Simulations results with the SST turbulence model regarding mean velocity, temperature and pressure profiles in the shell side have been analysed and compared with those provided by HTRI Xchanger Suite®. Two single-segmental-baffle geometries have been considered: with and without baffle clearances. Instead of using an uniform temperature on the tubes’ walls, a linear temperature profile (provided by HTRI Xchanger Suite®) was used as boundary condition for the CFD simulations. Both k-ε and SST turbulence models have been assessed and the SST model has shown to provide more accurate results for temperature prediction. The heat exchanger has been designed with the software HTRI Xchanger Suite®, while CFD simulations have been performed with the computational package ANSYS Fluent 15.0. This work presents an analysis of the shell side flow in a shell and tube heat exchanger using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD).
