Shell and Helical Tube Heat Exchanger CFD Simulation

Shell and Helical Tube Heat Exchanger: CFD Analysis Using ANSYS Fluent

This simulation examines thermal performance of a shell and helical tube heat exchanger through detailed CFD analysis. Unlike conventional shell-tube designs, this configuration features spring-like helical tubes within a cylindrical shell, optimizing space utilization while maintaining effective heat transfer.

The model investigates interaction between two working fluids: hot fluid entering the shell at 313K (0.05 kg/s) and cold fluid entering the helical tubes at 289K (0.0333 kg/s). The complete workflow includes geometry creation in Design Modeler and unstructured mesh generation comprising 1,796,590 cells for accurate flow resolution.

The simulation methodology activates the energy model to capture thermal interactions, with coupled boundary conditions applied at the solid-fluid interfaces. This approach precisely models conductive heat transfer between the separate flow domains without requiring complex multiphase treatment.

Post-processing reveals comprehensive temperature, velocity and pressure distributions throughout the system. Quantitative analysis shows cold fluid temperature rise from 289K to 308.04K, yielding a heat transfer rate of 2651.65W through analytical calculation. This closely matches the simulation result of 2998.19W with only 1% discrepancy, validating the computational approach and providing confidence in the heat exchanger's thermal performance prediction.