SHELL AND TUBE HEAT EXCHANGER

Shell-and-Tube Exchangers.

• This exchanger, is generally built of a bundle of round tubes mounted in a cylindrical shell with the tube axis parallel to that of the shell.
• One fluid flows inside the tubes, the other flows across and along the tubes.

• A variety of different internal constructions are used in shell-and-tube exchangers, depending on the desired heat transfer and pressure drop performance and the methods employed to reduce thermal stresses, to prevent leakages, to provide for ease of cleaning, to contain operating pressures and temperatures, to control corrosion, to accommodate highly asymmetric flows, and so on.
• The three most common types of shell-and-tube exchangers are

1. Fixed tubesheet design
2. U-tube design
3. Floating-head type.

The major components of this exchanger are tubes (or tube bundle), shell, frontend head, rear-end head, baffles, and tubesheets

Tubes.

• Round tubes in various shapes are used in shell-and-tube exchangers.
• Most common are the tube bundles with straight and U-tubes used exchangers.
• In most applications, tubes have single walls, but when working with radioactive,reactive, or toxic fluids and potable water, double-wall tubing is used.
• In most applications, tubes are bare, but when gas or low-heat-transfer coefficient liquid is used on the shell side, low-height fins (low fins) are used on the shell side.
• Tubes are drawn, extruded, or welded, and they are made from metals, plastics, and ceramics, depending on the applications.

Shells

• The shell is a container for the shell fluid.
• Usually, it is cylindrical in shape with a circular cross section, although shells of different shapes are used.
• Although the tubes may have single or multiple passes, there is one pass on the shell side.
• To increase the mean temperature difference and hence exchanger effectiveness, a pure counterflow arrangement is desirable for a two-tube-pass exchanger.  

Nozzles

• The entrance and exit ports for the shell and tube fluids, referred to as nozzles
• These are pipes of constant cross section welded to the shell and channels.
• They are used to distribute or collect the fluid uniformly on the shell and tube sides.

 Front- and Rear-End Heads. 

• These are used for entrance and exit of the tube fluid.
• The front-end head is stationary, while the rear-end head could be either stationary (allowing for no tube thermal expansion) or floating, depending on the thermal stresses between the tubes and shell.
• The major criteria for selection of the front-end head are cost, maintenance and inspection, hazard due to mixing of shell and tube fluids, and leakage to ambient and operating pressures.
• The major criteria for selection of the rear-end head are the allowance for thermal stresses, a provision to remove the tube bundle for cleaning the shell side, prevention of mixing of tube and shell fluids, and sealing any leakage path for the shell fluid to ambient.

Baffles

• Baffles may be classified as transverse and longitudinal types.
• The purpose of longitudinal baffles is to control the overall flow direction of the shell fluid such that a desired overall flow arrangement of the two fluid streams is achieved.
• Single- and double-segmental baffles are used most frequently due to their ability to assist maximum heat transfer (due to a high-shell-side heat transfer coefficient) for a given pressure drop in a minimum amount of space.
• Triple and no-tubes-in-window segmental baffles are used for low-pressure-drop applications.
• The choice of baffle type, spacing, and cut is determined largely by flow rate, desired heat transfer rate, allowable pressure drop, tube support, and flow-induced vibrations.

Tubesheets

• These are used to hold tubes at the ends.
• A tubesheet is generally a round metal plate with holes drilled through for the desired tube pattern, holes for the tie rods (which are used to space and hold plate baffles), grooves for the gaskets, and bolt holes for flanging to the shell and channel.
• To prevent leakage of the shell fluid at thetubesheet through a clearance between the tube hole and tube, the tube-to-tubesheet joints are made by many methods, such as expanding the tubes, rolling the tubes, hydraulic expansion of tubes, explosive welding of tubes, stuffing of the joints, or welding or brazing of tubes to the tubesheet.
• The leak-free tube-to-tubesheet joint made by the conventional rolling process.