Effects of Tube Stiffness and Tubesheet Thickness on the Thermal Stress of the Tubes and Tubesheet

Abstract

In this paper, numerical simulation was carried out for the tube bundle of a float-head heat exchanger with concentration on the effects of tube stiffness and tubesheet thickness on the thermal stress of the tubes and tubesheet. It is found that decreasing the tube stiffness by using corrugated tubes can reduce the axial thermal stress at the tubes and, thus, decrease the possibility of strength failure of the connection between the tubes and tubesheet. Decreasing the tubesheet thickness can reduce the thermal stress at the tubesheet, which is meaningful for the heat exchangers with large temperature difference between the shell-side fluid and tube-side fluid and under small pressures.