Multi-objective optimization of shell and tube heat exchangers

The effectiveness and cost are two important parameters in heat exchanger design. The total cost includes the capital investment for equipment (heat exchanger surface area) and operating cost (for energy expenditures related to pumping). Tube arrangement, tube diameter, tube pitch ratio, tube length, tube number, baffle spacing ratio as well as baffle cut ratio were considered as seven design parameters. For optimal design of a shell and tube heat exchanger, it was first thermally modeled using ε–NTU method while Bell–Delaware procedure was applied to estimate its shell side heat transfer coefficient and pressure drop. Fast and elitist non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm (NSGA-II) with continuous and discrete variables were applied to obtain the maximum effectiveness (heat recovery) and the minimum total cost as two objective functions. The results of optimal designs were a set of multiple optimum solutions, called ‘Pareto optimal solutions’. The sensitivity analysis of change in optimum effectiveness and total cost with change in design parameters of the shell and tube heat exchanger was also performed and the results are reported.     

The RODbaffle Heat Exchanger

The RODbaffle exchanger offers a solution to the vexing problem of tube failures in shell-and-tube exchangers resulting from tube vibration. Additional benefits are good heat transfer rates, low pressure drop, and lower fouling rates. The ratio of heat transfer rate to pressure drop can be more than double that of the conventional plate-type baffle in a comparable application.     

Design optimization of shell-and-tube heat exchanger using particle swarm optimization technique

Shell-and-tube heat exchangers (STHEs) are the most common type of heat exchangers that find widespread use in numerous industrial applications. Cost minimization of these heat exchangers is a key objective for both designer and users. Heat exchanger design involves complex processes, including selection of geometrical parameters and operating parameters. The traditional design approach for shell-and-tube heat exchangers involves rating a large number of different exchanger geometries to identify those that satisfy a given heat duty and a set of geometric and operational constraints. However, this approach is time-consuming and does not assure an optimal solution. Hence the present study explores the use of a non-traditional optimization technique; called particle swarm optimization (PSO), for design optimization of shell-and-tube heat exchangers from economic view point. Minimization of total annual cost is considered as an objective function. Three design variables such as shell internal diameter, outer tube diameter and baffle spacing are considered for optimization. Two tube layouts viz. triangle and square are also considered for optimization. Four different case studies are presented to demonstrate the effectiveness and accuracy of the proposed algorithm. The results of optimization using PSO technique are compared with those obtained by using genetic algorithm (GA).     

Thermoeconomic optimization of the geometry of an air conditioning precooling air reheater dehumidifier

Exergy method of optimization for the geometrical parameters of an air conditioning precooling air reheater with turbulent flow is developed in this paper. The method is based on exergy, economic analysis and optimization theory. As there are humid air streams involved in the heat transfer process, then there are irreversibilities or exergy destruction, which is due to pressure losses, temperature difference and specific humidity gradient. These principle components of total irreversibility are not independent and there is a trade‐off between them. Therefore, the purpose of this research paper is to study the effect of the geometry and the specific humidity of the two streams on the irreversibilities of a crossflow precooling air reheater dehumidifier. Also, the optimum balance between the three components of irreversibility is determined thereby giving the optimum solution for heat exchanger area. The total cost function is expressed on an annualized basis of the sum of the precooler capital cost and the running cost attributable to the precooler irreversibility. This total cost function is optimized in this paper according to the optimum heat transfer area and the total irreversibilities. Two optimum heat transfer areas were found for minimum total irreversibility and minimum total annual cost for a specific example. Finally, the relations between the typical operational variables such as heat transfer area, Reynolds numbers and the total annual cost for the precooler is developed and presented in graphs, which allow the calculation of the optimal heat transfer area, which gives the optimum irreversibility and minimum total annual cost. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

壳管式海水换热器污垢状况的火用评价方法研究

分析了壳管式海水换热器管程结垢后换热强度及流动压降变化对换热器火用损失的影响,提出了一种利用(火用)损失系数评价换热器污垢状况的方法.该方法比通过检测污垢热阻评价换热器污垢状况的方法更全面,更简捷.     

Investigation of potential of improvement of helical coils based on avoidable and unavoidable exergy destruction concepts

An inevitable problem challenges heat exchanger designers is that the heat transfer augmentation in a thermal system is always achieved at the expense of an increase in pressure loss. Thus, the trade-off by choosing the most proper configuration and best flow condition has become the critical problem for design work. The brief survey on literature shows that optimal Reynolds number of laminar forced convection in a helical tube, was specified based on minimum entropy generation. Therefore, the present study analyzes the thermodynamic potential of improvement for steady, laminar, fully developed, forced convection in a helical coiled tube subjected to uniform wall temperature based on the concept of avoidable and unavoidable exergy destruction. The influence of various parameters such as coil curvature ratio, dimensionless inlet temperature difference, dimensionless passage length of the coil, and fluid properties on avoidable exergy destruction have been investigated for water as working fluid. Results show considerable potential of thermodynamic optimization of helical coil tubes. In addition, a relation for determining the amount of optimum Dean Number is proposed for the range considered in the present study.     

Design and economic optimization of shell and tube heat exchangers using Artificial Bee Colony (ABC) algorithm

In this study, a new shell and tube heat exchanger optimization design approach is developed. Artificial Bee Colony (ABC) has been applied to minimize the total cost of the equipment including capital investment and the sum of discounted annual energy expenditures related to pumping of shell and tube heat exchanger by varying various design variables such as tube length, tube outer diameter, pitch size, baffle spacing, etc. Finally, the results are compared to those obtained by literature approaches. The obtained results indicate that Artificial Bee Colony (ABC) algorithm can be successfully applied for optimal design of shell and tube heat exchangers.     

管壳式换热器折流部件优化研究进展

为了提高管壳式换热器的能源利用率,换热器强化传热的研究得到广泛关注。本文从强化传热原理、结构改进和设计优化等三方面对换热器折流部件的优化改进研究进行了分析和总结。其中,强化传热原理主要包括不同折流板通过改变流场的特性影响换热器性能;结构改进包括分段挡板、折流孔板和螺旋挡板的优化进展以及与单弓挡板的对比研究;设计优化包括利用各种新型算法对换热器结构参数的优化和成本的控制。针对管壳式换热器折流部件的强化传热问题,提出了非连续螺旋挡板的研究和结合多目标优化设计的结构改进是未来的重点研究方向。     

Numerical Investigation of the Effect of Baffle Orientation on Heat Transfer and Pressure Drop in a Shell and Tube Heat Exchanger With Leakage Flows

The commercial CFD code FLUENT is used to investigate the effect of baffle orientation and of viscosity of the working fluid on the heat transfer and pressure drop in a shell-and-tube heat exchanger in the domain of turbulent flow. The shell-and-tube heat exchanger considered follows the TEMA standards and consists of 76 plane tubes with fixed outside diameter, which are arranged in a triangular pitch. Two baffle orientations as well as leakage flows are considered. In order to determine the effect of viscosity on heat transfer and pressure drop, simulations are performed for the working fluids air, water, and engine oil with Prandtl numbers in the range of 0.7 to 206. For each baffle orientation and working fluid, simulations are performed using different flow velocities at the inlet nozzle. Heat transfer and pressure drop are reported in order to describe the performance of vertically and horizontally baffled shell-and-tube heat exchangers. The heat transfer coefficient is described as modified shell-side Nusselt number, which is defined similar to the VDI method.     

Exergetic optimization of shell and tube heat exchangers using a genetic based algorithm

In the computer-based optimization, many thousands of alternative shell and tube heat exchangers may be examined by varying the high number of exchanger parameters such as tube length, tube outer diameter, pitch size, layout angle, baffle space ratio, number of tube side passes.In the present study, a genetic based algorithm was developed, programmed, and applied to estimate the optimum values of discrete and continuous variables of the MINLP (mixed integer nonlinear programming) test problems. The results of the test problems show that the genetic based algorithm programmed can estimate the acceptable values of continuous variables and optimum values of integer variables. Finally the genetic based algorithm was extended to make parametric studies and to find optimum configuration of heat exchangers by minimizing the sum of the annual capital cost and exergetic cost of the shell and tube heat exchangers. The results of the example problems show that the proposed algorithm is applicable to find optimum and near optimum alternatives of the shell and tube heat exchanger configurations.     

Performance analysis of finned tube and unbaffled shell-and-tube heat exchangers

This work considers an optimum design problem for the different constraints involved in the designing of a shell-and-tube heat exchanger consisting of longitudinally finned tubes. A Matlab simulation has been employed using the Kern's method of design of extended surface heat exchanger to determine the behavior on varying the values of the constraints and studying the overall behavior of the heat exchanger with their variation for both cases of triangular and square pitch arrangements, along with the values of pressure drop. It was found out that an optimum fin height existed for particular values of shell and tube diameters when the heat transfer rate was the maximum. Moreover it was found out that the optimum fin height increased linearly with the increase in tube outer diameter. Further studies were also performed with the variation of other important heat exchanger design features and their effects were studied on the behavior of overall performance of the shell-and-tube heat exchanger. The results were thereby summarized which would proclaim to the best performance of the heat exchanger and therefore capable of giving a good idea to the designer about the dimensional characteristics to be used for designing of a particular shell and tube heat exchanger.     

Optimal geometry and flow arrangement for minimizing the cost of shell‐and‐tube condensers

This paper presents a model for estimating the total cost of shell‐and‐tube heat exchangers (HEs) with condensation in tubes or in the shell, as well as a designing strategy for minimizing this cost. The optimization process is based on a genetic algorithm. The global cost includes the energy cost (i.e. pumping power) and the initial purchase cost of the exchanger. The choice of the best exchanger is based on its annualized total cost. Eleven design variables are optimized. Ten are associated with the HE geometry: tube pitch, tube layout patterns, baffle spacing at the center, baffle spacing at the inlet and outlet, baffle cut, tube‐to‐baffle diametrical clearance, shell‐to‐baffle diametrical clearance, tube bundle outer diameter, shell diameter, and tube outer diameter. The last design variable indicates whether the condensing fluid should flow in the tubes or in the shell. Two case studies are presented and the results obtained show that the procedure can rapidly identify the best design for a given heat transfer process between two fluids, one of which is condensing. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Reducing the exergy destruction in the cryogenic heat exchangers of hydrogen liquefaction processes

A present key barrier for implementing large-scale hydrogen liquefaction plants is their high power consumption. The cryogenic heat exchangers are responsible for a significant part of the exergy destruction in these plants and we evaluate in this work strategies to increase their efficiency. A detailed model of a plate-fin heat exchanger is presented that incorporates the geometry of the heat exchanger, nonequilibrium ortho-para conversion and correlations to account for the pressure drop and heat transfer coefficients due to possible boiling/condensation of the refrigerant at the lowest temperatures. Based on available experimental data, a correlation for the ortho-para conversion kinetics is developed, which reproduces available experimental data with an average deviation of 2.2%. In a plate-fin heat exchanger that is used to cool the hydrogen from 47.8 K to 29.3 K with hydrogen as refrigerant, we find that the two main sources of exergy destruction are thermal gradients and ortho-para hydrogen conversion, being responsible for 69% and 29% of the exergy destruction respectively. A route to reduce the exergy destruction from the ortho-para hydrogen conversion is to use a more efficient catalyst, where we find that a doubling of the catalytic activity in comparison to ferric-oxide, as demonstrated by nickel oxide-silica catalyst, reduces the exergy destruction by 9%. A possible route to reduce the exergy destruction from thermal gradients is to employ an evaporating mixture of helium and neon at the cold-side of the heat exchanger, which reduces the exergy destruction by 7%. We find that a combination of hydrogen and helium-neon as refrigerants at high and low temperatures respectively, enables a reduction of the exergy destruction by 35%. A combination of both improved catalyst and the use of hydrogen and helium-neon as refrigerants gives the possibility to reduce the exergy destruction in the cryogenic heat exchangers by 43%. The limited efficiency of the ortho-para catalyst represents a barrier for further improvement of the efficiency.     

An experimental investigation of heat transfer enhancement for a shell-and-tube heat exchanger

For the purpose of heat transfer enhancement, the configuration of a shell-and-tube heat exchanger was improved through the installation of sealers in the shell-side. The gaps between the baffle plates and shell is blocked by the sealers, which effectively decreases the short-circuit flow in the shell-side. The results of heat transfer experiments show that the shell-side heat transfer coefficient of the improved heat exchanger increased by 18.2–25.5%, the overall coefficient of heat transfer increased by 15.6–19.7%, and the exergy efficiency increased by 12.9–14.1%. Pressure losses increased by 44.6–48.8% with the sealer installation, but the increment of required pump power can be neglected compared with the increment of heat flux. The heat transfer performance of the improved heat exchanger is intensified, which is an obvious benefit to the optimizing of heat exchanger design for energy conservation.     

Experimental exergy and entransy analyses on designed and fabricated crossflow heat exchanger

A crossflow heat exchanger (CFHEx) is designed and fabricated in a workshop. For designing this heat exchanger (HEx), the number of passes, frontal areas, HEx volumes, heat transfer areas, free-flow areas, ratios of minimum free-flow area to frontal area, densities, mass flow rates of flowing fluids, maximum/minimum heat capacities, heat capacity ratio, outlet temperatures of hot/cold fluids, average temperatures, mass velocities, Reynolds numbers, and convective heat transfer coefficients are evaluated by considering Colburn/friction factors. After fabrication of the HEx, effectiveness, exergy destruction, entransy dissipation, entransy dissipation-based thermal resistance, entransy dissipation number, and entransy effectiveness for hot/cold fluids sides are found at different flow rates and inlet temperatures of fluids. By experimental results, optimum operating conditions are found, which gives maximum effectiveness and entransy effectiveness but minimum rates of exergy destruction, entransy dissipation, entransy dissipation-based thermal resistance, and entransy dissipation number for the fabricated CFHEx. This study is concluded as follows: minimum exergy destruction and entransy dissipation rates (ie, 3.061 kJ/s·K and 1125.44 kJ·K/s, respectively) are found during experiment 2. Maximum entransy effectiveness of hot/cold fluids (ie, 0.689/0.21) is achieved in experiment 1. Moderate values of entransy dissipation number (ie, 4.689), entransy dissipation-based thermal resistance (ie, 0.04 s·K/J), exergy destruction (ie, 3.845 kJ/s·K), and entransy dissipation (ie, 1374.04 kJ·K/s) rates are found during experiment 1. Maximum effectiveness (ie, 0.4) for the fabricated HEx is also obtained through experiment 1. After comparative analyses, it is found that experiment 1 provides optimum results, which shows the best performance of the fabricated HEx.     

Most Frequently Used Heat Exchangers from Pioneering Research to Worldwide Applications

Heat exchangers contribute significantly to many energy conversion processes. Applications range from power production, petroleum refining and chemicals, paper and pharmaceutical production, to aviation and transportation industries. A large percentage of world market for heat exchangers is served by the industry workhorse, the shell-and-tube heat exchanger. Recent developments in other exchanger geometries have penetrated in various industry applications; however, the shell-and-tube exchanger by far remains the industry choice where reliability and maintainability are vital. Over the years, significant research and development efforts are devoted to better understand the shell-side geometry. New geometries are introduced for performance enhancement and to improve reliability. The pioneering work published by J. Nemcansky et al. in the Trans. Institute of Chemical Engineers in May, 1990, on helical baffles paved the way to a major shift from a conventional understanding of baffles in a shell-and-tube heat exchanger. Helical baffles serve as guide vanes for shell-side flow as compared to creating flow channels with conventional segmented baffles. In the past decade, ABB Lummus Heat Transfer has extended the understanding of the helical baffle geometry through extensive testing and development. CFD flow simulation studies have further confirmed the helical baffle advantage. Industry feedback on operating Helixchanger® heat exchangers—the shell-and-tube heat exchangers with helical baffles—has demonstrated low fouling characteristics as well as a higher conversion of shell-side pressure drop to heat transfer. In this paper, the characteristics of this novel Helixchanger heat exchanger are discussed. Examples from early installations in the power industry to the major applications in the petro-chemical and refining industries are presented, illustrating the advantages in reducing fouling and increasing reliability while achieving lower total life cycle costs.     

Minimizing shell‐and‐tube heat exchanger cost with genetic algorithms and considering maintenance

This paper presents a procedure for minimizing the cost of a shell‐and‐tube heat exchanger based on genetic algorithms (GA). The global cost includes the operating cost (pumping power) and the initial cost expressed in terms of annuities. Eleven design variables associated with shell‐and‐tube heat exchanger geometries are considered: tube pitch, tube layout patterns, number of tube passes, baffle spacing at the centre, baffle spacing at the inlet and outlet, baffle cut, tube‐to‐baffle diametrical clearance, shell‐to‐baffle diametrical clearance, tube bundle outer diameter, shell diameter, and tube outer diameter. Evaluations of the heat exchangers performances are based on an adapted version of the Bell–Delaware method. Pressure drops constraints are included in the procedure. Reliability and maintenance due to fouling are taken into account by restraining the coefficient of increase of surface into a given interval. Two case studies are presented. Results show that the procedure can properly and rapidly identify the optimal design for a specified heat transfer process. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The Effect of a Number of Baffles on the Performance of Shell-and-Tube Heat Exchangers

The number of baffles has an impact on the thermal-hydraulic performance of a shell-and-tube heat exchanger (STHX), thus a model was developed using Engineering Equations Solver software to solve the governing equations. The program uses Kern, Bell-Delaware, and flow-stream analysis (Wills Johnston) methods to predict both the heat-transfer coefficient and pressure drop on the shell side of an STHX. It was found that Bell-Delaware method is the most accurate method when compared with the experimental results. The effect of a number of baffles, mass flow rate, tube layout, fluid properties and baffle cut were investigated. The analysis revealed that an increase in the number of baffles increases both the heat-transfer coefficient and pressure drop on the shell-side. Increasing the mass flow rate, the heat transfer coefficient increases; however, the pressure drop increases at a higher rate. For a large number of baffles, the pressure drop decreases with an increase in the baffle cut. It also shows that the heat transfer coefficient increases at a higher rate with the square tube layout, whereas the rotated square and triangular layouts have approximately the same behavior.     

The application of field synergy number in shell-and-tube heat exchanger optimization design

In the present work the field synergy principle is applied to the optimization design of the shell-and-tube heat exchanger with segmental baffles. The field synergy number which is defined as the indicator of the synergy between the velocity field and the heat flow is taken as the objective function. The genetic algorithm is employed to solve the heat exchanger optimization problems with multiple design variables. The field synergy number maximization approach for heat exchanger optimization design is thus formulated. In comparison with the initial design, the optimal design leads to a significant cost cut on the one hand and an improvement of the heat exchanger performance on the other hand. The comparison with the traditional heat exchanger optimization design approach with the total cost as the objective function shows that the field synergy number maximization approach is more advantageous.     

Numerical Analysis of Baffle Cut on Shell Side Heat Exchanger Performance with Inclined Baffles

In this work, an attempt has been made to decrease the pressure drop and to increase the heat transfer rate in a shell and tube heat exchanger (STHX) by tilting the baffle angle and by varying the baffle cut. The process of solving the simulation includes modeling, meshing, and analyzing the geometry of the STHX by using Pro-E, hypermesh, and computational fluid dynamics package of ANSYS Fluent, respectively. The objective of this study is to find a suitable baffle inclination and baffle cut for the efficient performance of the STHX. The baffle inclinations of 25°, 30°, 35°, and 40° were considered for three different baffle cuts of 25%, 30%, and 35% of shell inside diameter and the results were compared with segmental baffle of inclination angle 0°. The shell side flow with different inclination angles and baffle cuts results in a significant variation in heat transfer rate and pressure drop in the STHX. The results provide a clear idea that the heat transfer rate is maximum in inclined baffle heat exchanger compared to that of segmental baffle heat exchanger. Further it is found that the STHX with the configuration of 35º baffle inclination angle and baffle cut of 30% of shell inside diameter provides higher heat transfer rate with minimum pressure drop compared to all other configurations.