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Experimental determination of the heat transfer coefficients of shell-and-tube heat exchangers with different hollow fiber arrangements

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Abstract

To maximize heat transfer in heat exchangers (HEs), it is important to enlarge the active surface area and to ensure that the whole surface is in contact with continuously flowing fluids on both sides. Progress in the last two decades led to the creation of polymeric hollow-fiber HEs (PHFHEs) that have an extensive active surface area to volume ratio. Compared to conventional metal HEs, polymeric HEs are lighter and more chemically resistant. Furthermore, the fibers PHFHEs can be organized in a specific arrangement that guarantees high heat transfer efficiency. Six shell-and-tube HEs with three different types of fiber arrangements (parallel fibers, coils, and chaotization) were compared by calculating the heat transfers and the heat transfer coefficients. Pressure drops were also measured. The experiments were conducted with a counter-current mode of operation with constant laminar flow in the fibers and gradually increased flow in the shell. The experiments proved that if the fibers are arranged in a way that secures spacing heat transfer is boosted. Compared to parallel fibers, slight improvements are seen if the fibers are shaped into coils. However, complete chaotization of the fibers is far superior. Chaotized HEs demonstrate a fourfold increase in heat flux and a twofold increase in heat transfer coefficient while reducing the pressure drop by two-thirds compared to similarly sized HEs with parallel fibers.

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Abbreviations

A:

Surface (m2)

D:

Diameter (mm)

H:

Heat transfer coefficient (Wm−2 K−1)

∆P:

Pressure drop (Pa)

Q:

Heat transfer rate (W)

Q/A:

Heat flux (Wm−2)

Nu :

Nusselt number

U:

Heat transfer area (m2)

c:

Cold

h:

Hot

in:

Inner

lm:

Log mean

out:

Outer

ov:

Overall

w:

Wall

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports of the Czech Republic under OP RDE Grant No. CZ.02.1.01/0.0/0.0/16_019/0000753 “Research centre for low-carbon energy technologies”.

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  1. Heat Transfer and Fluid Flow Laboratory, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Brno University of Technology, Technická 2896/2 616 69, Brno, Czech Republic

    Alan Strunga, Tereza Kroulíková, Erik Bartuli & Miroslav Raudenský

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Strunga, A., Kroulíková, T., Bartuli, E. et al. Experimental determination of the heat transfer coefficients of shell-and-tube heat exchangers with different hollow fiber arrangements. J Therm Anal Calorim 147, 14787–14796 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10973-022-11576-1

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