Performance Enhancement of a Shell and Tube Heat Exchanger by Introducing Novel Baffle Design

Abstract

This research involves the investigation of the performance of a Shell and Tube Heat Exchanger. The study is focused on examining the existing baffle designs. It also involves the design of changing the baffle to improve thermal performance. The existing model of the thermal performance of the baffle is studied and discussed. Limitations are highlighted and based on those; the changed baffle is proposed. Meshing of the heat exchanger is performed to observe the theoretical results. After that experiments on the baffle are also performed. Experiments involve observing the results of the temperature variation as well as pressure drops. It was observed that the conventional baffle did not perform as per desire. Main issues were that the copper tubing was initially painted, thus reducing performance. The paint was removed and the results slightly improved. There is also the issue that the heat exchanger is parallel flow which is a lower performing type. We can change the configuration to a counter flow to improve the performance. For future works, it is suggested that the baffle design may be further improved with a pressurized heat exchanger test bench as well as counter flow heat exchanger.