Experimental Analysis of Shell and Tube Heat Exchanger

Abstract

In this study, a shell and tube heat exchanger with 7 inner parallel tubes and 5 baffles are experimentally investigated using deionized water to determine tube sheet thermo-hydraulic characteristic. While shell side flow rate is held constant, tube sheet theoretical Reynolds numbers was aimed to range between 1000 and 5000 to target transition regime. Modified Wilson Plot technique is utilized to determine Nusselt numbers. Thermal results coincide with correlations within acceptable range, hydraulic results highly overestimated flow in pipe correlations. The reason behind hydraulic discrepancy is thought to be due to inlet, outlet, and maldistribution effects. Numerical studies are being conducted to understand underlying phenomenon. In the future, experiments with nanofluids will be conducted and benchmarked with current study results to evaluate the effects of nanofluid.