Abstract In this study, a novel and innovative baffle design was offered in order to considerably reduce shell side pressure loss without compromising thermal performance. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) was utilized to simulate and visualize 3-D turbulent flow field in the shell side so as to investigate various shapes of baffles for preliminary baffle design purposes. The simulation results showed that a so-called three-zonal baffle could be superior over the several other configurations considered. The set of design parameters was then identified for this shape of baffle and Taguchi method was employed to determine candidate design configurations for optimum. With the optimized design of shell-and-tube heat exchanger (STHE) with new baffle configuration, it was found that thermal performance of the heat exchanger with three-zonal baffles was slightly improved, whereas shell-side pressure drop was significantly decreased compared to the conventional baffled STHE. The shell side pressure loss was found to lower by 49%, accompanying an increase in the shell side temperature difference up to 7%. In addition, CFD analyses of the optimized STHE with three-zonal baffles were performed considering specific boundary conditions, and the results were validated with the experimental data obtained under the same conditions. The results showed that the differences between CFD analyses and experimental data were maximum 7.3% for heat transfer rate and 7.6% for the pressure drop. It was concluded that the three-zonal baffles improved the STHE performance in terms of both heat transfer rate and pressure loss points of view.

中文翻译：

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基于CFD和田口法的新型三区折流板管壳式换热器设计优化

摘要 在这项研究中，提供了一种新颖且创新的挡板设计，以在不影响热性能的情况下显着降低壳程压力损失。计算流体动力学 (CFD) 被用来模拟和可视化壳侧的 3-D 湍流流场，以研究各种形状的挡板，用于初步的挡板设计目的。模拟结果表明，所谓的三区挡板可能优于所考虑的几种其他配置。然后为这种形状的挡板确定一组设计参数，并采用田口方法来确定最佳的候选设计配置。优化设计的壳管式换热器（STHE），新的挡板配置，结果表明，与传统的隔板 STHE 相比，具有三区挡板的换热器的热性能略有提高，而壳程压降则显着降低。发现壳侧压力损失降低了 49%，同时壳侧温差增加了 7%。此外，考虑特定边界条件，对优化后的三区挡板 STHE 进行 CFD 分析，并用相同条件下获得的实验数据验证了结果。结果表明，CFD 分析与实验数据之间的差异最大为传热率 7.3%，压降为 7.6%。