Hybrid Multiscale CFD - Modelling Large Heat exchangers
 

Hello all! First time posting.

I was wondering if anyone could advise me on how to model a large shell and tube heat exchanger as a whole which consists of kilometers of cumulative tube length. The end goal would be to be able to conduct a structural analysis (starting with thermal fatigue) on the system as a whole which consists of modelling the fluid structure interaction.

Due to the size of the model and the possibility of using kilometers of cumulative tubing, I was opting to use a 1D-3D multiscale CFD model where the shell side steam is modeled using CFD and the tubes using network 1D elements. I am still a bit unsure of how I'm going to model the heat transfer between the spatial and network elements. The heat exchanger is specifically a feedwater heater and therefore the 1D elements would need to coupled to 3D CFD for the channel side flow.

I have searched for relevant literature but very little was found. Any advise would be very appreciated.