G8 Shell-Side Heat Transfer in Baffled Shell-and-Tube Heat Exchangers

1 Introduction

The method described in this chapter for calculating the mean heat transfer coefficient on the shell-side of a baffled shell-and-tube heat exchanger is based on the corresponding method for calculating the mean heat transfer coefficient in a tube bundle with a cross flow. However, the flow configuration on the shell-side of a baffled shell-and-tube heat exchanger leads to a number of deviations from the case of a flow across a tube bundle. The geometry of the baffles in the heat exchanger shell – as shown in Fig. 1– generates a main stream through the heat exchanger tube bundle, which is partly across and partly parallel to the tubes. Unavoidable clearances between the outer surface of the tubes and the holes in the heat exchanger baffles, as well as between the baffles and the inside shell surface lead to leakage streams, which participate in heat transfer, but not to the same extent as the main stream. Since the tubes in the tube bundle cannot be brought uniformly...