A Numerical Approach to Study Shell-Side Fluid Flow in Shell-and-Tube Heat Exchangers

Abstract The detailed CFD simulation of the shell-side flow inside shell-and-tube heat exchangers results prohibitive for large-size components, due to large number tubes, together with multi-scale nature features. To overcome this issue, porous media approach can be adopted, substituting tube bundle a domain, where suitable momentum sink term in Navier-Stokes equation is provided. In paper, novel numerical estimate crossflow pressure drop presented: complete characterization was performed by running 2D-CFD steady-state isothermal analyses, collecting gradient magnitudes and directions different mass rates angles attack incoming flow. validated against compared methodologies currently available. Models, assumptions, boundary conditions are herewith reported thoroughly discussed, alongside main obtained.