermanshah, Iran
Performance investigation of baffled shell and tube heat

exchanger using different nano-fluids
Ali Heydari Mostafa Shateri

Assistant Professor, Department of mechanical Ph.D. Student, Department of mechanical
engineering, Semnan Branch, Islamic Azad University, engineering, Semnan Branch, Islamic Azad University,
Semnan, Iran Semnan, Iran
a.heydari@semnaniau.ac.ir mostafashateri@gmail.com
Sina Sanjari
M.A. Student, Semnan university, Semnan, Iran
Sinasanjari@gmail.com
Abstract
In this study, a CFD simulation is used to investigate the effect of adding different nano particles
to the fluid on the performance of shell and tube heat exchanger with baffles. Nano particles addition
will change the thermo-physical properties. This can be leads to increasing or decreasing the heat
transfer coefficient depending on the fluid flow. In the present study, a three-dimensional modeling is
used to investigate the effect of different nano fluids with vary volume fractions for application in
baffled shell and tube heat exchanger. After grid independency and results validation, the rate of heat
transfer, pressure drop and outlet shell temperature are obtained for different volume fraction of all
nano fluids. Nano particles which are used in the present work are consisted of Al2O3, CuO, Fe2O3,
Cu, Fe and Au with water as base fluid. The results indicate that the addition of nano particles
reduces the heat transfer coefficient, pressure drop and shell heat transfer rate but leads to increasing
in outlet shell temperature. In other words, considering a constant heat transfer rate, using some
nano-fluids in baffled shell and tube heat exchanger will increase the outlet temperature of the shell.
Key words: Nano fluids, shell and tube heat exchanger, baffle, pressure drop, heat transfer rate.
1. Introduction
Heat exchangers as basic equipment are used in various industrial sectors Such as chemical
industry, oil refining industry, power station, food industry and so on. Heat exchangers are
designed for special systems and processes. Shell and tube heat exchangers are most
commonly used in this field [1]. Today, more than 35 to 40 percent of heat exchangers in
industries are of this type, because of suitable geometric structure, simple maintenance and
the ability to upgrade and development [2]. Also due to the flexibility of their performance,
large transfer area to volume ratio and easily cleaning, design and implementation [3], they
are widely used with different dimensions in operational industries and energy conversion
systems [2]. The main purpose of a heat exchanger is increasing heat transfer between two
fluids which reduces the required energy and helps to create a more effective process in both
production and economy. Overall strategy to evaluate the performance of a heat exchanger is
studying parameters such as Nusselt and Prandtl numbers, friction factor and pressure drop
[4-7].
16th Conference On Fluid Dynamics, fd2015, Nov., 17-19
In recent years, many studies were carried out on the impact of channel geometry on the
performance of fluid flow and heat transfer. Investigation of performance improvement of rod
baffle with unusual profiles such as triangles and diamonds has been done by Gu [8]. And the
effect of baffle's profile on fluid flow and heat transfer performance has been reported. Hilbert
and colleagues [9] also examined optimization of multipurpose design of the heat exchanger
blades. The specifications of flow pattern in different types of shell and tube heat exchangers
were estimated by Kim et. al.[10].
Improvement in heat transfer properties of nano-fluids can cause higher heat transfer
coefficient in the heat exchanger. Nano-fluid is an engineering liquid which consists of
nanoparticles with an average size below 100 nanometers in common heat transfer fluids such
as water, oil and ethylene glycol. The idea of using metal particles to enhance the thermal
conductivity of fluids was introduced by Maxwell [11]. According to him, metals in solid
state have thermal conductivity higher than liquids. This claim was followed by many
experiments with millimeter and micrometer-sized particles dispersed in liquids. However,
coarse particles face various problems such as sedimentation, path clogging and pressure
losses. The development of nanotechnology has created an opportunity to reuse the idea of
Maxwell with nano-size particles [12]. Nano-fluids can be used in numerous applications
such as lubricants and refrigerants in different industries, pharmaceuticals and radiation
therapy [13] and self-cleaning surfaces [14].
Various fluids with a variety of nanoparticles can be considered as cooling fluid heating
systems. In this context, many studies are completed using analytical, numerical and
experimental investigations to increase the heat transfer in common fluids with addition of
nanoparticles. For example, Palm et. al [15] and Liu et. al. [16] stated that the low
concentrations of nanoparticles (1 to 5 percent), heat transfer coefficient of the suspension
could rise to 20%. Selvakumar and Suresh [17] carried out their experimental studies on
copper oxide-water nano-fluid in a copper heat sink with the volume fraction of 10 and 0.2
percent. Their results showed 63.29% increasing in heat transfer coefficient for 0.2% nano-
fluid compared with pure water. The results of Hu and Chen [18] represent a significant
increase in heat transfer coefficient of nano-fluid alumina-water flow in a rectangular mini-
channel heat sink in compare with water-cooled heat sink. Manna et. al [19] presented a
noticeable increase (more than 12 percent) in the rate of heat transfer using silicon carbide-
water nano-fluid with 0.1 % volume fraction. They also showed that the conductivity
depends to particle size inversely. The effect of nanoparticles volume fraction on heat transfer
performance of nano-fluid was examined in a configuration (structure) parallel micro
channels by Byrne and his colleagues [20]. Any fluid passing through the heat exchanger will
be faced with some pressure drop. This occurrence is usually influenced by the core design
and flow distribution components such as inputs / outputs, headers, nozzles, ducts etc [21].
This pressure drop, especially due to the flow distribution equipment, will have a significant
impact on the rate of heat transfer.
In 2007, a periodic duct flow model was used to determine the pressure drop of a rod-baffle
shell and tube heat exchanger [1]. Ngo et. al [22] simulated the pressure drop in micro
channel heat exchangers with S-shaped fins and showed that the pressure drop is 6-7 times
less than in the heat exchanger with zigzag fins.
The purpose of this article is investigation the Effect of using different nano-fluids on the
flow field and heat transfer in baffled shell and tube heat exchanger. After mesh study and
validation, the effect of volume fraction of different nano-fluids is studied and the results
stated in the following sections.
2. Governing equations
The most basic equations of fluid flow are conservation equations such as conservation
equations of mass, momentum and energy [24]. The CFD technique uses numerical methods
for solving these equations in the flow system geometry to find out the flow characteristics
such as velocity, pressure, temperature, density. In fluid flow, continuity equation in the
differential form is shown as follows:

(1)
The differential form of momentum and energy equations can be arranged as follows:

′ ′

(2)
*
! " #$ &'()) +% ,
% % ()) (3)
In equation 3, Keff is effective thermal conductivity, (τij)eff is known as effective stress tensor
and µeff is related to effective viscosity.
2.1. Realizable K-ε Turbulence Model [25]:
Steady three-dimensional flow inside the heat exchanger shell is assumed viscous and
turbulent. K-ε Realizable turbulence model is employed in order to simulate the turbulence.
The reason for this turbulence model selection related to good modeling the intense mixing in
the near-wall region. Realizable k-ε turbulence model is different from standard k-ε model
from two points of view. (a) Realizable k-ε model has an alternative formula for turbulent
viscosity. (b) An exact equation is derived for the transport of mean-square fluctuations
vorticity. The equations and coefficients of this model can be found in Ansys Fluent theory
guide [25].
2.2. Characteristics of nano-fluids:
Thermo-physical properties of base fluids and nano-particles can be seen in Tables 1 and 2.
Nano-fluid properties can be calculated from the base fluid and nanoparticles properties using
equations 15 and 17.
Table. 1 Thermo-physical properties of the base fluids

Base liquid type ρ (kg/m3) Cp (J/kg K) k (W/m K)
Water 998.2 4182 0.6
Table. 2 Thermo-physical properties of nano-particls

Nanoparticle Type ρ (kg/m3) Cp (J/kg K) k (W/m K)
Al2O3 3970 765 40

Cuo 6500 535.6 20
Cu 8954 383.1 386
Fe 7860 440 80.4
Au 19320 128 318
Ag 10500 235 429
TiO2 4250 686.2 8.95
SiO2 2200 703 1.2
Dimond 3510 497.3 1000
Fe3O4 5200 670 6
Density and heat capacity of nano-fluids can be calculated based on Ramiar and colleagues
[26] and Khanafer and Vafai [27] respectively.
- ./0 1 .)
23 - 1 . 20 .20 /0 (4)
The viscosity is determined by Corcione correlation [28] that is usable for volume fractions
4)
up to 10% and nanoparticle sizes bigger than 25 nm:
/)
1 567890 :9)
(5)
.
;<6= >6<=
Where df is the diameter of the molecule of base liquid and it reads as:
?@ >D=
9) 61
(6)
AB)C
In which M is the molecular weight of base fluid, N is Avogadro number, and ρf0 is the
density of base fluid calculated at 293 K. Xuan et al. [29] considered the random motion of
suspended nanoparticles (Brownian motion) based on the Maxwell model and proposed a
modified formula for the effective thermal conductivity as follows:
E0 E4 E0 E4 F 0 .G0 '4 *
E()) E4 H
(7)
E0 E4 E0 E4 F BIJ
Where kB = 1.381 × 10−23 J/K is Boltzmann constant, rc is the apparent radius of clusters and
depends on the fractal dimension of the cluster structure.
3. Modeling
3.1. Problem definition
In the present research, the heat exchanger dimensions are selected from reference [23] as
numerical model geometry (Table 3). One of the reasons for choosing this heat exchanger is
to validate the numerical results. After geometric modeling, the grid network is produced and
its independency is checked. After validation the numerical results with liquid water [27],
thermo-physical properties of nano-fluids are calculated from equations (4) to (6). Then by
determining the boundary conditions (Section 3.3), numerical simulation has been studied
using Ansys-Fluent 15 software.
Table 3. Design condition and problem geometry

Parameter amount
Shell size, Ds 90 mm
Tube outer diameter, do 20 mm
Tube bundle geometry and pitch Triangular,30 mm
Number of tubes, Nt 7
Heat exchanger length, L 600 mm
Shell side inlet temperature, T 300 K
Baffle cut, Bc 36%
Central baffle spacing, B 86 mm
Number of baffles, Nb 6
3.2. Mesh Study
In order to create the network and geometric modeling, Gambit software is used. After
creating a three-dimensional geometry, a network with 242,190 cells is produced (Fig. 1). To
evaluate the solutions independency of grid size, and elimination errors caused by grid
network coarseness, numerical solution for multiple networks with different cell numbers is
carried out.
Fig. 1 Schematic of geometry and grid network
From Fig. 2 it is clear that there is negligible difference between the results related to 242,190
and 745,277 cells number. Thus, 242,190 cells number was chosen to reduce the time of the
solution.
Fig. 2 Mesh study

3.3. Boundary Conditions
According to fig.1, mass flow inlet and stagnation temperature is chosen for inlet condition
and atmosphere pressure is selected for outlet condition. Thus, all outlet condition will be
extrapolated from the computational domain. Also, the shell side is assumed insulated from
heat transfer and the temperature of the tube's surfaces is considered fix at 450K.
3.4. Numerical method
A CFD method is used to solve the governing equations for flow inside the small-scale heat
exchanger. SIMPLE algorithm is employed to calculate the correlation between pressure and
velocity. To discretize the momentum and energy equations and also pressure extrapolating
first order upwind scheme and standard method is used respectively.
4. Results and discussion
First, in order to validate the numerical calculations, the results are compared with Ozden and
Tari [27] in three mass flow rate of water 0.5, 1 and 2 kg/s (fig.3). It should be noted that, in
their study, two types of grid networks have been enjoyed (structured and unstructured). In
this research the unstructured grid network is used and the results were compared with
structured mode. They have produced the structured grid network with the grid number
1360000, while the number of unstructured grid network in the present work is 242190. The
small deviation which is observed in the results of fig. 3 can be caused by this problem.
However, according to fig. 3 the results show good convergence and accuracy.
(a) (b)
(c)
Fig. 3 Comparison of numerical results with the results of [28] for different mass flow rate
a) The overall heat transfer b) Output shell temperature c) Pressure drop

Figures 4 and 5 represent the rate of heat transfer and heat transfer coefficient in heat
exchanger respectively for different nano-fluids with 0.5 kg/s mass flow rate. According to
these figures, the maximum heat transfer rate and heat transfer coefficient occurred for
aluminum oxide nano-fluid in 1% volume fraction. The minimum heat transfer rate is
happened for gold nano-fluid with the volume fraction of 5%. One remarkable result is
deviation of heat transfer rate for gold and silica nano-fluids despite of the same heat transfer
coefficient. This is because of maximum temperature difference which is happened for gold
nano-fluid (fig. 8).
Figure 4. Total heat transfer rate for different nano-fluids in different volume fraction
Another consequence, which can be seen from these graphs, is reduction in heat transfer rate
and heat transfer coefficient with increasing volume fraction of all nano-fluids. Since the inlet
mass flow condition is considered the same for all cases, the Reynolds number is only a
function of the fluid viscosity. With the addition of nanoparticles to the fluid the viscosity is
increased and Reynolds number is reduced. The Prandtl number of all nano-fluid (with
volume fraction smaller than 5%) is less than the water (except silica nano-fluid) [29]. The
Nusselt number is a function of the Reynolds and Prandtl numbers which will be reduced by
decreasing in them. Of course, the heat transfer coefficient is affected by Nusselt number and
conductivity of nano-fluid simultaneously. Thus, it cannot be assessed the same process for
variation of nano-fluid heat transfer rate and convective heat transfer coefficient. Therefore,
the variation trend of heat transfer rate and heat transfer coefficient with volume fraction is
different. Another important point is that heat transfer rate of a metal oxide nano-fluids is
more than the same metal nano-fluids. The reason can be explained that the metal oxidation
leads to reduction in conduction heat transfer coefficient. According to no variation in
Reynolds number and increasing in Prandtl number due to reduction in conduction heat
transfer coefficient, the Nusselt number and heat transfer rate are increased.
Figure 5. Heat transfer coefficient for different nano-fluids in different volume fraction
As can be seen in Fig. 6, the use of nano-fluid and increasing its volume fraction leads to
reduction in pressure drop. The reason for this can be explained with regard to the relationship
between pressure drop and head loss which is established as follows:
NOP
K# L /) KM L Q
/)
Although the addition of solid particles to the fluid results in increasing the friction
coefficient and so the pressure drop, in contrast, additional nanoparticles cause higher
increasing in density in compare with base fluid. By considering the equation (7) becomes
clear that adding nanoparticles into the base fluid or increasing the volume fraction leads to
further increase in density and reduction in pressure drop (with constant mass flow rate). It
should be noted that in lower mass flow rates the effect of the friction coefficient become
more important and in some cases the pressure drop will be increased [29].
Figure 6. Pressure drop in shell side for different nano-fluids in different volume fraction
In fig. 6 it can be seen that maximum and minimum pressure drop occur for silica (1%
volume fraction) and gold (5% volume fraction) nano-fluids respectively. Notably, the
pressure drop in gold nano-fluid is much higher than other nano-fluids which are investigated
in the present work (because of the higher density of gold particles in compare with other
nano-particles).
Figure 7 shows the shell outlet temperature while the inlet temperature is fixed at 300K.
According to the figure, the maximum outlet temperature (346K) is occurred for gold nano-
fluid with 5% volume fraction. The lowest outlet temperature (329.5K) is related to silica
nano-fluid with 5% volume fraction.
Figure 7. The shell outlet temperature for different nano-fluids in different volume fraction
Also according to Fig.s 6 and 7 it is clear that for gold nano-fluid with 5% volume fraction the
minimum heat transfer rate and highest outlet temperature occurs simultaneously. In other
words, for gold nano-fluid with the lowest rate of heat transfer the maximum output
temperature is achieved. One reason could be the higher density of gold in compare with other
nanoparticles. Another conclusion that can be taken from Fig. 6 is the variation of volume
fraction effect for different nano-fluids. For nanoparticles which have higher conductivity
(such as Cu, Ag and Au) the outlet temperature is increased by enhancing volume fraction.
On the other hand, for low conductivity cases it becomes vice versa. The Temperature contour
for silica and gold nano-fluids also can be seen in Fig. 8.
Figure 8. The temperature contour for silica and gold nano-fluids
The velocity contour for gold nano-fluid is shown in Fig. 9.

Figure 9. The velocity contour for gold nano-fluid
5. Conclusion
In this problem in general, adding nanoparticles reduces the heat transfer coefficient, pressure drop
and heat transfer rate in the shell but on the contrary it increases output temperature of the shell. A few
more detailed results are as follows:
• For gold nano-fluid the highest outlet temperature occurs with minimum heat transfer rate.
• The lowest pressure drop is dedicated for silica nano-fluid.
• The maximum heat transfer rate and heat transfer coefficient are occurred with aluminum
oxide and diamond nano-fluids.
• Increasing volume fraction in all nano-fluids leads to reduction in heat transfer rate, heat
transfer coefficient and pressure drop in shell and tube heat exchanger.
• For nanoparticles with higher conductivity the outlet temperature is increased by enhancing
volume fraction.
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16th Conference On Fluid Dynamics, fd2015, Nov.