Analysis of the effect of baffles on vibration and heat transfer characteristics of elastic tube bundles

For improving the performance of heat exchangers by effectively utilizing the flow-induced vibration, a presence baffle elastic tube bundle heat exchanger, is proposed according to the absence baffle elastic tube bundle heat exchanger. Heat transfer and vibration characteristics of them at different velocities, using flow-solid coupling calculation, are studied and compared. The results show that baffle can improve flow uniformity of shell-side fluid and fully excites the elastic tube bundle vibration to improve its heat transfer performance. When inlet velocity becomes 1.0 m/s from 0.7 m/s, the maximum amplitude of two monitoring points on elastic tube bundle increased by 25.40% and 25.92% for absence baffle elastic tube bundle heat exchanger and by 42.44% and 42.97% for presence baffle elastic tube bundle heat exchanger; in non-vibration and vibration conditions, average heat transfer coefficient of the elastic tube bundle increased by 32.46% and 30.48% for absence baffle elastic tube bundle heat exchanger and by 31.16% and 31.36% for presence baffle elastic tube bundle heat exchanger. Compared to absence baffle elastic tube bundle heat exchanger, heat transfer performance and vibration-enhanced heat transfer of presence baffle elastic tube bundle heat exchanger are generally improved. And at low flow velocities, the improvement is more significant.