Prediction or hydraulic performance of shell-and-tube heat exchanger: comparison of 1D and CFD-porous media approaches

The present paper deals with Heat Exchanger sizing methods and offers a comparison between two of them: 1D global method and CFD porous media method. Following Prithiviraj et al. work [1], new developments are based on recent knowledge acquired on porous media, using a coupling strategy of a three-dimensional commercial code with an in-house code library. The distributed hydraulic resistance concept and the numerical model are briefly described and confronted with pressure drop measurements from an experimental E-type STHE setup (shell-and-tube heat exchanger) from the literature. The present paper will put into perspective capabilities and limits of each method with needs for heat exchanger rating. Flow rate repartition is calculated with CFD-porous media using Tinker’s current approach. This new analysis provides a complete comparison with 1D global method. It also reveals the major impact of leakage flow rate between baffle and tubes. The numerical estimation of pressure losses, consistent with experimental measurements of Halle et al. [2], implies that our future work will include thermal performance characterization and geometrical optimization.