IJSRD - International Journal for Scientific Research & Development| Vol.

3, Issue 12, 2016 | ISSN (online): 2321-0613

CFD Analysis of Shell and Tube Heat Exchanger

Rahul Singh1 Divyank Dubey2 Harishchandra Thakur3
1,2
Student 3Assistant Professor
1
Department of Mechanical Engineering 2,3Department of Thermal Engineering
1,2,3
Gautam Buddha University Greater Noida, India
Abstract A heat exchangers of water is proposed with
A. Flow Arrangement
simplified model for the study of thermal analysis of shell-
and-tubes. Shell and Tube heat exchangers are having 1) Co-Current (Parallel) Flow
special significance in boilers, Power plants, condensers, As the name suggests, the flow of the hot and the cold fluid
turbines. This research work focus on computational fluid is taking place in the same direction in this case. The
dynamics analysis of shell and tube heat exchanger. In this temperature difference between the hot and the cold fluid
research work we have shown how the heat transmission keeps on decreasing from one end to the other.
rate change by changing the flow of water it will be counter
flow or parallel flow with varying its molding design. The
3D modeling of the shell and tube heat exchanger is
designed in INVENTER PROFESSIONAL and its analysis
is done in ANSYS-FLUENT 14.5 and 15. We make the
design better by providing the fin of circular shape with
baffles and without baffles making the flow counter and
parallel. During the 400mm segment of the shell we provide
84 fins and 4 baffles with 7 tubes which make the heat
exchanger performance better than ordinary shell and tube
Heat exchanger. The Results Shows that the Maximum heat
transmission take place in the circular fin with baffle having
the counter flow of the water, which provide more time for
Fig. 1: Co-current (Parallel) flow
the flow of water for heat transmission in a wavy form and
2) Counter Current Flow
large surface area for the heat dissipation for the cooling of
In this setup, the hot fluid enters from one end of the
water.
exchanger and the cold from the opposite end. This results
Key words: CFD, Fin, Heat Exchanger, Thermal analysis,
in nearly constant temperature difference between the hot
Heat transfer and the cold fluid. This is a significant aspect and makes
counter current exchangers preferable over co-current
I. INTRODUCTION exchangers.
When we look at transfer of heat from one or more media to
another medium or media, the media taking the heat
undergoes hot and vice versa. Hence, the name 'heat
exchangers'. Our lungs also act as heat exchangers and are
quite efficient at that primarily due to the large surface to
volume ratio. In car radiators also exchange heat with water
releasing heat into the air passing through the radiator and in
turn, cooling the engine. It is widely employed in industries
for large scale processes examples like Condensers and
boilers in steam plants. Modifications over the age in heat
exchangers have undergone numerous and have become
quite efficient compared to their predecessors. They have Fig. 2: Counter current flow
new designs, new materials and have been customized to 3) Crossed Flow
meet specific needs. We will have a look at some of the The two fluids (hot and cold) are directed at right angles to
most common types of them. each other. Figure 3 show two common arrangement of
In our everyday life, we have a lot to do with heat cross flow heat exchanger. In figure 3 (a) the Fluid_1_in
transfer from one medium to another like the refrigerators (th1) flows inside the separate tubes and its different streams
and the air conditioners at our homes function on this very do not mix. The Fluid_2_out (tc1) flows over the tube banks
principle of heat transfer and also in nature, the evaporation and gets perfectly mixed. In figure 3 (b), each of the fluid
of water from oceans is also an example of heat transfer. stay in prescribed paths and are not allowed to mix as they
fluid through the heat exchanger. When mixing occurs, the
II. TYPES OF HEAT EXCHANGERS temperature variations are primarily in the flow direction.
Heat exchangers can be classified on various parameters- When unmixed, there is temperature gradient along the
design and construction, flow arrangement, transfer process stream as well as in the direction perpendicular to it.
and number and state of fluids some of them are: Apparently, temperatures of the fluid leaving the unit are not
uniform for the unmixed streams. The cross flow heat
exchanger are commonly employed in air or gas heating and

All rights reserved by www.ijsrd.com 791


cooling applications, e.g., the automobile radiator and the
cooling unit of air-conditioning duct.
Fig. 3: Cross flow arrangement
Fig. 4: Cross flow arrangement
III. LITERATURE REVIEW
The purpose of this chapter is to provide a literature review
of past research effort such As journals or research papers
and articles related to shell and tube heat exchanger and
computational fluid Dynamics (CFD) analysis whether on
two dimension and three dimension modelling. Moreover,
review of other relevant research studies are made to
provide more Information in order to understand more on
this research.
Swapnaneel Sarma [1] this paper consists of a
simplified model of counter flow shell and tube type heat
exchanger having both interacting liquids as water. In this
paper we have first designed a shell and tube heat exchanger
to cool water from 55 to 45 by water at room
temperature. The design has been done using Kerns method
in order to obtain various dimensions such as shell, tubes,
baffles etc. A computer model using ANSYS 14.0 has been
developed by using the derived dimensions of heat
exchanger. Then the steady state thermal simulation in
ANSYS has been performed by applying several thermal
loads on different faces and edges. The heat transfer
capabilities of several thermal materials has been compared
by assigning different materials to various parts such as
tubes, baffles, shell.
Rajagapal Thundil Karuppa Raj [2] The energy exit
stream of many energy conversion devices such as I.C
engine gas turbine etc. goes as waste, if not utilized
properly. This work has been carried out with a view to
predicting the performance of a shell and finned tube heat
exchanger in the light of waste heat recovery application.
The performance of the heat exchanger has been evaluated
by using the CFD package fluent 6.3.26 and has been
compared with the existing experimental values. An attempt
CFD Analysis of Shell and Tube Heat Exchanger
(IJSRD/Vol. 3/Issue 12/2016/207)
has also been made to calculate the performance of the
above heat exchanger by considering triangular fins instead
of regular rectangular fins and the result so obtained have
been compared. The performance parameters pertaining to
heat exchanger such as effectiveness, overall heat transfer
coefficient, energy extraction rate etc., have been reported in
this work.
Prasanna. J, H. R. Purushothama, Devaraj K,
Murugeshan [3] In this study, attempts were made to
investigate the impacts of various baffle inclination angles
on fluid flow and the heat transfer characteristics of a shell-
and-tube heat exchanger for three different baffle inclination
angles namely 0, 10, and 20. The simulation results for
various shell and tube heat exchangers, one with segmental
baffles perpendicular to fluid flow and two with segmental
baffles inclined to the direction of fluid flow are compared
for their performance. The shell side design has been
investigated numerically by modeling a small shell-and-tube
heat exchanger. The study is concerned with a single shell
and single side pass parallel flow heat exchanger. The flow
and temperature fields inside the shell are studied using non-
commercial computational fluid dynamics software tool
ANSYS CFX 12.1. For a given baffle cut of 36%, the heat
exchanger performance is investigated by varying mass flow
rate and baffle inclination angle. From the computational
fluid dynamics simulation results, the shell side outlet
temperature, pressure drop, re-circulation near the baffles,
optimal mass flow rate and the optimum baffle inclination
angle for the given heat exchanger geometry are determined.
IV. SHELL AND TUBE HEAT EXCHANGER: CONSTRUCTION
A. Tubes
In a shell and tube heat exchanger tubes provide the heat
transfer area. In shell and tube heat exchanger tubes are
arranged in various arrangements, they are enclosed by a
shell around them. They are available in various types heat
exchanger with different types of fins shapes. The selection
depends upon wall thickness of tube for maximum operating
pressure and corrosion characteristics.
Fig. 5: Tubes
B. Tube Pitch
A shell and heat tube exchanger designing depends on
various aspects. The tubes cannot be made very close to
All rights reserved by www.ijsrd.com 792
 CFD Analysis of Shell and Tube Heat Exchanger
(IJSRD/Vol. 3/Issue 12/2016/207)

each other as that would then leave very less amount of fluid
between the tubes in tube sheets attached at the ends of the
exchanger and if the space between the tubes is very high, it
would result in less surface area which would affect the
efficiency of the exchanger. Hence, an optimum distance
should be maintained. The shortest distance between centers
of two adjacent tubes is called the tube pitch, should not be
less than 1.25 times the tube diameter. In this design we kept
pitch of heat exchangers about 17 mm.

Fig. 8: Baffles
E. Fins
Main component of the shell and tube heat exchanger of the
Fins because of increased the heat transfer rate. Fin
saturated on the tubes, tubes inbuilt inside of shell and tube
heat exchanger. In this we use circular and rectangular fins
to make heat dissipation rate much more than other normal
heat Exchanger.

Fig. 6: Tube Pitch

C. Shell
Shell is the outer casing of the heat exchanger., one fluid
flows between the outer wall of the heat exchanger and
inner wall of the shell while the other flows inside the tube.
Shell has a circular cross section and selection of material of
the shell depends upon the corrosiveness of the fluid and the
working temperature and pressure. Carbon steel is a
common material for the shell under moderate working
conditions.

Fig. 9: Tubes having Circular Fin

V. COMPUTATIONAL FLUID DYNAMICS (CFD)

The computational model of an experimental tested Shell
and Tube Heat Exchanger with fins and baffles and the
geometry parameters are given below. As can be seen from
above Fig the simulated shell and tube heat exchanger has
four cycles of baffles in the shell side direction with total
number of tube 7 .The whole computation domain is
bounded by the inner side of the shell and everything in the
shell contained in the domain. The inlet and outlet of the
Fig. 7: Shell domain are connected with the corresponding tubes.
D. Baffles
Baffles are panels act like an obstructing and redirect the
flow of fluid in the shell side of an exchanger. They are
situated normal to the walls of the shell and force the liquid
to flow at right angles to the axis of the tubes. This increases
turbulence resulting in greater heat transfer. Baffles also
help in keeping the tubes from sagging and increase the
strength of the tubes by preventing their vibration.

All rights reserved by www.ijsrd.com 793


Fig. 10: computational fluid dynamics
A. Create Geometry
Heat exchanger is design in the Autodesk inventor 2013. It
is a counter and parallel flow heat exchanger. First, the fluid
flow (fluent) module is selected from ANSYS workbench.
The design modeler opens then import design geometry.
Fig. 11: Shell and Tube Heat Exchanger
B. Create Mesh For The Geometry
The meshing part is done in the Meshing software package
of ANSYS. The mesh was generated with a high smoothing
and fine sizing. The automatic inflation is taken program
controlled along the fixed automatic size function.
Fig. 12: Mesh Geometry
CFD Analysis of Shell and Tube Heat Exchanger
(IJSRD/Vol. 3/Issue 12/2016/207)
C. Analysis Setup
Boundary conditions are used according to the need of the
model. Hot water inlet set on .01 m/s velocity, temperature
at 336k and outlet set on pressure outlet. Cold water inlet set
on 0.02 m/s velocity, temperature at 290k and outlet set on
pressure outlet. Outer surface of shell and tube heat
exchanger set on adiabatically (heat flux is 0).
References values taken out from Ansys Fluent,
temperature 290k are cold water inlet and other values is
default for shell and tube heat exchanger.
D. Visualizing The Results
Shell and tube heat exchanger velocity variation on different
types Velocity profile is examined to understand the flow
distribution across the cross section at different positions in
heat exchanger.
A velocity variation of cold water into the shell.
Here is also heat examine by using circular fin to make
faster heat dissipation rate This type flow increased heat
transfer rate.
Fig. 13: Heat Dissipate in Parallel flow using Baffles
Fig. 14: Heat Dissipate using Circular fin and Baffles
VI. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Heat transfer increased from without baffles to with baffles,
and greater for with baffles using circular fins in shell and
tube heat exchanger. Shell and tube heat exchanger most
effective case for baffles with fin. The experimental values
All rights reserved by www.ijsrd.com 794
 CFD Analysis of Shell and Tube Heat Exchanger
(IJSRD/Vol. 3/Issue 12/2016/207)

performed in ANSYS 14.5 using the same boundaries VII. CONCLUSION

condition. A numerical study is carried out to investigate the
cold Cold temperature variation between different sections of shell and
Hot water Hot water
Parallel water water tube heat exchanger. A comparison is performed between
inlet outlet
flow inlet outlet circular and rectangular fins by using baffles and without
temp(k) temp(k)
temp(k) temp(k) baffles in the design modeling. We obtained different results
Without by changing its fins shape and leads to increase its heat
fin+ 363 319.62 290 311.62 transfer rate and by using the baffles we increase the rate of
baffles heat transfer in fluid between the inlet and outlet segment.
With From the investigation the following conclusion has been
363 317.21 290 313.06
baffles made:
With By using baffles water flow rate decreases in shell and
baffles 363 314.01 290 314.63 tube heat exchanger and leads to increase in heat transfer
+fin rate.
Table 1. Parallel flow Using Circular Fin By using in circular fins maximum heat transfer rate will
cold Cold occur in baffle using shell and tube heat exchanger due
Hot water Hot water to the increase in surface area for the heat transformation
Counter water water
inlet outlet By using in rectangular fins maximum heat transfer rate
flow inlet outlet
temp(k) temp(k) will occur in baffle using shell and tube heat exchanger.
temp(k) temp(k)
Without Maximum heat transfer rate will occur in rectangular fins
fin+ 363 317.82 290 312.71 using baffles shell and tube heat exchanger fins as
baffles compared to circular fins.
With
363 314.71 290 314.28 VIII. ACKNOWLEDGMENT
baffles
With We would like to be thankful to the Gautam Buddha
baffles 363 310.21 290 316.54 University, Greater Noida. At the same time we could not
+fin forget the direct or indirect support of faculty and friends to
Table 2. Counter flow Using Circular Fin make this paper successful.

Fig. 15: shell and tube heat exchanger for parallel flow using
circular fin
Fig. 16: shell and tube heat exchanger for counter flow using
circular fin
IX. REFERENCES
[1] Swapnaneel Sarma, CFD Analysis of Shell and Tube
Heat Exchanger using triangular fins for waste heat
recovery processes IRACST Engineering Science and
Technology: An International Journal (ESTIJ), ISSN:
2250-3498,Vol.2, No.6, Dec 2012.
[2] Rajagapal Thundil Karuppa Raj , shell side numerical
analysis of a shell and tube heat exchanger considering
the effects of baffle inclination angle on fluid flow,
Thundil Karuppa Raj, R., et al.: Shell Side Numerical
Analysis of a Shell and Tube Heat THERMAL
SCIENCE: Year 2012,
[3] Prasanna. J, H. R. Purushothama, Devaraj K,
Murugeshan. a numerical analysis of hydrodynamic and
heat transfer effects of shell-and-tube heat exchanger for
different baffle space and cut, Prasanna. J. et al. /
Mechanica Confab.
[4] Savitri Patel, D.S Patel, Application of CFD in STHE,
International Journal of Engineering Science and
Innovative Technology (IJESIT) Volume 3, Issue 2,
March 2014.
[5] C. Z. Patel, Prof. K. K. Araniya, Prof. V. Y. Gajjar, Prof.
H. B. Nayak, Prof. B.B. Patel, CFX Validation of Shell
and Tube Heat Exchanger at Thermal Power Station,
International Journal of Emerging Technology and
Advanced Engineering, Volume 4, Issue 4, April 2014.
[6] Alok Vyas, Mr. Prashant Sharma, An Experimental
Analysis Study to Improve Performance of Tubular Heat
Exchangers, Alok Vyas et al Int. Journal of Engineering
Research and Applications.
[7] Vindhya Vasiny Prasad Dubey, Raj Rajat Verma, Piyush
Shanker Verma & A. K. Srivastava, Steady State

All rights reserved by www.ijsrd.com 795

 CFD Analysis of Shell and Tube Heat Exchanger
(IJSRD/Vol. 3/Issue 12/2016/207)

Thermal Analysis of Shell and Tube Type Heat

Exchanger to Demonstrate the Heat Transfer Capabilities
of Various Thermal Materials using ANSYS, Global
Journal of Researches in Engineering, Volume 14 Issue
4 Version 1.0 Year 2014.
[8] B.Jayachandriah, K.Rajasekhar, Thermal Analysis of
Tubular Heat Exchangers Using ANSYS, International
Journal of Engineering Research, Volume No.3 Issue
No: Special 1, pp.: 21-25 22nd March 2014.
[9] Tay NH, Bruno F, Belusko M. Experimental validation
of a CFD model for tubes in a phase change thermal
energy storage system. International Journal of Heat and
Mass Transfer. 2012 Jan 31.
[10] Zhang JF, He YL, Tao WQ. 3D numerical simulation on
shell-and-tube heat exchangers with middle-overlapped
helical baffles and continuous bafflesPart I: Numerical
model and results of whole heat exchanger with middle-
overlapped helical baffles. International Journal of Heat
and Mass Transfer. 2009 Nov 30.
[11] Ghorbani N, Taherian H, Gorji M, Mirgolbabaei H. An
experimental study of thermal performance of shell-and-
coil heat exchangers. International Communications in
Heat and Mass Transfer. 2010 Aug 31.
[12] Kannan K, Rudramoorthy R. Experimental and
numerical analysis of laminar and low turbulent flow
distributions in inlet dividing header of shell and tube
heat exchanger. Journal of Hydrodynamics, Ser. B. 2010
Aug 31.
[13] Nasr MJ, Shafeghat A. Fluid flow analysis and extension
of rapid design algorithm for helical baffle heat
exchangers. Applied Thermal Engineering. 2008 Aug
31.
[14] Yang J, Ma L, Bock J, Jacobi AM, Liu W. A comparison
of four numerical modeling approaches for enhanced
shell-and-tube heat exchangers with experimental
validation. Applied Thermal Engineering. 2014 Apr 30.
[15] Yongqing W, Xin G, Ke W, Qiwu D. Numerical
investigation of shell-side characteristics of H-shape
baffle heat exchanger. Procedia Engineering. 2011 Dec
31.

All rights reserved by www.ijsrd.com 796