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Optimization of Shell and Tube Heat Exchangers for Sea Water Cooling by
COMSOL Multiphysics

Article · November 2012

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 International Journal of Emerging Technology and Advanced Engineering
Website: www.ijetae.com (ISSN 2250-2459, Volume 2, Issue 11, November 2012)
Optimization of Shell and Tube Heat Exchangers for Sea Water
Cooling by COMSOL Multiphysics
S. Swaraj Reddy1, Tania Dey2, Haribabu K3, Harshit Krishnakumar4, Garima Vishal5
1,2,4,5
Students, Department of Chemical Engineering, National Institute of Technology Calicut, Kozhikode.
3
Assistant Professor, Department of Chemical Engineering, National Institute of Technology Calicut, Kozhikode.
Abstract — In this paper, the new approach of COMSOL
Multiphysics 3.5, a commercial finite element modelling
software has been employed to simulate a theoretical (2-D
geometry) model for shell and tube heat exchanger. The
model incorporates the effects of fluid velocity in inlet and
outlet and the material used for construction of heat
exchanger for the required heat transfer to be achieved. The
purpose of this paper is optimization of shell and tube heat
exchanger for sea water cooling operation. In this operation,
the coolant media from industries and other sources, at 12 0C
has to be cooled to 60C using deep sea water available at 2 to
50C. The study mainly focuses on various configurations of
shell and tube heat exchanger and the effect of different
variables on heat transfer rate for optimized configuration.
Simulation results show that aluminium is obtained as the
preferred material of selection as it is coherent with all the
parameters of design for the desired heat transfer.
Keywords — Comsol Multiphysics, Heat Transfer rate,
Optimization, Sea Water Cooling, Shell and tube heat
exchanger.
I. INTRODUCTION
There is an overwhelming demand for air conditioning
in office buildings. Consequently, the amount of energy
used for cooling is a concern for many. The increased
demand for cooling also means that more are being
installed on the rooftops of buildings.
If the building is situated near a sea, one option could be
to use the seawater as a heat sink, eliminating the need for a
conventional air conditioner. Furthermore, by using
seawater for cooling the condenser, a saving of up to
90%of energy can be achieved [1].
Seawater cooling systems are often designed using an
intermediate heat exchanger that separates the sea water
and the cooling media in the system, in order to prevent
contamination of the condenser [2].
This technology has been put into use in several places
around the world. It has been proposed to cool buildings in
downtown Toronto using cold, deep-water withdrawn from
Lake Ontario in North America [3].
264
A unique Sea Water Cooling (SWC) system at the
National Oceanography Centre (NOC), located in
Southampton's dock area, UK, is saving energy and helping
to reduce the building's carbon footprint [4]. Some
preliminary research has been done on the use of sea water
district heating and cooling for Tallinn coastal area, Finland
[5]. Such a plant has also been installed in the Ninghai
Power Plant, China [6].
With the increasing use of computers, powerful
simulation software has become more popular. Computer
simulation provides a lucid picture of the complicated
physical phenomena that occur in any chemical engineering
processes. This is possible because these simulations are
able to provide visual representation of otherwise hard to
picture concepts such as, concentration gradients, velocity
profiles and temperature gradients [7]. Although there is no
substitute for laboratory run experiments, digital
simulations can be used as the stepping stone towards a
better understanding of basic chemical engineering
principles.
One such software is COMSOL Multiphysics.
COMSOL Multiphysics is a finite element analysis, solver
and Simulation software, Finite Element Software package
for various physics and engineering applications, especially
coupled phenomena, or Multiphysics. It is good at
modeling chemical engineering phenomenon since it is
designed to combine or couple several processes (like heat
and momentum transfer in case of shell and tube heat
exchanger) in a single model. Thus, COMSOL can solve
multiple nonlinear PDE’s simultaneously and the models
can be generated and solved in one, two or even three
dimensions. Furthermore, COMSOL models are
interactive, user friendly and they are ideal tools to
complement theoretical knowledge.
Nomenclature
U velocity scale
L length scale
ƞ kinematic viscosity.
 International Journal of Emerging Technology and Advanced Engineering
Website: www.ijetae.com (ISSN 2250-2459, Volume 2, Issue 11, November 2012)
Cp specific heat capacity (J/(kg·K))
T temperature (K)
k thermal conductivity (W/(m·K))
ρ density (kg/m3)
µ Velocity vector (m/s)
Q sinks or source term
kT turbulent thermal conductivity
µT turbulent dynamic viscosity
PrT turbulent Prandtl number.
ῡ velocity field in two dimensional rectangular Cartesian
coordinate system
E total energy
keff effective thermal conductivity
Sh source
(Tij)eff deviatory stress tensor.
II. COMSOL MULTIPHYSICS
COMSOL Multiphysics was originally known as
FEMLAB because it uses the finite element method to
analyse and solve complex problems.
The software comes with several modules in its library
for specific applications. These applications include:
AC/DC Module, Acoustics Module, CAD Import Module,
Chemical Engineering Module, Earth Science Module, Heat
Transfer Module, Material Library, MEMS Module, RF
Module, and Structural Mechanics Module. Each module
contains modelling tools and equations for the application
described. Modelling tools from multiple modules can be
coupled together to accurately depict complicated systems
and processes [8].
A. Chemical Engineering Module
The Chemical Engineering Module is the perfect tool for
process-related modeling. It is specifically designed to
easily couple transport phenomena— computational fluid
dynamics (CFD) or mass and energy transport—to
chemical reaction kinetics. It can be used for the modeling
of reactors, filtration and separation units, heat exchangers,
and other equipment common in the chemical industry.
Other modeling interfaces account for electrochemical
systems (such as fuel cells) and applications where electric
fields influence transport, such as electrophoresis and
electro kinetic flow.
Models may be created in 1, 2, or 3 dimensions, and use
partial differential equations to relate the physics of each
aspect of a model. In order to simulate all the aspects of a
system, multiple models are often necessary [8].
265
B. Using COMSOL
The first step to creating a model using COMSOL is to
create the desired geometry to be evaluated. This can be 1,
2, or 3 dimensional geometries. Irregular geometries are
also possible to be made using the various drawing tools
available to COMSOL. The next step is to mesh the model.
This involves breaking the geometry into subsections that
will be evaluated individually and then displayed together
to give an overview of the phenomena taking place. It is
generally most effective to specify a small mesh size at and
near boundaries as this is where the most irregularities will
occur. After meshing, the physics of the model may be
defined both throughout the sub domain of the model and
at each of the boundaries. The model can then be solved
and post-processing can occur. Post-processing involves
manipulating the solution to obtain plots for relevant data
and fluxes. Parametric studies can then be performed in
order to optimize the model [8].
III. PROBLEM DESCRIPTION
The objective of this project is to create a COMSOL
model for shell and tube heat exchanger. Sea water cooling
plant operation is taken into consideration. In this, sea
water at 2 to 50C is used to cool the cooling medium. The
cooling medium is available at 120C, which is to be cooled
to 60C. A decrease of 60C is desired from the heat transfer
in heat exchanger. The project also aims at plotting and
studying the temperature and velocity profile for different
inlet flow velocity, pipe diameter and pipe material.
The shell and tube heat exchanger is considered here
because this type of heat exchanger is cheap and easily
available. There is flexibility regarding materials of
construction. The shell and the tubes can be made of
different materials. Cleaning and repair is relatively
straightforward.
To achieve the same, a 2-D model of shell and tube heat
exchanger in COMSOL was created. Appropriate cross
section of the shell and tube heat exchanger was taken. The
inlet temperatures of the cold fluid and the hot fluid were
maintained the same for all cases. Different cases were
simulated by keeping the inlet temperatures constant, and
varying the flow rate and pipe material (for shell and tube).
In each case, a parametric sweep was conducted by hit
and trial of any one of the variable, keeping the other one
constant, in order to achieve the required temperature
difference. That way, the optimum quantity of that variable
was determined. Further, temperature and velocity plots
have been plotted.
 International Journal of Emerging Technology and Advanced Engineering
Website: www.ijetae.com (ISSN 2250-2459, Volume 2, Issue 11, November 2012)
IV. METHODOLOGY The conservation of mass can be defined by a scalar
equation. Velocity components in x, y and z directions are
A. Governing Equations
represented by u, v, and w. The components of velocity
1. Selection of governing physics: vector are functions of space and time. The continuity
An important characteristic of the flow is the Reynolds equation is given by
number, Re, defined as
( )
The second term is divergence of the velocity and named
If the Reynolds number is low, the flow is dominated by as convective term. It represents the difference between the
viscous forces, so Low Reynolds Number k-å model (LRN) mass flows into and the mass flows out from boundaries. It
can be used in COMSOL [9]. If, on the other hand, the must be balanced with the first term which describes the
Reynolds number is high, then the flow is dominated by accumulation. If the fluid is incompressible, then density is
inertial forces and turbulent flow occurs. Since we are constant in both location and time.
referring to the sea water cooling operation we study the 3. Energy equation in the k- Ɛ models:
flow pattern in it and conclude it to be turbulent hence K-Ɛ
turbulence model is considered. Thus, the governing ( ) ( )
equations in this model are
a) The Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS)
equations and a k-Ɛ turbulence model { ( ) }
b) General Heat transfer equations
The Non-Isothermal Flow interface was selected; thus Term contains contributions from radiation, as well as
the above equations are coupled to model the fluid-thermal any other volumetric heat sources [10].
interaction. B. Geometry of Shell and Tube Heat Exchanger
The governing equation for heat transfer in the model is
Considering a single section of it in 2-D gives the
the heat equation for conductive and convective heat
following figure
transfer
( )
The temperature-dependent properties for water and
metals from the built-in material library were used in the
model. The software incorporates the influence of the
turbulent fluctuations on the temperature field by using the
Kays-Crawford model for the turbulent Prandtl number.
So the equation for heat transfer in solids is given by

( )
Furthermore, to account for the effect of mixing due to
eddies, it is necessary to correct the fluid’s thermal
conductivity. The turbulence results in an effective thermal
conductivity, keff, according to the equation.

Figure 1: Cross Sectional View of the Shell and Tube

C. Boundary Conditions
2. Continuity equation: The boundary conditions mentioned for the problem are
Since mass is conserved within the control volume or A. K-Ɛturbulence equations in the fluid domain:
infinitesimal fluid element, the rate of increase of mass a. Specified initial velocity
within a volume is equal to the net rate at which mass b. Symmetry at the region borders
crosses its bounding surface.
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 International Journal of Emerging Technology and Advanced Engineering
Website: www.ijetae.com (ISSN 2250-2459, Volume 2, Issue 11, November 2012)
c. Wall function at the pipe/water interfaces
d. Fixed outlet pressure
B. Heat transport equations:
a. Fixed temperature at the inlet
b. Convection-dominated transport at the outlet
c. Symmetry (thermal insulation) at the region
borders
d. Thermal wall function at the pipe/water
interfaces
e. Fixed temperature at the inner pipe surfaces
Further, specific boundary conditions are given in
table II.
D. Sub Domain Settings
The types of materials were loaded from the inbuilt
material library present in COMSOL Multiphysics 3.5. Figure 2: Meshed view of the shell and tube
Both the liquids used were water, and the pipe materials
TABLE I
were steel AISI 4030 and simple aluminium. The sub MESH STATISTICS FOR SHELL AND TUBE
domains of pipe were identified and selected, and the pipe
material was fixed. The fluids sub domain were identified SNo. Property Value
and given the properties of water. Further, for each case, 1 Minimum element quality 0.7512
the material of pipe is changed. The specific sub domain Average element quality 0.9511
for each case is given in tables II. The water is common in 2
all cases. 3 Triangular elements 1956
E. Meshing 4 Edge elements 202
There are different types of meshing. Selecting a mesh is
purely intuitive. F. Solving the problem
Default meshing was used for this model, because the There are a wide range of solvers to select from in
temperature of the tube side fluid is fixed. This reduces the COMSOL. For all of our simulations, the auto select of
complexity of the problem. A default mesh with single solver was used, which detects the type of problem
refinement will give satisfactory results. The finished mesh encountered and automatically selects the best solver apt
will look like figure 2. for the given problem. The solver detected was stationery
segregated solver, and the same solver was used in all our
simulations.

TABLE II
Parameters for Shell and Tube

SNo. Flow rate Pipe temp Hot fluid

Mass flow Inlet temp
(hot Cold fluid(sea Pipe material Outlet temp
rate(kg/s) Hot fluid(K)
fluid)(m3/s) water) (K) obtained(K)
Case1 0.01 0.247 278 Steel AISI 4340 285 282.6

Case 2 0.001 0.0247 278 Aluminium 285 279.2

Case3 0.001 0.0247 278 Steel AISI 4340 285 279.4

Case4 0.003 0.0741 277 Aluminium 285 279.07

267
 International Journal of Emerging Technology and Advanced Engineering
Website: www.ijetae.com (ISSN 2250-2459, Volume 2, Issue 11, November 2012)
There are different types of meshing. Selecting a mesh is
purely intuitive.

V. RESULT AND DISCUSSION

A. Shell and Tube Heat Exchanger
A cross section of the Shell and tube heat exchanger was
taken and used for the purpose of simulation in the
COMSOL software. The parameters studied were Flow rate
of the hot fluid, material of pipe and the tube diameter.
Keeping the inlet temperatures and flow rates constant, the
flow rate was adjusted by hit and trial to get the desired
outlet temperature. The optimum flow rate for each case
had been found, and recorded. The following four cases
were considered. The same data has been taken from the
sea water cooling operation. The diameter of the inflow
boundary was set as 0.025 m.

Figure 4: Temperature vs. Arc length curve

Figure 3: Boundary consideration of shell and tube for temperature

measurement

In each of the cases, the temperature plot is given for the
red line highlighted boundary.
1. Case 1:
In this, the hot fluid is taken in the annulus and cold in
inner pipe (constant temperature 278 K). For the given flow
rate of hot fluid 0.01 m/s, with pipe material Steel AISI
4340 the temperature difference achieved is 2.4 K. The
temperature profiles are (the red line is the basis for the
graph plotted)
Figure 5: Surface plot of Temperature
2. Case 2:
In this, the hot fluid is taken in the annulus and cold in
inner pipe (constant temperature 278 K). For the given flow
rate of hot fluid 0.001 m/s, with pipe material aluminium
the temperature difference achieved is 5.8 K. The
temperature profiles are (the red line is the basis for the
graph plotted)

268
 International Journal of Emerging Technology and Advanced Engineering
Website: www.ijetae.com (ISSN 2250-2459, Volume 2, Issue 11, November 2012)

Figure 6: Temperature vs. Arc length curve Figure 8: Temperature vs. Arc length curve

Figure 7: Surface plot of Temperature Figure 9: Surface plot of Temperature

3. Case 3:
In this, the hot fluid is taken in the annulus and cold in
inner pipe (constant temperature 278 K). For the given flow
rate of hot fluid 0.001 m/s, with pipe material Steel AISI
4340 the temperature difference achieved is 5.6 K. The
temperature profiles are (the red line is the basis for the
graph plotted)
4. Case 4:
In this, the hot fluid is taken in the annulus and cold in
inner pipe (constant temperature 277 K). For the given flow
rate of hot fluid 0.003 m/s, with pipe material aluminium
the temperature difference achieved is 5.93 K. The
temperature profiles are (the red line is the basis for the
graph plotted)

269
 International Journal of Emerging Technology and Advanced Engineering
Website: www.ijetae.com (ISSN 2250-2459, Volume 2, Issue 11, November 2012)
Figure 10: Temperature vs. Arc length curve
Figure 11: Surface plot of Temperature
VI. CONCLUSION
In the simulation of the shell and tube heat exchanger,
the materials and flow rates were changed accordingly. In
case 1 and 3 the material is kept constant and flow rate is
optimized. Then in the case 2 taking the better flow rate,
material is changed and in case 3 taking the optimum flow
rate and the better material the desired temperature drop is
found out. Considering the plant economy and requiring the
above cases are considered helpful.
270
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The project is based on doing multiple simulations by
assuming parameter values for each case. Such studies can
now be performed in the modified versions of COMSOL
4.2a, as parametric studies.
This feature is very helpful in determining the optimum
dimensions. There is no need to assume values and do hit
and trial in the new version because of the introduction of
parametric sweep. It solves using iterations of many
random values thereby giving more accurate results.
Acknowledgment
This research was supported by Mr. Prithivi Raj J,
Research Scholar in Department of chemical engineering,
IIT Bombay. We take this opportunity to thank him. Special
thanks to him for rendering his full support to carry out the
simulations.
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