Assessment of the best turbulence model for simulating thermal performance in shell and tube heat exchangers with different tube bundles
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Date
2024
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
NATIONAL HIGHER SCHOOL OF TECHNOLOGY AND ENGINEERING -ANNABA
Abstract
Shell and tube heat exchangers are widely used in various industries for efficient heat transfer between two fluids with different temperatures. The efficiency of heat transfer in these exchangers is strongly influenced by flow regime: i) laminar flow or ii) turbulent flow. The complex geometry, flow conditions, and heat transfer requirements of shell and tube heat exchangers contribute to the prevalence of turbulent flow, making it the dominant flow regime in these devices. Therefore, accurate modeling of turbulence is crucial for understanding and predicting the thermal performance of shell and tube heat exchangers. Turbulence modeling studies aim to investigate and predict the behavior of turbulent flow and heat transfer in these heat exchangers.
The end of studies project aims to assess the effectiveness of three commonly used turbulence models - the k-ω model, the k-ε model, and the Realizable model - in simulating the thermo-fluidic performance of a shell and tube heat exchanger. The heat exchanger will be examined with various tube geometry configurations, including circular tubes, 90° elliptical tubes, and combined tube bundle configurations. The primary objective of this study is to identify the most suitable turbulence model for accurately predicting the thermo-fluidic behavior of the heat exchanger under different operating conditions. To achieve this, an in-depth analysis will be conducted using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) methodology to simulate fluid flow through the heat exchanger.