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Energy Procedia 61 (2014) 799 – 802

The 6th International Conference on Applied Energy – ICAE2014

Prediction of temperature distribution in shell-and-tube heat

exchangers
Guo-yan Zhou*, Ling-Yun Zhu, Hui Zhu, Shan-tung Tu, Jun-jie Lei
Key Laboratory of Pressurized System and Safety(MOE), School of Mechanical and Power Engineering
East China University of Science and Technology, Shanghai 200237

Abstract

On the basis of the differential theory, an accurate and simplified model for predicting temperature distribution in the
shell-and-tube heat exchanger is proposed. According to the baffle arrangement and tube passes, the heat exchanger
is divided into a number of elements with tube side current in series and shell side current in parallel. Two examples
of BEU and AES heat exchangers with single-phase fluid are analyzed to demonstrate the application and accuracy of
the proposed model in temperature distribution prediction, compared with the Cell model and HTRI method. The
results show that the proposed model reproduces the temperature distribution given by the HTRI solution on the tube
side flow with 0.19% accuracy for the BEU heat exchanger and 0.35% for the AES heat exchanger. It indicates that
the prediction of the temperature distribution by the new model agrees reasonably well with that by HTRI method.
© 2014 Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license
© 2014 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/).
Selection and/or peer-review under responsibility of ICAE
Peer-review under responsibility of the Organizing Committee of ICAE2014

Keywords: temperature distribution ; differential theory ; shell-and-tube heat exchanger ; single phase

1. Introduction

The traditional process design of heat exchangers is based on the physical property under qualitative
temperature of whole heat exchanger, which is relatively simple. However, when the mean temperature
difference (EMD) of hot and cold fluid gets bigger, the fluid property changes significantly. The heat
transfer area designed by this method will be large or small. In fact, fluid temperature changes along with
heat exchanger length. The heat transfer coefficient and pressure are hence different at different
everywhere in heat exchangers. So, it is particularly important to divide the heat exchanger into several
segments to calculate the temperature accurately.

* Corresponding author. Tel.: +86 21 64253513; fax: +86 21 64253513.

E-mail address: zhougy@ecust.ed.cn.

1876-6102 © 2014 Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/).
Peer-review under responsibility of the Organizing Committee of ICAE2014
doi:10.1016/j.egypro.2014.11.968
800 Guo-yan Zhou et al. / Energy Procedia 61 (2014) 799 – 802

With the development of physical property database, like ASPEN and PRO II, it is more convenient to
accurately calculate the local temperature distribution by HTRI and HTFS+. But the detailed calculation
procedure is not open. So, many studies have been carried out to predict heat exchanger temperature
distribution. Gaddis and Schlunder [3-4] proposed a Cell model to calculate the temperature distribution
and optimize heat exchangers. Based on the Cell model, Mikhailov and Ozisik [5] proposed a finite
element method(FEM) for the calculation and it was proved to be more accurate by comparison with the
theoretical results. It was improved laterly by Ravikumakur [6-7] and applied to the design of the
condenser taking the temperature-dependent thermal properties into account [8]. Egwanwo [9] further
verified it by a program source code in Qbasic with the backward substitution method. Heicunhuzhi [10]
proposed a differential method to analyze the temperature distribution of heat exchangers. However, all
the above methods can not design the heat exchanger precisely and satisfy the engineering requirement.
In the present paper, based on the differentiation, a new simplified model is proposed to calculate the
temperature distribution of heat exchanger. Taking the 1-2 BEU and AES type heat exchanger as
examples, the feasibility and accuracy of this method is verified by the comparison with Cell model and
HTRI program.

2. Model description

Fig.1 (a) 1-2 type shell-and-tube heat exchanger, (b) schematic diagram of modules
Taking one 1-2 type heat exchanger with baffle plate as an example (Fig.1). The heat exchanger is
divided into ( Nb + 1) N s units and every unit is then divided into n ( N b + 1) subunits. If the baffles are
fewer, equidistant units can be divided along the tube length. The tube-side fluid flows through each
subunit, while the shell-side fluid flows through each unit. Where Nb is the baffle number, Ns the number
of shell pass, n the number of tube pass.
To simplify the calculation, the following assumptions have been made:
1) Overall heat transfer coefficient U, mass flow rate and the specific heat are constant.
2) The shell-side fluid is uniform on every cross sections, on which the temperature is also uniform.
3) When the baffle is enough [11], the MTD Δtm of the subunit is definded by the arithmetic mean.
For a subunit in the x unit, the heat transfer equation of the shell-side and tube-side fluids are written as
S
Q = U x ( Tx − t I′ ) (1)
n
Q = Ct ( tI′ − tI ) (2)
Then the input temperature is obtained for two adjacent subunits as follows:
S S
tI = tI′ − U x ( Tx − tI′ ) , tII = tII′ − U x (Tx − tII′ ) (3)
nCt nCt
According to the the heat balance, the inlet temperature of the shell-side unit is obtained
C
T = T1 − t ( tI − tII ) (4)
Cs
 Guo-yan Zhou et al. / Energy Procedia 61 (2014) 799 – 802 801

where Q is thermal duty, W; Sx heat transfer area of x unit, m2; T and Tx inlet and outlet temperature of the
shell-side unit, K; t I ( t II )and t I′ ( t II′ ) the inlet and outlet temperature of the tube-side subunit (neighbour
subunit), K; Ct and Cs are heat capacity flow rate on tubeside and shellside respectively, W⋅k-1.
Boundary conditions of equations (3) and (4) are t I = t2 S =0 , t II = t1 S = 0 , Tx = T2 S = 0 ; t I′ = t I S = S ,
t II′ = tII S = S , Tx = T S = S
1

1 1
The initial overall heat transfer coefficient can be assumed as:
Q
U req =
S ⋅ Δt m
where Ureq is required heat transfer coefficient, W⋅m-2⋅k-1; S total
n heat transfer area, m2.
The calculation will converge when tI ≥ tII , T ≈ T1 , S = ¦ Sn . After the first iteration, U req should be
reduced properly if tI < tII . Otherwise, U req should be increased.
n =1

3. Model verification and discussion

3.1. Case of single-phase flow in tube side

Taking the 1-2 BEU type heat exchanger in software HTRI 5.x as case. The inlet/outlet temperature of
shell-side process fluid are 298/478K, the flow rate is 0.536 kg·s-1. For the tube-side oil, they are
583/553K and 1.922kg·s-1, respectively. The temperature distribution of heat exchanger is calculated by
present model, Cell model and HTRI program respectively. The tube-side and shell-side temperature
distributions are calculated and shown in Figs. 2 and 3 respectively.
The results show that the temperature calculated by the present model is much closer to that from the
HTRI program. The Maximum and minimum deviations are 1.74% and 0.19% respectively. It implies
that the temperature distribution of 1-2 BEU type heat exchanger calculated by present paper can meet the
accuracy requirement.
585 500 345 480
By proposed model By HTRI By proposed model
By proposed model
580 By cell model 475 By proposed model By cell model
340 By cell model
By HTRI
Temperature distribution t /K

Temperature distribution t /K

By HTRI
Temperature distribution t /K

By HTRI 460
575
450 Temperature distribution t /K
335
425
570 440
330
400
565 375 325
420

560 350 320

400
325 315
555
300
550 310 380
0 250 500 750 1000 1250 1500 1750 2000 0 400 800 1200 1600 2000 0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000 0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000
Tube length L /mm Tube length L /mm Tube length L /mm Tube length L /mm

Fig.2 Temperature distribution Fig.3 Temperature distribution Fig.4 Temperature distribution Fig.5 Temperature
on tubeside on shellside on tubeside distribution on shellside

3.2. Case of single-phase flow in shell side

Another AES heat exchanger case is cited from the reference[13]. The inlet/outlet temperature of shell-
side Kerosene fluid are 472/394K, the flow rate is 5.67s-1. For the tube-side oil, they are 311K and 18.9
kg·s-1, respectively. The temperature distribution calculated by present model, Cell model and HTRI
program are shown in Figs. 4 and 5.
It can be seen that the temperature on tube side calculated by present model are much closer to that by
HTRI. The maximum deviation is 0.35%. The maximum deviation between the calculated tubeside
temperature from Cell model and from HTRI program is 6.44%. From Fig. 5, the calculated temperature
by present model and Cell model agree well with that by HTRI. The maximum deviation between the
results from present model and HTRI is -0.44%. The maximum deviation between the results from Cell
model and HTRI is 1.69%.
802 Guo-yan Zhou et al. / Energy Procedia 61 (2014) 799 – 802

From the above analysis, it is indicated that the present method predicts the temperature distribution
more accurately. In addition, it should be pointed out that Cell model needs to consider many factors[4],
and the calculation procedure is much more complex.

4. Conclusions

In the present paper, a simple and accurate temperature predicting model is developed for shell-and-
tube heat exchangers based on the differential method. Two engineering cases have been introduced and
the results show that the calculated temperature is more accurate than that by Cell model and agrees well
with that by HTRI program. It should be noted that the proposed model can be successfully used for all
shell-and-tube heat exchangers with straight tube or U-tube types. While the Cell model is limited to
predict the shell side temperature distribution of shell-and-tube heat exchangers with straight tubes.

References

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Biography
Dr. Guo-yan Zhou is an Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering and now working
at East China University of Science and Technology. She received her Ph. D. degree from
the same university in 2007. Her interests of research include MCMS, development and
optimization of compact heat exchanger and advanced manufacturing technology, etc.