Simulação computacional de um trocador de calor casco e tubo

Abstract

The present work, through computational fluid dynamics (CFD), presents a study of a small shell and tube heat exchanger in which the number of baffles is varied and their possible influence on the exchanger is observed. For this, the commercial tool Ansys Fluent was used to simulate the heat exchanger with three different configurations: zero baffles, two baffles and four baffles. The fundamental stages for the development of the model are presented. The k-epsilon turbulence model was chosen, as it is commonly used for this type of heat exchanger. The temperature and velocity contours are evaluated in the heat exchanger, as well as the overall transfer coefficient and pressure drop. Finally, through comparisons, it is concluded that the greater the number of baffles, the greater the heat transfer and pressure drop.