Modeling of heat exchangers in ANSYS CFX for the digital twins development

Abstract

The paper presents a universal methodology for modeling and optimization of shell-and-tube heat exchanger designs using the ANSYS CFX software package. Mathematical modeling plays a key role in the design and modernization of heat and mass transfer equipment, especially in the petrochemical and oil and gas processing industries, and especially in the creation of digital twins of heat and mass transfer equipment. The modern approach provides prediction of equipment behavior at the development stage, which makes it possible to take into account the peculiarities of the actual geometry of the apparatuses and optimize the interaction of contacting phases. The paper considers the stages of creating a digital model of a heat exchanger, including the construction of an electronic geometric model, creation of a computational grid, selection of mathematical models of hydrodynamics and heat transfer, as well as the setting of boundary conditions and solver parameters. Special attention is paid to the selection of heat transfer and turbulence models suitable for high Reynolds numbers. The results of numerical simulation in ANSYS CFX are compared with analytical solutions and data obtained with ANSYS Fluent. The difference in the results was about 1 °C, which confirms the high accuracy and reliability of the proposed methodology. This indicates the feasibility of using ANSYS CFX for modeling and optimization of technological equipment. The obtained results can be applied to build a digital twin model, to improve the efficiency of heat transfer processes, to reduce the cost of development and modernization of equipment, as well as in further research on the intensification of heat and mass transfer using digital models.