A Shell and Tube Heat Exchanger with Baffle-cut is essential for the effective transfer of heat in factories. This heat exchanger has tubes inside a cylindrical shell with baffles to increase turbulence and heat transfer efficiency. The baffle cuts, sometimes angled or serrated, disturb fluid flow in the shell, boosting mixing and turbulence and increasing heat transfer. These baffles help the heat exchanger work well in high-pressure and high-temperature situations.

In this study, a shell and tube heat exchanger is modeled considering baffle cuts inside. To follow proper boundary conditions and assumptions, the reference paper entitled “SHELL SIDE CFD ANALYSIS OF A SMALL SHELL-AND-TUBE HEAT EXCHANGER” is selected.

• Reference [1]: Ozden, Ender, and Ilker Tari. “Shell side CFD analysis of a small shell-and-tube heat exchanger.” Energy conversion and management5 (2010): 1004-1014.

Figure 1: The model with six baffles [1]

Simulation Process

The shell zone is primarily designed in Design Modeler, subtracting baffle cuts inside and also tubes. Because it is targeted to model flow in the shell, the effect of hot fluid is applied to the tubes` walls. Then, 1471826 tetrahedron cells are distributed in the computational domain.

The cold water flows with 1m/s through the shell inlet. The constant temperature applied on the tubes` walls can hasten the heat transfer to the cold water.

Post-processing

The velocity contours show how well the baffle-cut design mixes the fluids and creates turbulence on the shell side of the heat exchanger. From 0 to 2.882 m/s, the speeds are spread out, with faster speeds being seen near the baffles. This flow pattern shows how the clever placement of six baffles causes cross-flow conditions that make the fluid on the shell side flow perpendicular to the tubes instead of parallel to them. The modeling, shows that the baffle arrangement changes the inlet velocity of 1 m/s to make areas where mixing and heat transfer are better.

Figure 2: Streamlines colored by temperature inside the shell & tube heat exchanger with baffle-cuts

To see how well the heat exchanger works with heat, look at the temperature outlines. They show a steady rise in temperature from 300K at the input to 332.77K at the output. The range of temperatures, from 299.999K to 450K, shows that heat is moving well from the tube walls to the fluid on the shell side. The changing colors of the temperature contour, especially the change from blue to green areas, show how the baffle-cut design improves thermal mixing by making rough areas that help the working fluid and tube walls share heat more efficiently. This thermal performance proves that the baffle-cut configuration works well in commercial settings that need to keep temperatures precisely controlled.