Simulation of Exergy Analysis & Heat Transfer of Shell and Multi Pass Heat Exchanger

Abstract

The heat exchanger (HX) is a critical component in several sectors, since it effectively enhances heat transfer rates, hence reducing energy consumption. This work examines the numerical modeling of a shell and double tube heat exchanger, both with and without baffles, in order to assess the heat transfer with exergy analysis. A computational fluid dynamics (CFD) program called ANSYS (Fluent) is used to do a numerical simulation of a 3D model with turbulent flow between the range of 4000 to 12000. The circular vent baffles concept is employed on the lateral surface of the shell. The simulation findings indicate that the circular vents located on the baffles of the heat exchanger having a notable influence on both the thermal-hydraulic performance and the exergy analysis. Furthermore, the findings indicate that the heat exchanger's efficacy is enhanced by 21% when baffles are incorporated, particularly at high Reynolds numbers, in comparison to a heat exchanger with no baffles. In addition, the exergy loss reached its maximum value of 48W when baffles were present. In conclusion, it has been determined that the heat exchanger equipped with baffles exhibits superior hydraulic and thermal efficiency compared to the heat exchanger with no baffles.