Kern

1
Kerns Description of Shell Side Flow in
SHELL-AND-TUBE HEAT EXCHANGER

• P M V Subbarao
• Professor
• Mechanical Engineering Department
• I I T Delhi

Another Peculiar Averaging Method..
2
Shell-Side Reynolds Number
Reynolds number for the shell-side is based on
the equivalent diameter and the velocity based on
a reference flow
3
Shell Side Fluid Flow
4
Classification of Shell Side Flow
5
Thermodynamic Similarity of Counter Cross Flow
Heat Transfer
6
Fluid dynamic Similarity of Counter Cross Flow
Heat Transfer ?!?!?!
7
Tube Layout Flow Structure
A Real Use of Wetted Perimeter !
8
Tube Layout

• Tube layout is characterized by the included
  angle between tubes.
• Two standard types of tube layouts are the square
  and the equilateral triangle.
• Triangular pitch (30o layout) is better for heat
  transfer and surface area per unit length
  (greatest tube density.)
• Square pitch (45 90 layouts) is needed for
  mechanical cleaning.
• Note that the 30,45 and 60 are staggered, and
  90 is in line.
• For the identical tube pitch and flow rates, the
  tube layouts in decreasing order of shell-side
  heat transfer coefficient and pressure drop are
  30,45,60, 90.
• The 90 layout will have the lowest heat transfer
  coefficient and the lowest pressure drop.

9

• The square pitch (90 or 45) is used when jet or
  mechanical cleaning is necessary on the shell
  side.
• In that case, a minimum cleaning lane of ¼ in.
  (6.35 mm) is provided.
• The square pitch is generally not used in the
  fixed header sheet design because cleaning is not
  feasible.
• The triangular pitch provides a more compact
  arrangement, usually resulting in smaller shell,
  and the strongest header sheet for a specified
  shell-side flow area.
• It is preferred when the operating pressure
  difference between the two fluids is large.

10
Tube Pitch

• The selection of tube pitch is a compromise
  between a
• Close pitch (small values of PT/do) for increased
  shell-side heat transfer and surface compactness,
  and an
• Open pitch (large values of PT/ do) for decreased
  shell-side plugging and ease in shell-side
  cleaning.
• Tube pitch Pt is chosen so that the pitch ratio
  is 1.25 lt PT/do lt 1.5.
• When the tubes are to close to each other (PT/do
  less than 1.25), the header plate (tube sheet)
  becomes to weak for proper rolling of the tubes
  and cause leaky joints.
• Tube layout and tube locations are standardized
  for industrial heat exchangers.
• However, these are general rules of thumb and can
  be violated for custom heat exchanger designs.

11
Identification of (Pseudo) Velocity Scale
12
Shell Side Pseudo Flow Area
The number of tubes at the centerline of the
shell is calculated by
where is Asthe bundle cross flow area, Dsis the
inner diameter of the shell, C is the clearance
between adjacent tubes, and B is the baffle
spacing
13
Pseudo Shell side Mass Velocity
The shell-side mass velocity is found with
14
Selection of Shell Diameter
15
Shell Diameter
The number of tubes is calculated by taking the
shell circle and dividing it by the projected
area of the tube layout. That is
where Apro-tube is the projected area of the tube
layout expressed as area corresponding to one
tube, Ds is the shell inside diameter, and CTP
is the tube count calculation constant that
accounts for the incomplete coverage of the shell
diameter by the tubes, due to necessary
clearances between the shell and the outer tube
circle and tube omissions due to tube pass lanes
for multitude pass design.
16
Projected area of Tube Layout
Where PT is the tube pitch and CL is the tube
layout constant.
17
Coverage of Shell Area
18
The CTP values for different tube passes are
given below
19
Pseudo Shell side Mass Velocity
The shell-side mass velocity is found with
20
Shell side Equivalent (Hydraulic) Diameter

• Equivalent diameter employed by Kern for
  correlating shell side heat transfer/flow is not
  a true equivalent diameter.
• The direction of shell side flow is partly along
  the tube length and partly at right angles to
  tube length or heat exchanger axis.
• The flow area at right angles is harmonically
  varying.
• This cannot be distinguished based on tube
  layout.
• Kerns experimental study showed that flow area
  along the axis showed excellent correlation wrt
• Tube layout, tube pitch etc.

21
Equivalent Counter Flow Hydraulic or Equivalent
Diameter

• The equivalent diameter is calculated along
  (instead of across) the long axes of the shell
  and therefore is taken as four times the net flow
  area as layout on the tube sheet (for any pitch
  layout) divided by the wetted perimeter.

22
Free Flow Area for Square Layout
Free Flow Area for Triangular Layout
23
(No Transcript)