Optimum design, manufacturing and testing of shell and tube heat exchangers with new generation segmental baffle

Shell and tube type heat exchangers are commonly used in industry due to the fact that design, production and maintanance are easy. Operating of shell and tube heat exchangers having a wide range of application area in optimum economical conditions primarily depends on determining pressure drop objectively. Determining allowable pressure drops across the heat exchangers design depending on experience is both difficult and risky. Also determined by the experience of the pressure drop is not expected to be in the optimum value. Optimum pressure drop values vary for each system due to the relation of the second fluid in the system. The maximum allowable pressure drop design value should be chosen as large as possible. Also, the use of all the maximum allowable pressure drop in order to achieve optimum heat transfer surface area is extremely important. With the conventional baffles used in shell and tube heat exchangers, it is not possible to increase the efficiency to a great extent. The reason for low efficiency is the amount of turbulence created by the fluid inside the shell that accumulates behind the baffle. It increases the pressure drop caused by baffle design. In the first stage of the study, new generation baffle designs were made. The purpose of design studies is to increase the temperature transition and decrease the presssure drop at the same time by developing a method different from the conventional applications, extending the path of the fluid in the shell and eliminating the obstacles in front of it. The baffle models determined after the design studies were analyzed using the computational fluid dynamics method. The geometric parameters of the three-zonal baffle were determined and the effects on heat transfer and pressure drop were investigated by Taguchi experimental optimization method. According to the results of the analysis, the three-zonal-baffle, which has the most efficient results, was produced as a prototype. Experiments with the prototype produced confirmed the results of computational fluid mechanics. The results show that the new generation baffle reduces the pressure drop by 49% compared to the conventional baffle and increases the temperature transition by 7%. Taguchi optimization results of the dimensionless parameters obtained from the circular segmental model indicated that the temperature transition increased by 17,8% compared to the conventional baffle, while the pressure drop decreased by 32,6%.