RESEARCH ARTICLE

CFD simulation on shell-and-tube heat exchangers with small-angle helical baffles

  • Minhua ZHANG 1,2 ,
  • Fang MENG 1,2 ,
  • Zhongfeng GENG , 1,2
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  • 1. Key Laboratory for Green Chemical Technology of Ministry of Education, R & D Center for Petrochemical Technology, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300072, China
  • 2. Collaborative Innovation Center of Chemical Science and Engineering, Tianjin 300072, China

Received date: 16 Nov 2014

Accepted date: 18 Feb 2015

Published date: 14 Jul 2015

Copyright

2014 Higher Education Press and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

Abstract

Shell-and-tube heat exchanger with helical baffles is superior to that with segmental baffles in reducing pressure drop, eliminating dead zone and lowering the risks of vibration of tube bundle. This paper focused on the small-angle helical baffles that have been merely reported in open literature. These baffles are noncontinuous helical baffles with a helix angle of 10° to 30°, and their shapes are 1/4 ellipse, 1/4 sector and 1/3 sector. To assess the integrative performance, α/∆p is employed, and the calculated results show that among the three baffle shapes the heat exchangers with a 1/4 sector helical baffle have the lowest pressure drop. At β = 10° and 20°, 1/4 sector helical baffle heat exchangers show the best integrative performance; at β = 30°, 1/4 ellipse and 1/4 sector helical baffle heat exchangers perform almost the same. For the study of helix angles, we found that 30° has the best integrative performance at low mass flow rate, almost the same as 20° at high mass flow rate.

Cite this article

Minhua ZHANG , Fang MENG , Zhongfeng GENG . CFD simulation on shell-and-tube heat exchangers with small-angle helical baffles[J]. Frontiers of Chemical Science and Engineering, 2015 , 9(2) : 183 -193 . DOI: 10.1007/s11705-015-1510-x

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