Dimensionamento e simulação de um trocador de calor do tipo casco-tubo de pequenas dimensões

Abstract

Thermal exchange between two fluids that are at different temperatures and separated by a solid wall occurs in many engineering applications and the device used to carry out this process is called a heat exchanger. There are several configurations of heat exchangers, which can be classified according to the type of fluid flow, construction or demand for thermal exchange. In the present study, the shell-and-tube heat exchanger, which is intensively used for industrial applications, will be addressed. In a shell-and-tube heat exchanger design, it is necessary to analyze the best construction for the process in which it will be used. For this, an analytical dimensioning of the heat exchanger was carried out using Bell-Delaware’s Method, a widespread and well accurate method for dimensioning of shell-and-tube. To analyze results obtained analytically, a computer simulation (CFD) was performed using ANSYS-CFX Student version software in order to evaluate thermal exchange performed by the equipment. In order to obtain a precise simulation, mesh generation was evaluated, which is one of the main quality control parameters of a simulation. End results showed a good approximation between analytical and computational methods, indicating that the simulation was assertive, however, with a low percentage of error. In order to analyze the influence of the baffles cut on the thermal exchange, the same system was simulated for larger baffle cuts.