If you have been in the engineering industry for a while, you may have heard of exchangers. Shell and tube heat exchangers are the most common exchanger in the engineering department. They are robust and have a simple design compared to other types of heat exchangers.
It is also relatively cheap, requires low maintenance, and has a high heat transfer rate. However, they require more space than heat exchangers with similar thermal exchange capacity. So how does the shell and heat exchanger work? Read on to find out.
The shell and tube heat exchanger allows one fluid to flow through the tubes from the bottom while the other fluid flows through the shell from the top. The wall of the tubes prevents the two fluids from mixing. This causes cooling to occur indirectly. A turbulent flow increases the heat transfer rate while reducing the possibility of accumulating dissolved solid on the shell or tube walls.
The turbulent flow within the tubes is created when tabulators are inserted into each heat exchanger’s tubes. The flow is created by baffles that direct water across the tubes twice as the fluids through the heat exchanger. Watch the video linked above to get more information on how the shell and tube heat exchanger works.
