Thermal analysis of shell and tube heat

exchangers for improving heat transfer rate

using nanofluid mixtures
Cite as: AIP Conference Proceedings 2317, 030029 (2021); https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0036470
Published Online: 05 February 2021

M. Mahender Reddy, L. Praveen and Althuri Srinivas

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AIP Conference Proceedings 2317, 030029 (2021); https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0036470 2317, 030029

© 2021 Author(s).
 Thermal Analysis of Shell and Tube Heat Exchangers for
Improving Heat Transfer Rate Using Nanofluid Mixtures
c)
M Mahender Reddya), L Praveenb) and Althuri Srinivas

Department of Mechanical (ngineering, MLR Institute of Technology, Hyderabad, India

a)
Corresponding author: reddymudhuganti@gmail.com
b)
l.praveen359@gmail.com
c)
srinu.althuri@gmail.com

Abstract. This Present work represents the thermodynamic analysis of tubular heat exchanger with water and Nano-
fluid mixture as a working fluid with different concentration of Nano particles. Water is most commonly used industrial
fluid in heat exchangers but using Nano-fluid, heat transfer rate can be improve. The tube banks with circular
configuration are widely used for practical applications in heat exchangers, cooling and heating equipment etc. The heat
transfer rate in heat exchanger can be improved by improving the fluid flow in channels and heat transfer between fluids
and channel walls.

Keywords: thermodynamic analysis, tubular heat exchanger, Nano particles

INTRODUCTION
Heat exchangers are important equipment widely used in industries; it is used to transfer the heat from cold fluid
to hot fluid and vice versa. There are various kinds of heat exchangers which are used in different applications such
as hairpin heat exchanger, shell and tube heat exchanger etc. Albadr et al. [1] author has studied shell and tube heat
exchanger for its flow characteristics under counter flow arrangements using nanofluid of varying concentration.
The results showed significant increase in heat transfer rate and effective flow of fluid. Farajollahi et al. [2]
investigated by comparing the water based two different nanofluid used in shell and tube heat exchanger. The results
depicted are by varying the volume concentration of the nanofluid there is optimum increase in heat transfer rate by
2%. Tiwari et al. [3] conducted experiments to find out the heat transfer characteristics by varying volume fraction
of the nano particles. The result obtained was satisfactory upon varying volume fraction i.e. from 0.75 to 1.25% v/v.

3rd International Conference on “Advancements in Aeromechanical Materials for Manufacturing”

AIP Conf. Proc. 2317, 030029-1–030029-10; https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0036470
Published by AIP Publishing. 978-0-7354-4058-6/$30.00

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 FIGURE 1. Pictorial representation of Shell & Tube Heat Exchangers

DESIGN & ANALYSIS

In this work, we have chosen CREO 2.0 software to develop the geometrical 3D model of shell & tube heat
exchanger. The specifications of the shell & tube heat exchanger are given in the table-1 below:
TABLE 1. Shell and tube heat exchanger specifications

Specification Dimensions
Length, L 600 mm
inner Shell diameter, DS 90 mm
Tube length, l 600 mm
Tube outer diameter, do 20 mm
No. of tubes, Nt 07 mm
Tube pitch & Geometry, Pt 30mm
Baffle spacing, ∆Bt 86mm
Baffles thickness, t 03mm
No. of baffles Nb 6

FIGURE 2. CREO CAD model of the exchanger

The figure 2 shows the 3D geometrical model of the shell & tube heat exchanger which is created in CREO 2.0
software. The CAD model developed is saved in the .iges format which will be easier to import in the ANSYS
design modeler. The figure 3 shows the imported CAD model in the ANSYS design modeler workspace. Before
performing meshing operation on the CAD model it is checked for hard edges and cleanup operation is performed.

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 FIGURE 3. CAD model in ANSYS workbench

The imported CAD model is ready for the meshing operation in ANSYS. The meshing is done using tetrahedral
elements and it is selected because of its geometry. After the meshing, the total number of nodes and elements
generated are 195516 and 573617 respectively. It is evident from figure 4

FIGURE 4.Tetrahedral elements used in meshing in ANSYS

For CFD analysis to perform, we have created two domains which are shell domain and tube domain. In the
shell, the fluids will flow so it is a continuous process and for it we have assigned the reference pressure to STP. For
the analysis, we have considered the K-epsilon turbulence model for the study.

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 FIGURE 5.Defining Load on the structure and Boundary conditions

Figure 5 shows the loads acting on the structure and the boundary conditions defined in it. At this stage, once the
boundary conditions are assigned to the model, the software will start to perform iteration till the solution is arrived.
The software follows the FEM formulations to solve the problem statement defined to it.

In this present work, “k-epsilon (k-ε) turbulence model is used in CFD to analyse and simulate the turbulent flow
conditions. It is a two-equation turbulence model as it describes the result for conservation equations using two
transport equations k and epsilon. This model is an improvement to the mixing length model as it has good stability
for high Reynolds number turbulent flow. The first transport model k-equation arbitrates the energy from the
turbulent kinetic energy equation and is described as turbulent kinetic energy (k). The second transport model is the
dissipation of turbulence ( ሻ , which describes the rate at which turbulent kinetic energy dissipates. The
experimental form for the standard k-model can be described as” [11]:

Where ui is the velocity component in parallel direction, Eijis the rate of deformation, μtis the eddy viscosity”
[11]

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

In the ANSYS CFX software, analysis has been carried out by introducing various fluids i.e nanofluid and water.
The thermal analysis is performed by dividing into various cases using different fluids and for this we have assumed
mass flow rate is 0.8 Kg/s. The analysis is performed by using the water and the subsequent plots are derived from
the software. Below are the contours of temperature and velocity plots which are shown in figures.

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 FIGURE 6.Temperature Contour of shell & tube heat exchanger water as fluid

Figure 6 depicts the temperature plot using water as a fluid. From the plot, it is clearly seen that at inlet the
temperature is higher and it continued till mid-section of the exchanger and later from the mid-section the
temperature starts to lower till it reaches the tube outlet. The highest temperature recorded at the inlet is 340K, outlet
is 325K and the mid-section it is 338K.

FIGURE 7.Velocity Contour plot using water as fluid

Figure 7 depicts velocity contour of the exchanger using water as working fluid. It is recorded that at the inlet the
velocity of the water fluid is 1.69 m/s and later it decreased when it reached the outlet with a velocity of 0.5 m/s.
Apart from this velocity contour plot, additional analysis has been carried out using TiO2/water (0.5% v/v).

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 FIGURE 8. Temperature Contour using TiO2/water of 0.5% v/v

Figure 8 indicates the temperature contour of the exchanger when the fluid chosen is TiO 2/water (0.5% v/v). It is
clearly recorded from the plot that at the inlet the temperature was high i.e. 340K and it is reducing from the inlet to
mid-section the temperature was 328K and at the outlet the temperature again reduced and the temperature was
323K.

FIGURE 9. Velocity Contour plot using TiO2/water of 0.5% v/v

Figure 9 indicates the velocity contour of the exchanger for the chosen fluid was TiO 2/water (0.5% v/v). analysis
depicts that the velocity of the fluid at the inlet is 1.658 m/s and it started reducing till it reached the outlet via mid-
section then the velocity was 0.31 m/s. Apart from the velocity contour plot, additional analysis has been conducted
using TiO2/water (1% v/v).

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 FIGURE 10. Temperature Contour plot using TiO2/water of 1% v/v

Figure 10 indicates the temperature contour of the exchanger in which the chosen fluid is TiO 2/water (1% v/v).
Analysis depicts that at the inlet the temperature recorded was 340K and it started reducing till the mid-section the
temperature was 325K and at the outlet the temperature was 332K.

FIGURE 11. Velocity Contour using TiO2/water of 1% v/v

Figure 11 indicates the velocity contour of the exchanger in which the fluid used is TiO2/water of 1% v/v. From
the figure, the velocity at the inlet is very much high and it is recorded as 1.835 m/s and moving down by reduction
in the velocity the recorded velocity was at the outlet is 0.42 m/s.

FIGURE 12. Temperature Contour using TiO2/water of 1.5% v/v

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 Figure 12 indicates the temperature contour of the exchanger in which the fluid used is TiO 2/water of 1.5% v/v.
Figure 12 shows that temperature recorded at the inlet is 340K and the mid-section ut is 330K and the outlet is
318K. At the outlet the temperature was high at the outlet and the trend started decreasing and lowest at the inlet via
mid-section. Similarly in the case of fluid velocity, there is an descending trend of the velocity i.e. from high
velocity at outlet and low velocity at the inlet. The velocities recorded was 1.71m/s at the inlet and 0.4 m/s at the
outlet.

FIGURE 13. Velocity contour plot using TiO2/water of 1.5 % v/v

The exchanger design calculations are calculated with the help of LMTD approach and tubular exchanger’s
manufacturer’s association standard. The inlet, outlet temperatures, LMTD and heat transfer rate of the nanofluids
with different volume concentration as water has been tabulated in table 3 & 4.
TABLE 3. Inlet, outlet temperatures and lmtd of the nanofluids of different volume concentration

Fluids THin (K) THout (K) TCin (K) TCout (K) LMTD
TiO2/water (1.5% v/v) 340 318.82 300 338.6 13.91
TiO2/water (1% v/v) 340 322.39 300 337.18 12.62
TiO2/water (.5% v/v) 340 323.49 300 336.23 10.70
Water 340 325.38 300 337.39 10.68

FIGURE 14. LMTD of various volume concentrations of nanofluids & water

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 TABLE 4.,nlet, outlet temperatures and heat transfer rate of the nanofluids of different volume concentration

THin (K) THout(K) Heat Transfer Rate

Fluids
(Q)
TiO2/water (1.5% v/v) 340 318.82 53430.25
TiO2/water (1% v/v) 340 322.39 47409.15
TiO2/water (.5% v/v) 340 323.49 31958
Water 340 325.38 30513

FIGURE 15.Heat transfer rate using different fluids

The heat transfer rates of nanofluids with different volume concentrations are shown in figure 15. The graph
shows highest heat transfer characteristics using water followed by by TiO 2/water nano fluids with 1.5% v/v. The
heat transfer rate is lowest with TiO2/water nano fluids with 1% v/v.

CONCLUSION
Thermal analysis of shell and tube heat exchanger is conducted using ANSYS CFX software with the help of
two variable k-epsilon turbulence model. The following conclusions drawn are:
1. ANSYS CFX software has been reliable software to carryout fluid flow analysis to predict its temperature
distribution and velocities at given boundary conditions.
2. The temperature drop for hot fluid and cold fluid obtained using TiO2/water nano fluids is higher as
compared to water with 1.5% volume fraction.
3. LMTD is highest for TiO2/water nano fluids with 1.5% volume fraction and 6> LMTD is lowest for water.
4. The heat transfer rate is lowest with water followed by TiO2/water nano fluids with 1.5% volume fraction.
5. The heat transfer rate is higher in 1.5% TiO2/water nano fluids when compared to with TiO2/water nano
fluids of 1% v/v

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