Baffle and shell caps boost shell and tube heat exchanger performance, signaling a thermal engineering paradigm shift. This method improves heat transmission and reduces pressure loss by combining CFD with novel shell caps. Baffle designs in CFD simulations accurately forecast and manipulate fluid flow patterns, maximizing exchanger heat transfer. Shell caps maximize heat exchange surface usage by reducing bypass flow. These new techniques can help to enhance traditional heat exchangers and provide new insights into fluid mechanics. Simulating a shell and tube with baffles is targeted in the present study.

Simulation Process

As shown below, the geometry model has undergone geometrical modifications in ANSYS Spaceclaim and two newly proposed caps are installed on both sides. It needs more than 2280000 cells to fully fill the domain by tetrahedron elements. The tube contains hot water at 82°C while the cold water is 16.85 °C. This large difference hastens heat transfer.

Figure 1: geometry model of Shell & Tube Heat Exchanger with Baffle

Post-processing

The post-processing study of the CFD simulation of the shell and tube heat exchanger shows that adding baffles and changing the shell caps makes a big difference in the thermal performance. The temperature contour plot shows that heat is effectively transferred between the hot fluid (82°C) and the cold fluid (16.85°C). The hot water temperature drops to 67°C, which is an 18% drop. With this big drop in temperature, it’s clear that the changed design made heat transfer much more efficient. The temperature distribution image clearly shows how the hot fluid cools down as it moves through the tube, with stronger heat transfer zones appearing where there are baffles.

With values ranging from 0 to 0.54 m/s, the velocity magnitude contour shows the complicated flow patterns that the baffle design creates. The alternate high and low-velocity areas between the baffle plates show that the baffles do a good job of creating turbulent mixing zones and blocking bypass flows. The improved thermal performance is due to this flow behavior and the larger heat transfer surface area made possible by the changed shell caps.

Figure 2: a) Velocity field b) temperature 3D distribution inside Shell & Tube Heat Exchanger with Baffle