VIBRATION AND HEAT TRANSFER STUDY ON IMPROVED ELASTIC BUNDLE HEAT EXCHANGER

Abstract

The comprehensive performance of an improved elastic tube bundle heat exchanger (IETB) was studied by varying its structural parameters (diameter and wall thickness). The influence of the structural parameters on the vibration and heat transfer properties of IETBs at different inlet velocities (u_in) was studied. The results show that the average amplitude of IETBs maximum increase was 41.67% and the average heat transfer coefficient (HTC) maximum increase was 46.47% as the u_in value increased from 0.3 m/s to 0.5 m/s. As the diameter increased from 8 mm to 12 mm and the wall thickness increased from 1.2 mm to 1.8 mm, the average amplitude of IETBs maximum decreased by 98.18% and 11.73%, respectively, and the heat transfer intensity of vibration enhancement decreased by 10.69% and 15.83%, respectively. According to the performance evaluation criteria analysis, when the wall thickness was constant at 1.5 mm, the comprehensive performance of the IETB heat exchanger with a diameter of 8 mm was better than that at other diameters. When the diameter was constant at 10 mm, the IETB heat exchanger with a wall thickness of 1.2 mm had a better comprehensive performance than those with other wall thicknesses.