PROBLEM DESCRIPTION AND PROCEDURE

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
In order to perform Thermo hydraulic Analysis of Shell and Tube Heat Exchanger with
circular and elliptical tubes using segmented and helical baffles, computational studies have
been done. It mainly consists of three steps as described below:

Pre-processing
STUDY

Solver setting

Post-processing

PRE-PROCESSING

• Geometric fluid design

• Meshing

SOLVER SETTING

• Mathematical modelling
• Boundary conditions
• Solvers
• Solution, initialisation and calculations

POST-PROCESSING

• Pressure drop analysis

• Velocity profiles
• Heat transfer analysis

3.1 Computational Study

3.1.1 Pre-Processing
3.1.1.1 Modeling of shell and tube heat exchanger with baffles
A computer model using CATIA V5 has been built up by using the derived dimensions of heat
exchanger. The geometry has totally 08 parts. One shell and 7

tubes bundle. The dimensions of these fluid domains are enlisted in Table 3.1. Shell side fluid
domain represents the flow of hot water whereas the tube side fluid domain indicates the flow
of cold water which enters from the left side and exiting from the right side. The flow is
considered as parallel flow so the shell side inlet is also on the left side.

Table 3.1 . Geometric dimension of heat exchanger

SPECIFICATION DIMENSIONS
Length of heat exchanger(L) 600mm
Tube length(l) 640mm
Shell inner diameter(DS) 90mm
Tube outer diameter(do) 20mm
No. of tubes(Nt) 7
Tube pitch(Pt) and geometry 30, triangular
Baffle cut 36%
Baffle spacing(∆Bt) 86mm
Baffle thickness(t) 03mm
No. of baffles(Nb) 6

The elliptical tubes are prepared by equal volumes of elliptical and circular geometry. The
ratio of the major axis to the minor axis of the elliptical tube is 2:1.

Fig 3.3 shows the geometric designs with baffles both segmental and helical, tubes both
circular and elliptical. Hence we obtain four designs as shown below.
 fig 3.2 Design of the DPHE

Case A
Inner tube: Smooth
Outer tube: Smooth

Case B Case C
Inner tube: Convex Inner tube: Concave
Outer tube: Smooth Outer tube: Smooth

fig 3.3 various arrangements of the tubes

3.1.1.2 Meshing of modeled geometry

It is found to be the most important part in the analysis of STHX. Meshing must be done in a
precise way in order to get accurate results. In free meshing a relatively coarse mesh is
generated. It contains both tetrahedral and hexahedral cells having triangular and
quadrilateral faces at the boundaries. In the present study, Automatic mesh method has been
employed in which the number of the elements after meshing is found to be ………….. as it
can generate more accurate results when the flow directions are known.
 fig 3.4 Meshing

The model is drawn in catia as per the dimensions and saved as .igs file format.
The material properties of water is copied from fluent database. The materials are assigned to
fluid. The boundary conditions are given in solver settings.

3.2 Solver Settings

After completing the pre-processing, then the actual analysis has been performed in the
ANSYS FLUENT 19.3. The various steps followed in solving the problem till the solution is
converged are explained below

After complete meshing is done open ANSYS Fluent and wait until it opens fluent launcher
window,

3.2.2 Fluid Properties

In the FLUENT interface, first of all there is a need to define the fluid properties for the inner
and outer corrugated fluid domain of DPHE. As in the inner domain hot water at 313K is
entering therefore the properties of water at 313K are copied from the fluent date base. In case
of outer fluid domain, the properties of water at 281K are copied from the fluent date base.

3.2.3 Cell zone conditions

Here we need to assign the type of fluid for the inner and outer domains. After assigning water
liquid for each of the zones click ok.
3.2.4 Boundary Conditions
The boundary conditions those are used in this analysis are available in Figure 3.13 & Figure
3.14. The mass flow rate and temperatures are given and keep remaining all default. Here we
considered inlet temperatures as constant for both hot and cold fluids. The mass flow rate of
hot fluid is kept constant and it is varied for cold fluid.

Table 3.2 Inlet Boundary conditions

Named Selections Type Values Temperature
Hot inlet Mass flow inlet ṁ= 15 Kg/min 313 K
Cold inlet Mass flow inlet ṁ= 5 to 25 Kg/min 281 K
Hot outlet Pressure outlet Gauge = 0pa -
Cold outlet Pressure outlet Gauge = 0pa -

fig 3.6 Hot Fluid inlet boundary conditions

fig 3.7 Cold Fluid inlet boundary conditions

3.2.5 Mesh interfaces

Here we need to couple the inner and outer wall interfaces.

fig 3.8 Mesh interfaces

3.2.6 Initialization and Run calculation

SIMPLE algorithm is used to solve the problem. The convergence is set to 10-03 for accurate
solution. The problem is hybrid initialised. Now click on Run Calculation by giving 1000
iterations. The problem is calculated until solution is converged.

fig 3.9 Solution Convergence

3.3 Formulae used:
1
Mean Temperature: Tmean = (Tin + Tout )
2

Mass flow rate: ṁ = 𝜌𝐴𝑉

Heat transferred: Q = ṁCp(Tin- Tout)

(𝑄𝑐𝑜𝑙𝑑+ 𝑄ℎ𝑜𝑡 )
Average Heat transferred: Qavg=
2
4𝐴𝑐
Hydraulic Diameter: 𝐷ℎ =
𝑃

𝜌𝑉𝐷ℎ
Reynolds Number: 𝑅𝑒 =
𝜇

Nusselt Number: 0.023(Re)0.8(Pr)n

ℎ𝐷ℎ
Average Nusselt Number: 𝑁𝑢 =
𝐾𝑓

∆𝑃 𝐷ℎ
Average fanning friction: 𝑓𝑓 =
2𝜌𝐿𝑉 2

Where
Tin = Inlet Temperature in K
Tout = Outlet Temperature in K
ṁ = Mass flow rate (kg/sec)
Cp = Specific heat of fluid used in heat exchanger
Ac = Cross-sectional area of flow channel (m2)
P = Wetted perimeter of (m)
H = Heat transfer coefficient (w/m2 –k)
Dh = Hydraulic diameter (m)
Kf = Thermal conductivity of fluid (w/m-k)
∆p = Pressure drop (pa)
Ρ = Density of fluid (Kg/m3)
V = Velocity of fluid (m/s)
L =Length of heat Exchanger (m)
n =0.4 for heating of fluids
=0.3 for cooling of fluids
3.4 Model Calculation:
Model calculations for plain DPHE with cold fluid mass flow rate as 5 kg/min and hot fluid
mass flow rate as 15 kg/min.
1
Mean Temperature:Tmean = (Tin + Tout )
2

Tmean = (313+312.91)/2

=312.95 K

All the properties of water are taken from the data book with interpolation at Tmean Temperature.

Mass flow rate: ṁ = 𝜌𝐴𝑉

For hot fluid area of flow A = πr2

= π(0.0425)2

= 0.0056745 m2

For Cold fluid area of flow A = π(𝑟12 − 𝑟22 )

= π(0.0532 -0.04252)

= 0.00315023m2

ṁ
ṁ = 𝜌𝐴𝑉 => 𝑉 = 𝜌𝐴
ṁ 0.2495
𝑉ℎ𝑜𝑡 = = =0.0440 m/sec
𝜌𝐴 998.2∗0.0056

ṁ 0.0831
𝑉𝑐𝑜𝑙𝑑 = = = 0.0264 m/sec
𝜌𝐴 998.2 ∗ 0.0031

Heat transferred: Q = ṁCp(Tin- Tout)

Qcold = ṁcoldCp(Tout- Tin) = 0.0831*4.18*(281.581-281)

Qcold = 0.20181 KW

Qhot = ṁhotCp(Tin- Tout) = 0.2495*4.18*(313-312.91)

Qhot = 0.093861 KW
 (𝑄𝑐𝑜𝑙𝑑+ 𝑄ℎ𝑜𝑡 ) (0.20181+0.093861)
Qavg= = = 0.1478355 KW
2 2

𝜌𝑉𝐷ℎ
Reynolds Number: 𝑅𝑒 =
𝜇

𝜌𝑉ℎ𝑜𝑡 𝐷ℎ 998.2∗0.0440∗0.085
𝑅𝑒ℎ𝑜𝑡 𝑓𝑙𝑢𝑖𝑑 = = =5701.63
𝜇 0.001003

𝜌𝑉𝑐𝑜𝑙𝑑 𝐷ℎ 998.2∗0.0264∗0.021
𝑅𝑒𝑐𝑜𝑙𝑑 𝑓𝑙𝑢𝑖𝑑 = = =389.64
𝜇 0.001003

Nusselt Number: Nu = 0.023(Re)0.8(Pr)n n = 0.4 for heating of fluids

= 0.3 for cooling of fluids

Nuhot = 0.023(Rehot)0.8(Prhot)0.3

= 0.023(5701.63)0.8(4.34)0.3

= 36.1221

Nucold = 0.023(Recold)0.8(Prcold)0.4

= 0.023(389.64)0.8(10.72)0.4

= 7.0199
ℎ𝐷ℎ
Average Nusselt Number: 𝑁𝑢 =
𝐾𝑓

ℎ𝐷ℎ 𝑁𝑢 ∗ 𝐾𝑓
𝑁𝑢 = => ℎ =
𝐾𝑓 𝐷ℎ
𝑁𝑢ℎ𝑜𝑡 ∗𝐾𝑓 36.12∗0.628
hhot = =
𝐷ℎ 0.085

= 266.879 (W/m2 K)
𝑁𝑢𝑐𝑜𝑙𝑑 ∗𝐾𝑓 7.084∗0.628
hcold = =
𝐷ℎ 0.021

= 211.861 (W/m2 K)

∆𝑃 𝐷ℎ
Average fanning friction: 𝑓𝑓 =
2𝜌𝐿𝑉 2

∆𝑃∗ 𝐷ℎ 1.4808∗0.021
𝑓𝑓 = = = 0.0643
2𝜌𝐿𝑉 2 2∗998.2∗0.346∗0.02642
3.5 Post-Processing:
In order to evaluate the results and computational studies those have been performed on
different combinations of corrugated DPHE, post processing interface has been exploited.