Chemical Engineering & Processing: Process Intensification 164 (2021) 108392

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Chemical Engineering and Processing - Process

Intensification
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/cep

Performance enhancement for tube bank staggered configuration heat

exchanger – CFD Study
Ahmed M. Nagib Elmekawy a, 1, *, Alaa A. Ibrahim a, 2, Abdalrahman M. Shahin a, 3, Sara Al-Ali a, 4,
Gasser E. Hassan b, 5
a
Faculty of Engineering, Alexandria University, Alexandria, Egypt 25144
b
City for Scientific Research and Technological Applications, New Borg El Arab City, Alexandria, Egypt, 21934

A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T

Keywords: The effect of attaching a splitter plate to the circular tube on the performance of a heat exchanger with a circular
CFD, Cross Flow Heat Exchanger tube bank is investigated. A CFD model is developed to simulate the cross-flow behavior inside the heat
Splitter Plate exchanger. The study of the thermal performance of the tube bank heat exchanger with staggered configuration
Heat Transfer
with and without attached splitter plates to the tubes is conducted. The numerical results are compared with
Staggered Configuration
previous experimental and numerical data. Results show that attaching the splitter plates to the tubes can reduce
Nusselt number
the pressure drop and increase the Nusselt number leading to better overall thermal performance for the heat
exchangers and indicate that the splitter plates should be as thin as possible to keep the optimum overall per­
formance. As the splitter thickness is increased to about 20 % of the pipe diameter the heat transfer is slightly
increased by about 7 % but the pressure drop is dramatically increased by about 20%. As splitter length is
increased up to L/D ratio of 1.5, the heat transfer is doubled, the pressure drop as well is increased by about 20%.

the heat exchangers on different industrial production plants motivate

1. Introduction
Energy cost reduction is one of the most demanding research topics
nowadays. Optimizing the heat exchanger performance to increase the
heat capacity while reducing the pressure drop are the most significant
design objective. There are three primary classifications of heat ex­
changers according to flow arrangement; parallel, counter, and cross
flow. Heat exchangers utilizing cross-external flows are the most used
heat exchangers type in different industrial applications.
Cross flow heat exchanger performance is regularly connected with
the vortices formation, separation of the boundary layer and down­
stream wake at the downstream of the heat exchanger tubes, which
essentially influence the thermal performance. Moreover, the higher
wake formation over the tubes surfaces causes a significant damage the
tube structural stability alongside the entire tube array, this instability
degrades the thermal performance of the heat exchanger.
The direct impact of the performance, availability and reliability of
vendors and researchers for decades such as the work done by Roshko
[1] who observed that attaching a splitter plate to a heat exchanger
tubes results in suppression of the vortex shedding.
Roshko [2,3] conducted an investigation into the formation of the
vortex and the downstream wake around a cylinder, taking into account
high Reynolds numbers (Re) of the order of 105 – 106. Moreover, Grove
et al. [4] carried out an experiment to study the steady separated flow
over a circular cylinder at lower Reynolds number (Re) ranging from 25
to 177. Gerrard [5] showed the effect of the formation length and wake
width on the frequency of vortex shedding. Apelt et al. [6] studied the
effect of adding a splitter plates on the flow around a circular cylinder in
Reynolds number (Re) range 10,000 < Re < 50,000. He showed that the
drag decreases regardless of the Reynolds number (Re). Sparrow et al.
[7] found that the heat transfer enhancements obtained by using fins on
the tubes of the heat exchanger is greater than that of un-finned tubes
with larger tube diameters for the same pressure drop.
Mangrulkar et al. [8] studied experimentally and numerically the

* Corresponding author
E-mail address: A.nagib@alexu.edu.eg (A.M.N. Elmekawy).
1
Assistant Professor, Mechanical Engineering.
2
Mechanical Engineer.
3
Teaching Assistant.
4
Mechanical Engineer
5
Associate Professor, Mechanical Engineering

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cep.2021.108392
Received 30 September 2020; Received in revised form 9 March 2021; Accepted 11 March 2021
Available online 19 March 2021
0255-2701/© 2021 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
A.M.N. Elmekawy et al.
Nomenclature
AT Throat area (m2)
C1 Constant
C2 Constant
D Tube Diameter (m)
E Total Energy (J/kg)
Gb Turbulent kinetic energy production rate due to the
buoyancy (J/kg.s)
Gk Turbulent kinetic energy production rate due to the mean
velocity gradients (J/kg.s)
h Enthalpy (J/kg)
Js Diffusion flux of species s
k Turbulence Kinetic Energy (J/kg)
k Thermal conductivity (W/(m⋅K))
kt Turbulent thermal conductivity (W/(m⋅K))
keff Effective thermal conductivity (W/(m⋅K))
L Splitter plate length (m)
Nu Nusselt Number (dimensionless)
P Static pressure (Pa)
Re Reynolds number (dimensionless)
Rε Additional term in the ε equation for RNG k-ε Model
S Source Term
effect of attaching splitter plates to the tubes of the heat exchanger. The
results show different improvements for the overall thermal perfor­
mance of the heat exchanger. Kawai [9] studied numerically the effect of
the splitter plate on the shear layer showing that the plate can prevent
the interaction of the upper and lower shear layers and reduce the
fluctuations. Lecordier et al. [10] experimentally studied the single
cylinder without splitter at low Re number to control of vortex shedding
by heating the cylinder to change the location of the separation point.
Hassan et al. [11] performed experimental work to study the flow
across square cylinder and shear layer instability to control the fre­
quency characteristics of flow across the cylinder. The square cylinder is
also numerically studied by Park et al. [12] the results show that the
shorter splitter plate can effectively control cylinder downstream wake
reducing the drag by suppressing the vortex shedding in the wake.
Sohankar et al. [13] developed a numerical study to simulate the flow
across a square cylinder reducing the mean and fluctuating fluid forces
delaying of vortex shedding by the use of the control plate.
Kwon et al. [14] performed a numerical simulation to study the effect
of splitter plate length on the vortex shedding showing the critical length
required to eliminate the shedding. Mittal et al. [15] numerically studied
the flow across two cylinders without plates at low Re number showing
that the downstream cylinder is subjected to large unsteady forces.
Tiwari et al. [16] developed a numerical model to simulate the cylinder
with splitter plate at the downstream side to reduce the wake size and
the pressure loss. Akilli et al. [17] performed an experimental work for
cylinder with splitter plate showing that the flow characteristics are
independent of plate thickness and the vortex shedding frequency is
reduced by increasing the plate length. A numerical study is performed
by Turki [18] to establish the relation between the critical length of the
splitter plate for the vortex elimination as a function of Re. Wing shaped
tube was studied numerically by Sayed Ahmed et al. [19]. The results
show lowest value of pressure drop, pressure drop coefficient, and
pumping power. Elliptic tube was modelled by Ibrahim et al. [20] the
results indicated that Nusselt number and friction factor for front and
back fin is greater than those of individual front and back fin. Choudhary
[21] studied the performance of cross flow heat exchanger for bare
cylinders and cylinders with solid and perforated plate by varying
splitter blade width ratio. Mangrulkar [22] studied the effect of the near
wall y+ on the performance of the numerical studies for cross flow heat
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Chemical Engineering and Processing - Process Intensification 164 (2021) 108392
SL Longitudinal pitch between heat exchanger pipes (m)
ST Transverse pitch between heat exchanger pipes (m)
t Time (sec)
T Temperature (◦ C or K)
U Free stream velocity (m/s)
u Velocity Vector (m/sec)
u
′
Fluctuating velocity (m/s)
Vmax Maximum Velocity (m/s)
y+ Mesh specification near the wall (dimensionless)
δij Kronecker delta (dimensionless)
Δp Pressure drop (Pa)
ε Dissipation Rate (m2/s3)
σε Turbulent Prandtl number for dissipation (dimensionless)
αk Inverse effective Prandtl numbers for k (dimensionless)
αε Inverse effective Prandtl numbers for ε (dimensionless)
µ Molecular viscosity (Pa.s)
μt Turbulent viscosity (Pa.s)
µeff Effective viscosity (Pa.s)
ρ Density (kg/m3)
ρu′ i u′ j Reynold stresses (Pa)
τeff Effective Stress Tensor (Pa)
exchanger. Abu-Hamdeh [23] compared the performance of twisted
tube bank with other cross flow arrangements. Erguvan [24] studied the
efficiency of transient cross glow around tube banks. Tang [25] studied
the shedding patterns of a cylinder bundle in cross flow configuration.
Nakhchi and Esfahani [26], performed a numerical investigation of
heat transfer enhancement inside heat exchanger tubes fitted with
perforated hollow cylinders (PHCs) under turbulent flow regime. The
results show that the flow resistance can be effectively reduced. A
maximum thermal performance value of 1.456 can be achieved at Re =
6000 and better heat transfer rate is expected due to the thermal
boundary layer destruction caused by the PHCs. Moreover, the effect of
holes of the novel perforated louvered strip inserts with different slant
angles is investigated by Nakhchi et al., [27]. The results show that a
significant improvement for the Nusselt number and thermal enhance­
ment factor due to the recirculation flow through the holes of perforated
louvered strips. The effect of the slant angle is studied and a maximum
thermal enhancement factor of 1.84 can be obtained by employing
double perforated louvered strip with θ=25∘ at Re=14,000.
The fully turbulent flow characteristics and thermal enhancement
parameter of CuO–water nano-fluids through heat exchangers with
double V-cut twisted tapes are investigated using (RNG) k− ϵ turbulent
model, Nakhchi and Esfahani [28]. Additional vortex flow is generated
causing better fluid mixing and heat transfer enhancement. A maximum
value of the thermal performance of 1.99 is achieved by using nanofluid
with double V-cut twisted tapes at Re=5000. Nakhchi and Rahmati [29]
numerically investigates the thermal characteristics and second-law
analysis of turbulent Cu–H2O nano-fluid flow with the nanoparticle
inside heat exchangers fitted by transverse-cut twisted tapes (TCTTs)
with alternate axis. A grid independency study is performed with Rey­
nolds number between 5000 and 15,000. The impacts of the design
variables on the turbulent kinetic energy, temperature distribution and
thermal and frictional entropy generations are evaluated. The simula­
tions show that the TCTTs generate high turbulent kinetic energy due to
the high swirl generation and flow disturbance. The turbulent flow
characteristics of CuO-water nano-fluid are numerically investigated for
the heat exchanger pipe with louvered strips, Nakhchi and Esfahani
[30]. The slant angle (θ) and the Reynolds number (Re) are within 15◦ −
25◦ and between 5000 and 14,000, respectively. (RNG) k − ϵ model is
employed for the slant angle and the Reynolds number (Re) are within
A.M.N. Elmekawy et al. Chemical Engineering and Processing - Process Intensification 164 (2021) 108392

Fig. 1. Detail view of the geometry in both cases [8].

15◦ − 25◦ and between 5000 and 14,000, respectively. The results show of length (L) is equal to the diameters of the cylinder used, this length to
that strong flow disturbance between the wall and the louvered strip is diameter ratio agrees with the suggestion made by Tiwari et al. [16] who
the main reason for turbulent kinetic energy increment. The Nu number recommended a L/D ratio range of 0.5–1.5. As well, Sudhakar et al. [31]
increases 15.6% by using nano-fluid instead of water leading to the reached to the same conclusion and approved that only at the ratio of
highest thermal enhancement parameter of 1.99 at Re = 14000 for the L/D = 1 the vortex shedding can be totally suppressed.
double perforated louvered strip with θ = 25◦ . Aluminum Splitter plate thickness of 1.75 mm is used during the
This paper presents a two dimensional (2D) CFD numerical study to experimental and numerical studies established by Mangrulkar et al. [8]
investigate the effect of attaching splitter plates to the circular tubes on in order to investigate the effect on heat transfer rate as a result of this
the performance of the heat exchanger through studying the heat modification.
transfer rate and the pressure drop across the heat exchanger. A com­ Optimizing the computational cost, a two-dimensional model is used
parison is conducted for the two cases namely; bare tubes and tubes with instead of the three-dimensional model, this approximation is valid in
splitter plates. The simulations are conducted for a range of Reynolds this case as the temperature across tube surfaces is assumed to be
number between 5500 and 14500. The numerical results are validated constant.
with experimental and numerical data obtained by Mangrulkar et al.
[8]. The validated model is used to study the effect of splitter plate 3. Modeling Approach
thickness on the flow and thermal performance of the heat exchanger.
The present work is the first study on the splitter thickness optimization. 3.1. Governing Equation
The effects of splitter plate thickness in the range of 1.75 to 5 mm for
Reynolds number between 5500 and 14500 on the pressure drop and the The commercial CFD code, ANSYS FLUENT (version 18.2), is used to
heat transfer rate are investigated in order to enhance the heat build the CFD numerical model [32,33]. The calculation of the
exchanger performance. two-dimensional turbulent flow field inside the heat exchanger is based
on the solution of the RANS equations formulation, closed with RNG k–ε
2- Problem Description two-equations turbulence model. The model includes the basic transport
equations for mass, momentum and energy. The time averaged gov­
2.1. Heat Exchanger Geometry and Operating Conditions erning equations can be written in Cartesian tensor form as [34,35].
Continuity equation,
The physical domain of staggered tube bank heat exchanger consists
∂ρ ∂ρui
of 13 aluminum tubes arranged in five columns and 4 half dummy tubes, + = 0, i = 1, 3 (3)
∂t ∂xi
as shown in Fig.1. The tubes have constant surface temperature of 363 K.
Tube surfaces transfer the heat to the working fluid (air) which enters Momentum equation,
the domain at temperature of 300 K. Maximum fluid velocity takes place ( )
∂(ρui ) ∂ ρuj ui ∂p ∂2 ui ∂ ( )
at the area of the throat (AT), given by, + =− +μ + − ρu′ i u′ j + ρgi + Sm , i, j
∂t ∂xj ∂xi ∂xj ∂xj ∂xj
(U . ST ) (4)
Vmax = (1) = 1, 3
ST − D
Energy equation,
where U is the free stream velocity of air (m/s), ST is transverse pitch ( )
(mm) and D is the tube diameter (mm). ∂(ρE) ∂
+ (ui (ρE + p)) =
∂ ∂T ∑
keff −
( )
hs Js,i + uj τij eff + Sh , i, j
Reynolds number (Re) of maximum velocity is defined as follow, ∂t ∂xi ∂xi ∂xi s

ρ . Vmax . D = 1, 3
Re = (2)
μ (5)

where ρ and µ are the air density and viscosity; respectively.
From these equations, free stream velocity can be estimated to fulfill
Reynolds number range selected for this study (5500 < Re < 14500).
The attachment of the splitter plates prevents the two vortices layers of
the fluids from both sides of the tube to mix-up, therefore, splitter plates
where keff is the effective conductivity, k+kt, where kt is the turbulent
thermal conductivity, (τij )eff is the effective stress tensor, defined ac­
cording to the turbulence model and Js is the diffusion flux of species s.
Sh includes the heat transfer due to radiation, chemical reaction and any
other heat losses.

3
A.M.N. Elmekawy et al. Chemical Engineering and Processing - Process Intensification 164 (2021) 108392

Fig. 2. Two- dimensional tube bank geometries for bare tubes and tubes with splitter plates.

For two-equations turbulence model such as RNG k–ε, the Boussinesq an analytically-derived differential formula for effective viscosity μeff
hypothesis is employed to relate the Reynolds stresses − ρu′ i u′ j to the that accounts for low-Reynolds-number effects. This equation is inte­
mean velocity gradients [36], grated to calculate the effective viscosity μeff allowing the model to
( ) better handle low-Reynolds-number and near-wall flows. At high Rey­
− ρu′ i u′ j = μt
∂ui ∂uj
+
2
− ρkδij , i, j = 1, 3 (6) nolds numbers, the behaviour of RNG k-ε model turns to be the same as
∂xj ∂xi 3 standard k-ε model, [40].
Different studies, [8,19,20,28,40], report that RNG k–e model gives
where μt is the turbulent viscosity, k is the turbulent kinetic energy, δij is accurate results compared with the experimental data in case of flow
the Kronecker delta, δij = 1 (if i = j), δij = 0 (if i ∕= j). across tube bank. In general RNG k–e turbulence model can predict the
In these models, two additional equations for the turbulence kinetic flow with rapid strain and streamline curvature with swirl, separation,
energy, k, and the turbulence dissipation rate, ε, are solved and the and recirculation of the fluid. So RNG k–e turbulence model is used as
turbulent viscosity, μt, is computed as a function of k and ε. the most accurate two equation model for the analysis of flow across
The RNG k–ε turbulence model [37,38] is used. Mangrulkar et al. [8] tube bank.
compared different turbulence methods and found that RNG k–ε model
gives better results compared to the other models and with the lowest
3.2. Computational Domain and Simplifications
computational time. The equations of the RNG k–ε turbulence model are
as follow,
For complex problems, when there is no change in the properties or
( ) [ ]
∂(ρk) ∂ ρkuj ∂ ∂k variables in the third dimension, the problem could be simplified and
+ = αk μeff + Gk + Gb − ρε, i, j = 1, 3 (7) solved as a two-dimensional domain in order to optimize computational
∂t ∂xj ∂xj ∂xj
resources.
( )
∂ρε ∂ ρεuj ∂
[
∂ε
]
ε ε2 The two-dimensional geometry shown in Fig. 2 is created using
∂t
+
∂xj
=
∂xj
αε μeff
∂xj
+ C1ε (Gk + C3ε Gb ) − C2ε ρ − Rε ,
k k
i, j SolidWorks, with length of 600 mm and width of 150 mm. The
computational domain consists of a matrix of 13 tubes with circular
= 1, 3
cross sections organized in staggered arrangements, the array consists of
(8) 5 columns of tubes. The aluminum splitter plates are attached to the
trailing edge side of the cylinders. The two test sections of the cylinder
where C1ε, C2ε and C3ε are constants.
with and without splitter plate are generated with the longitudinal pitch
The RNG k-ε model is based on a statistical technique called
(SL) and the transverse pitch (ST) which are equal to 43.75 mm and 50
renormalization group theory, [39]. The first difference between the
mm respectively.
RNG and standard k-ε models lies in the additional term in the ε equation
The splitter plate length is 25 mm to satisfy the ratio (L/D) of 1, while
given by Rε . The other main difference is that the RNG theory provides
a thickness of 1.75 mm is taken as an initial value of the splitter plates

Fig. 3. Mesh arrangement for bare tubes.

4
A.M.N. Elmekawy et al.
Fig. 4. Mesh arrangement for tubes with splitter plates.
Table 1
Details of mesh independence study
Case no No. of elements Nusselt number Pressure drop
Nu %change ΔP %change
1 3610 40.3446 - 20.847 -
2 5610 41.93 3.9 17.8 14.6
3 10320 43.706 4.2 13.577 23.7
4 56660 43.82 .26 12.986 4.3
and the working fluid enters the domain is air which is assumed as
incompressible [8].
3.3. Grid Considerations and Numerical Methods
The two-dimensional geometry is imported to the meshing tool to
generate the required mesh. The studied domain is divided into several
subdomains to simplify the meshing process. The mesh quality of the
created mesh is maintained to be 0.87 with skewness of 0.5 and number
of elements of 183135 for bare cylinder case, while a mesh quality of
0.86 with skewness of 0.7 and number of elements of 200467 for the
splitter case. Figures 3 and 4 show the meshed computational domain in
the two cases. Most of the working fluid domain is meshed using
triangular elements. Moreover, the effect of heat transfer by conduction
along the aluminum splitter plate length is studied by increasing the
mesh size in this area. The mesh is very fine towards the tubes. Inflation
is generated by 18 layers with the first element height of 0.08 mm using
1.1 growth rate to be able to capture the formation of the entire
boundary layer around the cylinder and the splitter.
Mesh dependency study [29] is conducted by using five grid systems
to be formed of 3610, 5610, 10320, 56490 and 183135 elements.
Table 1 shows the results of grid dependency study on the Nu and fric­
tion factor for Re of 5500 used in this paper.
Nusselt number (Nu) and pressure drop are computed for the
different mesh system. The variation in Nu and pressure drop third and
fourth grid sizes are not significant and the variation is about 0.26% and
4.3% respectively. Therefore, the grid with 10320 elements can be used
for the current study.
The second order upwind scheme is used in discretization of mo­
mentum and turbulent kinetic energy in the governing equations. Using
prism mesh type near walls has a great advantage to make the result
more accurate. Y+ value of 1 was maintained for the mesh used in this
paper. Also, to solve pressure and velocity coupling numerically, the
SIMPLE algorithm is used. Residual values of 10− 6 is used as the
convergence criteria of the continuity and energy equations. Reynolds
number (Re) range used in this paper starts from 5500 to 14,500 to
match the experimental setup used in Ref. [8]. The circular cylinder wall
in both cases maintained at a constant temperature of 363 K. Constant
L/D ratio of the splitter plate of 1 is used in this paper.
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Chemical Engineering and Processing - Process Intensification 164 (2021) 108392
Figure 5. Experimental and numerical data for pressure drop at different Re
numbers for bare tubes and tubes with splitter plates
4. Results and Discussion
4.1. Validation of pressure drop and heat transfer performance
Although the contours of the streamlines, TKE and temperature
distributions indicate the advantage of attaching the splitter plates to the
tubes to reduce the energy losses and increase the heat transfer rate
compared to those for the bare tubes, these results should be confirmed
by calculations of two main parameters to evaluate the heat exchanger
performance namely; the pressure drop and Nusselt number (Nu).
4.1.1. Pressure Drop
One of the main concerns in heat exchangers design is estimating the
pressure drop, as pressure drop is a representation of energy loss and it is
the most common drawback of the tube bank with staggered arrange­
ment. In tube banks if pressure drop increased, the friction factor will
increase which results in decreasing the total thermal performance of
the system and increasing pumping power and therefore it influences the
initial and running cost of heat exchanger.
Figure 5 shows a comparison between the CFD numerical predictions
and the experimental data measured by Mangrulkar et al. [8] for pres­
sure drop values for the bare tubes and tubes with splitter plates at
different Re numbers. For all the numerical predictions and experi­
mental measurements as the Re number increases the pressure drop
increases. Good agreements between the numerical predictions and
experimental measurements for both the bare tubes and tubes with
splitter plates case with an average error of 11% and 16% respectively.
For both the two cases the numerical predictions for the pressure drop
gives the same trend of the experimental measurements. This means that
the CFD numerical model can be considered as a qualitatively validated
model which can be used to investigate the effect of different flow pa­
rameters on the performance of the heat exchanger. In general, based on
both the experimental and numerical results, attaching the splitter
plates to the downstream side of the tubes reduces the pressure drop of
fluid flow across the tube bank of the heat exchanger with staggered
arrangement. This is explained by the more streamlined flow with lower
A.M.N. Elmekawy et al.
Figure 6. Experimental and numerical data for average Nusselt number (Nu) at
different Re numbers for bare tubes and tubes with splitter plates.
vortex intensity for the tubes with splitters compared with that for the
bare tubes leading to lower pressure drop for the splitter plate case
compared with that for the bare tubes. These results are consistent with
those presented by Mangrulkar et al. [8].
4.1.2. Heat transfer
Nusselt number (Nu) is the heat transfer parameter which indicates
how much the heat transfer is enhanced due to fluid motion. In order to
estimate the Nu for the system with and without the splitter plate
attachment, the following equations for Nu calculations are used.
The heat transfer coefficient (h) from the tube surface and the
average Nusselt number (Nu) are given as,
h=
Q
(9)
A.(Ts − Ta )
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Chemical Engineering and Processing - Process Intensification 164 (2021) 108392
h.D
Nu = (10)
k
where A is the tube surface area, Ts is the tube surface temperature, Ta is
the air temperature and k is the thermal conductivity.
Figure 6 shows comparisons between the CFD numerical predictions
and the experimental and CFD numerical data measured by Mangrulkar
et al. [8] for average Nusselt number (Nu) values for the bare tubes and
tubes with splitter plates at different Re numbers. For all the numerical
predictions and experimental measurements, the same trend is noticed
where the average Nu increases when the Re number increases.
Good agreements between the current CFD numerical predictions
and the experimental measurements for both the bare tubes and tubes
with splitter plates case with an average error of 1.68% and 2.95%
respectively. Furthermore, as noticed in figure 6 (a) and (b), the accu­
racy of the current two-dimensional (2D) CFD model with respect to the
experimental data is improved compared with that for Mangrulkar [8]
CFD numerical model. Based on these values of average error, the cur­
rent 2D CFD model is expected to give reasonable simulation results for
different parametric studies to optimize the heat transfer performance of
the heat exchanger.
Based on the pressure drop and Nu number calculations and the
comparisons with experimental data, as the current 2D CFD numerical
model gives the same trends as the experimental data, it can be
considered as a qualitatively validated model which can be used to
investigate the effect of different design parameters on the overall
thermal performance of the heat exchanger.
4.2. Flow topology, streamlines and Turbulent Kinetic Energy (TKE)
Figure 7 shows the flow streamlines and vectors across the bare tubes
for the heat exchanger with staggered arrangement tube bank at
different Reynolds numbers of 5500 and 14500. The approaching flow
to the first row of tubes collides the tube wall causing stagnation regions
in front of the tubes followed by redirected the flow streams around the
tube walls. The flow streams moves attaching the tube surfaces then the
separation occurs due to the curvature of the circular tube cross section.
A recirculation region is developed downstream the circular tubes then
the stream lines from the two sides of tube are interacting together
constructing the low velocity wake recirculation region downstream the
tubes. For the next rows of tubes higher velocity regions are predicted
with longer wake regions for the last row compared with those for the
other rows. Comparing the predicted results for the fluid flow with
different Reynolds numbers of 5500 and 14500, as shown in Fig. 7 (a)
and (b), the flow topology is almost the same for both the two cases
including the stagnation region, separation and wake region with higher
velocity values for the case of higher Re number of 14500 compared
with those for the Re number of 5500.
The effect of attaching the splitter plates to the circular tubes on the
flow streamlines and topology inside the heat exchanger with staggered
arrangement tube bank at different Reynolds numbers of 5500 and
14500 is shown in Fig. 8. A similar flow sequence and topology is pre­
dicted for the tubes with splitter plates compared with those for the bare
tubes in the upstream region including the stagnation, flow separation,
eddies and vortex formation. Attaching the splitter plate to the down­
stream side of the tubes changes the flow topology in the downstream
region of the tube where the splitter plate separates the vortex forma­
tions from the two sides of the tube preventing the vortex interaction in
the wake region. The flow streams reattach on the splitter surface from
the both sides of the tubes and no interactions between the flow streams
in the wake region. This leads to more streamlined flow with lower
vortex intensity for the case of tubes with splitters compared with that
for the bare tubes expecting lower pressure drop and energy losses for
the splitter plate case compared with those for the bare tubes. Similar to
the effect of increasing the Re number on the flow topology across the
A.M.N. Elmekawy et al. Chemical Engineering and Processing - Process Intensification 164 (2021) 108392

Figure 7. Flow streamlines and vectors across the bare tubes for the heat exchanger with staggered arrangement tube bank at different Reynolds numbers.

7
A.M.N. Elmekawy et al. Chemical Engineering and Processing - Process Intensification 164 (2021) 108392

Figure 8. Flow streamlines and vectors across the tubes with splitter plates for the heat exchanger with staggered arrangement tube bank at different Rey­
nolds numbers

8
A.M.N. Elmekawy et al. Chemical Engineering and Processing - Process Intensification 164 (2021) 108392

Figure 9. Contours of Turbulent Kinetic Energy (TKE) for bare tubes and tubes with splitter plates at different Re numbers.

9
A.M.N. Elmekawy et al. Chemical Engineering and Processing - Process Intensification 164 (2021) 108392

Figure 10. Temperature inside the staggered heat exchanger for bare tubes and tubes with splitter plates at different Re numbers

10
A.M.N. Elmekawy et al. Chemical Engineering and Processing - Process Intensification 164 (2021) 108392

Figure 11. Effect of splitter plate thickness on (a) Total heat transfer rate and (b) Pressure drop at Re number range from 5500 to 14500.

bare tubes, as shown in Fig. 8(a) and (b) for the tubes with splitter plates, and hence lower TKE values compared with those for the bare tubes.
the flow topology is almost the same with higher velocity values for the
case of higher Re number of 14500 compared with those for the Re
4.3. Temperature Contours
number of 5500.
To investigate the effect of attaching the splitter plates on the in­
The temperature distribution for the working fluid inside the heat
tensity of vortex and eddies formation, Fig. 9 shows the Turbulent Ki­
exchanger is one the main issues as it is an indication for the heat
netic Energy (TKE) distribution in the flow field for the bare tubes and
transfer process. The higher intensity of air temperature which is the
tubes with splitter plates at different Re numbers. The value of TKE
heated fluid refers to the higher heat transfer rate.
directly represents the ’strength’ of the turbulence in the flow. There­
Figure 10 shows the temperature distribution for the air flow inside
fore, it is considered as a measurement of the intensity. The intensity of
the heat exchanger with staggered arrangement of bare tubes and tubes
the TKE increases gradually across tube and reaches its maximum value
with splitter plates at different Re number of 5500 and 14,500. It is
near the last column. The intensity of TKE increases significantly with
noticed that for both cases the temperature distribution for the air flow
the increase in the fluid flow Re starting from 5500 to 14,500, as shown
which is heated is better for low Re numbers with low freestream ve­
in Fig 9 (a) and (b).
locity. This indicates better heat transfer rate for low Re number than
The effect of attaching the splitter plates to the tubes on the TKE is
that for the high Re number.
shown in Fig. 9 (c) and (d). Lower TKE values are predicted for the tubes
The effect of attaching the splitter to the tubes on the air flow tem­
with splitter plates compared with those for the bare tubes. This can be
perature distribution is shown in Fig. 10 (c) and (d). Better temperature
explained by the ability of the splitter plates to prevent the interactions
distribution is predicted for the tubes with splitter plates at low Re
between the vortices from the two sides of the tube leading to more
number of 5500 compared with that for higher Re number of 14500.
streamlined flow with lower eddies and vortex formations and intensity
Furthermore, Better temperature distribution is predicted for the tubes

11
A.M.N. Elmekawy et al. Chemical Engineering and Processing - Process Intensification 164 (2021) 108392

Table 2 heat transfer rate due to reducing the TKE by attaching the splitter plates
Pressure drop and average Nusselt number (Nu) at different Re numbers for bare to the tubes.
tubes and tubes with splitter plates
Bare cylinder With splitter plate
Re Nu ΔP (pa) Nu ΔP (pa) 4.4. Effect of attaching the splitter plates to the tubes at different Re
number
5500 43.96 12.25 61.97 10.28
8500 55.79 24.76 73.96 22.34
11500 65.83 40.28 86.92 36.51 The validated 2D CFD model is used to investigate the effect of
14500 75.80 60.32 99.37 48.42 attaching splitter plates to the heat exchanger tubes with staggered ar­
rangements at different Re numbers. As presented in Table 2, the pres­
sure drop (ΔP) and Nu number values are predicted for the bare tubes
with splitter plates at low Re number of 5500 compared with that for
and tubes with splitter plates at Re number range between 5500 and
bare tubes at the same low Re number of 5500, as shown in Fig. 11(a)
14500.
and (c). This can be due to the reduced size of the wake formation for the
The results show that as the Re number increases both the pressure
case of tubes with the splitter plates which enhances the heat transfer
drop and average Nu number increase for both the bare tubes and tubes
process compared with that of the bare tubes. These results are consis­
with splitter plates. Furthermore, the results show that attaching the
tent with the results predicted by Mangrulkar et al. [8].
splitter plates to the tube can reduce the pressure drop (ΔP) by 16-20%
Although the attached splitter plate to tube reduces TKE as discussed
and increase the average Nu number by 31-41 % compared with those
before and hence reduce convective heat transfer rate, the heat transfer
for the bare tubes. This indicates the positive impacts of attaching the
rate is increased for the tubes with splitter plate due to increasing the
splitter plates to the tubes of heat exchanger with staggered arrange­
surface area of the heat transfer when the splitter plate is added to the
ment. The reduction of pressure drop (ΔP) due to the splitter plates can
tube. This can be the dominant or at least compensate the reduction of
be explained by the more streamlined flow produced by the splitter

Figure 12. Effect of splitter plate L/D ratio on (a) Total heat transfer rate and (b) Pressure drop at Re number range from 5500 to 14500.

12
A.M.N. Elmekawy et al. Chemical Engineering and Processing - Process Intensification 164 (2021) 108392

Table 3 to attaching the splitter plate as a fin to the tube can have the dominant
Pressure drag force and viscous drag force for 0.75, 1.5 & 2.25 L/D ratios at Re effect to increase the overall heat transfer rate in the heat exchanger.
number=5500 for tubes with splitter plates
L/D ratio Pressure drag (N) Viscous drag (N)
4.5. Effect of splitter plate thickness
0.75 2.1408332 0.16657663
1.5 2.5201624 0.24463257 The validated 2D CFD model is used to investigate the effect of the
2.25 2.3694851 0.23875966
splitter plates thickness attached to heat exchanger tubes on the heat
transfer rate and pressure drop with staggered arrangements at different
plates in the wake region of the tubes with smaller vortex and eddies Re numbers.
intensity and hence less energy loss compared with those for the bare As displayed in Figure 11, the heat transfer rate (Q) and pressure
tubes. The increase of the average Nu number can be explained by drop (ΔP) values are predicted for the tubes with splitter plates having
increasing the surface area of the heat transfer when the splitter plate is different thicknesses at Re number of 5500 and 14500. The thickness of
added to the tube like a fin which increases the heat transfer rate to the splitter plate is varied from 1.75 mm which is recommended in the
fluid. Although the attached splitter plate to tube reduces TKE due to present study due to applicability reasons [8] to 5 mm which equals 20%
more streamlined flow and hence reduce convective heat transfer rate, of the tube diameter.
the effect of increasing the heat transfer rate by increasing the area due Results show a gradual increase in both pressure drop with a
maximum increase of 16.7% at Re=5500 and 20% at Re=14500;

Figure 13. Pressure distribution for the flow inside the tube bank with splitters of L/D=2.25, L/D=1.5 and L/D=0.75 for Re number=5500.

Figure 14. Velocity vectors for the flow inside the tube bank with splitters of L/D=2.25, L/D=1.5 and L/D=0.75 for Re number=5500.

13
A.M.N. Elmekawy et al.
Figure 15. Comparison between the thermal performance of the present study with recent studies in the field of vortex generators [30,41–44]
respectively, and total heat transfer rate with a maximum increase of 3%
at Re=5500 and 7.3% at Re=14500 by increasing the splitter thickness
from 1.75 mm to 5mm. Based on these observations of relatively high
increase of pressure drop and corresponding low increase of heat
transfer rate, the optimum design condition is to reduce the thickness of
the splitter plates as long as it can withstand the mechanical load acting
on it
4.6. Effect of splitter plate length
Moreover, another study is carried out considering the effect of
changing L/D ratio on the air flow behavior in the staggered tube bank,
system heat transfer rate and the pressure drop at range of Re number
from 5500 to 14500.
As displayed in Figure 12, the total heat transfer rate (Q) and pres­
sure drop (ΔP) values are predicted for the tubes with splitter plates
having different L/D ratios within the range from 0.25 to 2.25 at Re
number of 5500 and 14500.
Results show an expected enhancement in total heat transfer rate in
both Re numbers due to the enlargement surface area of heat transfer by
increasing the length of the splitter plate as shown in Figure 12a, so that
the increase in heat transfer rate reached to 53.82% at Re=5500 and
50.1% at Re=14500 at the longest splitter plate of L/D ratio=2.25.
Despite this, Figure 12b shows that the pressure drop is continuing in its
increase till it reached to the maximum value of 19.76% at Re=5500 and
21.93% at Re=14500 at L/D ratio=1.5 then it starts in its reduction by
increasing the L/D ratio ending with 2.25 ratio. Based on this observa­
tion and from Table 3, by increasing the splitter plate after 1.5 L/D ratio
the pressure drag decreased as a result of the reduction in the flow
stagnation (See Figure 13) despite there is no noticeable difference in the
eddies formation as shown in Figure 14, as well the occur of separation
in the longest splitters plate leads to the decrease in viscous drag, so that
the overall pressure drop in cases of biggest L/D ratio of 2.25 decreased
and it is expected if the splitter plate becomes longer until it is totally
connected to the next tube, we will reach to the maximum total heat
transfer rate with minimum pressure drop.
Figure 15 shows the thermal performance of the tube bank heat
exchanger with splitter plates and different recent numerical and
experimental studies in the field of vortex generators. The thermal
14
Chemical Engineering and Processing - Process Intensification 164 (2021) 108392
performance can be evaluated using the following equation:
/
Nu Nup
η = ( / )1 , (11)
f fp 3
Where η is the thermal performance factor, Nu and f are the Nusselt
number and friction loss for the pipe with the vortex generator while Nup
and fp are the Nusselt number and friction loss for plain pipe.
As shown in figure, the thermal performance of nano-fluid flow in­
side heat exchanger tubes fitted by Double Perforated Louvered Strip
(DPLS) insets performs better than the other vortex generators with a
value of 1.99 at Re number of 14000, [30]. For the present study, the
splitter plates attached to the heat exchanger tubes can achieve a
maximum thermal performance of 1.49 at Re of 5500 as shown in the
figure and based on the data listed in Table 2. Based on these results, the
thermal performance for the tubes with splitter plates is comparable
with that for the tubes fitted with perforated hollow cylinders without
nano-fluid achieving a value of 1.456 at Re = 6000, [26]. Based on these
values, better thermal performance is expected for the tubes with splitter
plates if a nano-fluid is used instead of water.
5. Conclusion
A two-dimensional CFD model is developed to simulate the cross
flow and the heat transfer process inside the tube bank heat exchanger
with staggered arrangement and the results show an effective positive
impact for attaching the splitter plats to the tubes of heat exchanger with
staggered arrangement on the thermal performance. There is a reduction
of the pressure drop by 16 – 20 % due to the more streamlined flow
generated by the splitter plate attached in downstream region of the
tubes reducing the vortex and eddies interactions and intensities and
energy losses. The splitter plate does not prevent the formation of
vortices, but it reduces the probability of them continuing far down­
stream. Therefore, the splitter plate streamlines the flow and acts as
barriers for the fluid to reduce wakes and bulk mixing of the flow.
There is also a remarkable improvement in Nu number by 41% for
the Re of 5500 and by 31% for the Re of 14,500 indicating good
enhancement in the heat transfer process. Although the attached splitter
plate to tube reduces the turbulent kinetic energy TKE which produces
A.M.N. Elmekawy et al.
lower convective heat transfer rate. The reduction in heat transfer is
compensated by increasing the contact area of the splitter plats acting as
a fin between the fluid flow.
As the splitter thickness is increased to about 20 % of the pipe
diameter the heat transfer is slightly increased by about 7 % but the
pressure drop is dramatically increased by about 20 % leading to lower
performance for the heat exchanger. So, the overall performance of heat
exchanger is enhanced by reducing the splitter thickness as long as the
structure can withstand the loads acting on it.
As splitter length is increased up to L/D ratio of 1.5, the heat transfer
is doubled as well the pressure drop is increased by about 20%, then due
to the effect of drag forces the pressure drop is decreased by increasing
the L/D ratio.
CRediT authorship contribution statement
Ahmed M. Nagib Elmekawy: Conceptualization, Methodology,
Software, Writing - review & editing, Supervision. Alaa A. Ibrahim:
Software, Data curation, Writing - original draft, Visualization, Investi­
gation, Validation. Abdalrahman M. Shahin: Software, Data curation,
Writing - original draft, Visualization, Investigation, Validation. Sara
Al-Ali: Software, Data curation, Writing - original draft, Visualization,
Investigation, Validation. Gasser E. Hassan: Conceptualization, Writing
- review & editing, Supervision.
Declaration of Competing Interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial
interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence
the work reported in this paper.
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