• Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology
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• v.15 no.11
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• pp.1555-1562
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• 2001

In a conventional shell-and-tube heat exchanger, fluid contacts with tubes flowing up and down in a shell, therefore there is a defect in the heat transfer with tubes due to the stagnation portions . Fins are attached to the tubes in order to increase heat transfer efficiency, but there exists a limit. Therefore, it is necessary to improve heat exchanger performance by changing the fluid flow in the shell. In this study, a highly efficient shell-and-tube heat exchanger with spiral baffle plates is simulated three-dimensionally using a commercial thermal-fluid analysis code, CFX4.2. In this type of heat exchanger, fluid contacts with tubes flowing rotationally in the shell. It could improve heat exchanger performance considerably because stagnation portions in the shell could be removed. It is proved that the shell-and-tube heat exchanger with spiral baffle plates is superior to the conventional heat exchanger in terms of heat transfer.

• Journal of Advanced Marine Engineering and Technology
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• v.40 no.5
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• pp.403-411
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• 2016

Usually shell and tube heat exchangers are employed to recover energy between fluids. Recently, numerous papers on these heat exchangers have been published; however, the velocity and temperature profiles or comparison of the features of the flow with or without inside tubes have rarely been described. In this research, experimental and numerical studies were carried out to investigate the characteristics of the flow around the spiral baffle plates without inside tubes in a horizontal circular tube using a particle image velocimetry method and ANSYS 14.0~15.0 version (Fluent). The results showed that swirling flow was produced between the spiral baffle plates. The tangential components were strong between the two spiral baffles; however, the axial or radial velocities components were indicating nearly zero. From the spiral motion in the space of the two baffles, it is considered that there were no dead zones between the spiral baffle.