Investigation of Heat Transfer Rates on

A shell and tube heat exchanger design with respect to the total heat transfer rate and temperature profile has been investigated by numerical modelling. The HE comprises of a single tube with a length of 200mm and a shell diameter of 20mm and has been resolved by the two equation models namely, the k – epsilon and k – omega. The low RMS residual levels calculated showed that the convergence is better in the k-ω model. The differences in the heat transfer rate noted are likely due to the low number of iterations in the k-ε model and a loose convergence. The study of the effect of residuals and iterations on the flow and heat transfer helps explain the selection of an appropriate model - k-ω. In the operating conditions used for the simulation, it is observed that k -ω model has better heat transfer rate. It is arguable that the heat transfer was not accurate in the k-ε model owing to a lesser number of iterations leading to a higher residual level. Hence, it is safe to conclude that k-ω model is best suited for the heat exchanger.