Detailed characteristics of fluid flow and its effect on heat transfer in shell sides of typical shell-and-tube heat exchangers

In order to evaluate fluid flow pattern and its effect on the thermal performance in the shell sides of shell-and-tube heat exchangers (STHXs), four typical STHXs were validated to analyze in detail. The numerical period models were built for the STHXs and their reliability and accuracy were validated by compared with the experiments. The velocity components of fluid flow were calculated and discussed qualitatively and quantitatively by using combined means of UDF and CFD. The flow pattern of the STHXs were analyzed comparatively, and its relation with thermal performance were discussed. The research present that the sideling flow pattern of the torsional flow heat exchanger (TF-STHX) combines the advantages of cross flow and longitudinal flow. At the identical mass flow rate, the different flow patterns of the four different STHXs are mainly caused by the different cross flow velocity components in the STHXs, and the ratio of the velocity components is kept constant, changing around 0.22–2.01. In the TF-STHX, when the velocity component ratio is 0.6, the thermal performance is best improved by 3.42–7.65%. The research conclusions and methods deliver a theoretical foundation for the analyzing and optimizing of the STHX.