Numerical Study of Shell and Tube Heat Exchangers with Different Baffle Cuts

Abstract

In this work, the thermo-hydraulic performance of shell and tube heat exchangers with segmental baffles (STHX) were investigated numerically for different baffle cuts. The heat transfer coefficient and the pressure drop have been considered as key parameters. These two parameters depend on the fluid flow path, which affected by the baffles characteristics (type, spacing, and the baffle cut). Baffles are used to improve heat transfer on the shell-side, but they increase the pressure drop, thus requiring a higher pumping power. This Phenomenon reduces the exchanger efficiency. For this purpose, the influence of different baffle cuts in a STHX on the heat transfer coefficient and the pressure drop were studied. The ratio $\displaystyle \frac {h_{s}}{\Delta _{p}}$ has been taken as a criterion of performance evaluation and the commercial software Ansys-Fluent has been adopted to conduct the simulations. The results show that the heat transfer coefficient and the pressure drop are sensitive to the baffle cut selection. The maximum performance could be obtained with a baffle cut of 25%.