Heat exchanger modelling
 

Hello all,

I'm trying to model a U-shaped shell and tube heat exchanger with baffles and I want to find the pressure drop on the shell side, friction factor, and Nusselt number. The heat exchanger is very long so I think to take only a representative section from the middle. Starting from the long heat exchanger 3D CAD drawing, what is the appropriate procedure to follow to reach to the final meshing step. What e.g. is the flow proper flow domain and applicable boundary conditions? I'm quite confused!

Thanks in advance, Diana

Re: Heat exchanger modelling/cooper scheme
 

hello again,

Any contribution to this problem is really welcome. I want to know how I can mesh the tube bundle with the cooper scheme, I mean how to apply the same mesh of one tube to the other tubes? I have choosen the source faces as the ends of the tube and I meshed it accordingly, but should I repeat the same step for all the tubes or there is a simple way to do that, i have over 120 tubes! Some places talk about linking volume meshes but I cannot figure out how this works!

Regards, Diana

Re: Heat exchanger modelling/cooper scheme
 

mesh one then copy/translate the mesh. This process can be journalled up. Use on conformal interfaces to look at varying tube designs.

Flow field creation
 

Hello,

Thanks for your reply,

Actually I now want to create the flow field around the tube bundle. Do you know how I can get the fluid zone around the tube bundle and the baffles? Simple volumes subtraction didn't work for me, is there another way how to do that, something like taking the invert of tubes and baffles together!

Thanks,

Diana

Re: Flow field creation
 

hi,

You can use boolean operations like substract to get the negative volume(flow field). Gambit is very convenient in boolean operations

with regards, JSM

Hi Diana,

a tube bundle with 120 tubes is so big
why you don't simulates your case with periodic conditions (same geometry and the same boundary condditions )

try to find the little cellule that it repeat and make the priodic conditions even in 3D, there is no problem

Good luck :)