Investigation on Shell-Side Performance of Heat Exchanger With Axially Staggered Overlap Helical Baffles

Since its appearance in the 80’s of the 20th century, the heat exchanger with helical baffles (HEHBs) has attracted lots of attention. Benefiting from its relatively simple manufacture procedure and low cost, the heat exchanger with overlapped helical baffles receives much concern. However, there are few reports on the influence of the specific overlap size of helical baffles on the shell-side heat transfer performance and fluid friction property. In this paper, numerical investigation on this open issue is carried out by means of numerical method. The emphasis is laid on the relationship between the overlap size of helical baffles and the shell-side performance. Baffles with the shape of a quarter-ellipse are simulated and the heat-transfer oil is selected as the working fluid. Results show that in the condition of same helix angles and same flow rates, 10% increase of the specific overlap size brings an increase of 23–42% on the pressure drop and an increase of 2–8% on the convection heat transfer coefficient; hence the corresponding heat transfer coefficient pre unit pressure drop is decreased by 11–22%. Compared with the continuously overlap configuration, the axially staggered overlap helical baffles can improve the comprehensive performance of HEHBs on the condition of an identical helical pitch, and hence it is favorable for the situation with strict constrain on pressure drop.