Numerical simulation on a novel shell-and-tube heat exchanger with screw cinquefoil orifice baffles

Abstract

A novel shell-and-tube heat exchanger with screw cinquefoil orifice baffles is designed to grasp the weakness of the traditional shell-and-tube heat exchanger with cinquefoil orifice baffles. It specifically enhances the heat transfer coefficient in the area between adjacent baffles and enhances the shell-side fluid flushing ability on bundles. In the proposed shell-and-tube heat exchanger with screw cinquefoil orifice baffles, screw-type cinquefoil orifice baffles are installed in the shell side. Shell-and-tube heat exchanger with screw cinquefoil orifice baffle is compared with shell-and-tube heat exchanger with cinquefoil orifice baffles and the traditional shell-and-tube heat exchanger with segmental baffles by means of numerical simulations. The numerical result shows that the heat transfer coefficient and shell-side fluid flushing ability in the shell-and-tube heat exchanger with screw cinquefoil orifice baffle is higher than that in the shell-and-tube heat exchanger with cinquefoil orifice baffles and shell-and-tube heat exchanger with segmental baffles, for the shell-side fluid that is urged to flow in approximately continuous helical flow. Under the same shell-side mass flow rate, heat transfer coefficient of shell-and-tube heat exchanger with screw cinquefoil orifice baffle is about 9.2% higher than that of shell-and-tube heat exchanger with cinquefoil orifice baffles and shell-and-tube heat exchanger with segmental baffles by about 5.4% on average. The article presents a novel design thought when researchers design heat exchangers.