Numerical Simulation of Heat Exchanger for Analyzing the Performance of Parallel and Counter Flow

Heat exchangers are almost used in every industry. Among them, shell and tube heat exchangers are covering around 32% of the total heat exchanger. Numerical simulation of the Computational models is playing an important role for the prototypes including the Heat Exchanger Models for the improvement in modeling. In this study, the CFD analysis of parallel and counter flow shell and tube heat exchanger was performed. Following project, looked into the several aspects and these are the temperature, velocity, and pressure drop and turbulence kinetic energy along with the heat exchanger length. Hot water was placed in tube side and cold water was placed in shell side of the heat exchanger. Shell side cold temperature was increasing along the heat exchanger length. On the other side, tube side hot water temperature was decreasing along the tube length. This effect was more significance in counter flow rather than the parallel flow. Velocity was more fluctuating in the shell side due to presence of the baffles. Also following the same reason, pressure drop was higher in the shell side cold water rather than the tube side hot water. To measure the turbulence effect, turbulence kinetic energy was determined. Turbulence was decreasing first part of the shell and tube heat exchanger. But, it was increasing along through the rest part heat exchanger. All these observations and the outcomes are evaluated and then further analyzed