Studies on a Shell and Tube Heat Exchanger Using CFD

Abstract

Now a days, Shell and tube heat exchanger (STHE) is the best well known a heat exchanger broadly used in oil refinery, and other large chemical process due to fit to very high pressure application. The simulation process comprises of modeling and meshing the geometry of the STHE using CFD package ANSYS 15.0. The aim of the project is to design STHE with respect to heat transfer, flow characteristics, temperature field inside the shell and pressure drop. This is to be investigated by numerically modelling using ANSYS software tools. The heat exchanger (HE) contains 10 tubes inside a 600 mm long and 100 mm diameter of shell. The stream and temperature field inside the shell and tube are evaluated using a commercial CFD package considering the plane symmetry. A set of CFD simulation is performed for a single shell and a bundle of tube. The outcomes are observed to be delicate to a laminar model. It is found that there are districts of low Reynolds number in the core of HE shell. The temperature and velocity profile are presented in details.