Title: Improving the performance of shell-and-tube heat exchangers by the addition of swirl

Authors: Chamil Abeykoon

Addresses: School of Engineering and Applied Physics, Glyndwr University, Wrexham, LL11 2AW, UK

Abstract: Heat exchanger is a component which is used to transfer the heat from one medium to another efficiently. Generally, they occupy a large space compared to other components and such bulky designs are not attractive in the modern industrial applications due to several constraints. Therefore, it is invaluable to develop compact heat exchangers but with the improved performance. In this work, an investigation was made on the possibility of reducing the size of a shell-and-tube heat exchanger by addition of swirl. Swirl was generated by using a twisted-tape which inserted inside tube and the effects of these tapes on the heat transfer rate and pressure drop were theoretically studied. The results showed that a half-length regular spaced twisted-tape insert gave the lowest Nusselt number while a full-length twisted-tape insert gave the maximum Nusselt number and hence the highest rate of heat transfer. The length of the heat exchanger could be reduced by 13.3% with a full-length twisted tape and this would be result in 6.8% of reduction of the fabrication cost. Therefore, addition of swirl into the fluid flow should help to design compact and low cost heat exchanges with improved performance but the pressure drop increased leading to an increase of the required pumping power. A prototype shell-and-tube heat exchanger was designed and fabricated based on the theoretical results. Studies are underway to experimentally investigate the overall effectiveness of the use of twisted-tape inserts for enhancing the heat transfer rate by considering all the related benefits and drawbacks.

Keywords: performance improvement; shell-and-tube heat exchangers; heat transfer coefficient; non-dimensional numbers; swirl flow; twisted tape inserts; compactness; pressure drop; cost analysis; fluid flow; pumping power.

DOI: 10.1504/IJPSE.2014.066691

International Journal of Process Systems Engineering, 2014 Vol.2 No.3, pp.221 - 245

Received: 24 Aug 2013
Accepted: 14 Jan 2014

Published online: 11 Jan 2015 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article