Multidimensional Numerical Modeling of Heat Exchangers

Abstract

A comprehensive, multidimensional, thermal-hydraulic model is developed for the analysis of shell-and-tube heat exchangers for liquid metal services. For the shellside fluid, the conservation equations of mass, momentum and energy for continuum fluids are modified using the concept of porosity, surface permeability and distributed resistance to account for the blockage effects due to the presence of heat transfer tubes, flow baffles/shrouds, the support plates, etc. On the tubeside, the heat transfer tubes are connected in parallel between the inlet and outlet plenums, and tubeside flow distribution is calculated based on the plenum-to-plenum pressure difference being equal for all tubes. It is assumed that the fluid remains single-phased on the shell side and may undergo phase-change on the tube side, thereby simulating the conditions of Liquid Metal Fast Breeder Reactor (LMFBR) intermediate heat exchangers (IHX) and steam generators (SG). The analytical model predictions are compared with three sets of test data (one for IHX and two for SG) and favorable results are obtained, thus providing a limited validation of the model.