Parallel flow heat exchanger is analysed with CFD tool. A comparative study of the analytical and experimental data is carried out to better understand the temperature profile, surface heat flux and heat transfer co-efficient parameters of the heat exchanger

1. COMPUTATIONAL FLUID DYNAMICS OF PARALLEL
FLOW HEAT EXCHANGER
Under esteemed guidance of
Mr K. OBULA REDDY
Asst Prof, Department of Mechanical engineering
A. Sai Pranav
M. Srikesh
M. Kranthi Kumar
V. Santhosh Kumar

2. HEAT EXCHANGER
Heat exchangers are a
class of Mechanical
Components where thermal
energy transfer process takes
place between cold and
hot objects.
In a parallel flow heat exchanger hot and cold fluid flow in the
same direction

3. NEED FOR ANALYSIS
Applications of heat exchanger are spread into various
engineering fields like
electrical engineering
chemical engineering
nuclear engineering
petro chemical engineering
Hence analysis of heat exchanger is important.

4. LITERATURE REVIEW
Author Work Done
Swapnanel
Sharma
A CFD ANALYSIS OF SHELL AND TUBE TYPE HEAT EXCHANGER
USING TRIANGULAR FINS. Study of effect of fins on heat transfer
is carried out.[1]
Vikas Kumar
A CFD ANALYSIS OF CROSS FLOW AIR TO AIR TUBE TYPE HEAT
EXCHANGER. This work was used to predict air flow and
temperature distribution in an electric motor. [2]
E. Kruger
A COMPARISON STUDY BETWEEN CFD ANALYSIS AND
EXPERIMENTAL WORK ON HEAT EXCHANGERS. [3]
Ahmed F.
Khudheyer
A NUMERICAL ANALYSIS OF FIN-TUBE PLATE HEAT EXCHANGER BY
USING CFD TECHNIQUE . Their aim was to carry out three-
dimensional CFD simulations to investigate heat transfer
characteristics of a two-row plain fin-and-tube heat exchanger for
a high and low Reynolds flow conditions. [4]
Khairun
Hasmadi
Othman
CFD SIMULATION OF HEAT TRANSFER IN SHELL AND TUBE HEAT
EXCHANGER . The CFD model is validated by comparison to the
experimental results within 15% error.[5]

5. Objectives of project:
Experimental and analytical data analysis of thermal
characteristics of parallel flow heat exchanger have been
carried out on fluent for various mass flow rates
Temperature profile
Surface heat flux.
Heat transfer co-efficient.
PROJECT AIM

6. EXPERIMENTAL OBSERVATION
Experiment was carried for different mass flow rates on
Parallel Heat Exchanger.
observations are tabulated in the following table:
Sl No
water
flow rate
in LPM
(hot)
water
flow rate
in LPM
(cold)
TCIC TCOC THIC THOC
1 0.4 0.2 28 38.5 59.75 45.5
2 0.4 0.4 28 35.1 58.5 46.2
3 0.4 0.6 27.9 33..5 58.4 47.8

7. Analytical methodology
Pre
processing
• Computational domain is modelled
• Domain is meshed
Processing
• Suitable turbulence model is selected
• Boundary conditions are applied
Post
processing
• Results are analysed
• Graphs are plotted

8. PRE-PROCESSING
Modelling of parallel flow Heat Exchanger
Model of parallel flow heat exchanger is created by following the
below steps:
STEP 1: computational
domain is created
in GAMBIT software
STEP 2: computational domain
created consists of
two concentric tubes.
for the analysis these
have to be separated.

9. MODELLING OF HEAT EXCHANGER... contd
STEP 3: boundary constrains
like hot inlet, cold inlet
hot outlet, cold outlet
are applied .
STEP 4: mesh is applied on
the domain, different
mesh is applied for
two tubes.

10. PROCESSING (SOLVER)
• Meshed model is extracted to FLUENT software and complete
boundary conditions of flow rates and temperature are
applied to the model.
• Fluent software is run and iterations carried out.
• Iterations are terminated as soon as the convergence values
are obtained.

11. POST PROCESSOR
ANALYSIS AND RESULTS
As mentioned we have carried out analysis for various mass
flow rates
case 1: hot fluid mass flow rate= 0.4 lpm
cold fluid mass flow rate= 0.2 lpm
case 2: hot fluid mass flow rate= 0.4 lpm
cold fluid mass flow rate= 0.4 lpm
case 3: hot fluid mass flow rate= 0.4 lpm
cold fluid mass flow rate= 0.6 lpm

12. POST PROCESSOR
case 1: temperature analysis
temperature contour of temperature contour of
cold fluid hot fluid

13. POST PROCESSOR
case 2: temperature analysis
temperature counter of temperature counter of
cold fluid hot fluid

14. POST PROCESSOR
case 3: temperature analysis
temperature counter of temperature counter of
cold fluid hot fluid

15. POST PROCESSOR
plots from software analysis of all the cases are described
below

16. POST PROCESSOR
Comparative graphs of experimental and analytical value
Case-1 Case-2
Case-3

17. POST PROCESSOR
case 1: Total surface heat flux analysis
Surface heat flux contour Corresponding plot
of Hot tube surface

18. POST PROCESSOR
Total Surface heat flux contour Corresponding graph for surface
heat flux
Case 2: Total surface heat flux analysis

19. POST PROCESSOR
case 3: surface heat flux analysis
Surface heat flux contour Corresponding plot

20. POST PROCESSOR
Comparative graphs of experimental and analytical value

21. POST PROCESSOR
case 1: Heat transfer co-efficient analysis
Heat transfer coefficient corresponding plot
Contour for hot surface tube

22. POST PROCESSOR
case 2: Heat transfer co-efficient analysis
Heat transfer coefficient corresponding plot
Contour for hot surface tube

23. POST PROCESSOR
case 3: Heat transfer co-efficient analysis
Heat transfer coefficient corresponding plot
Contour for hot surface tube

24. POST PROCESSOR
Comparative graphs of analytical value for all 3 cases

25. CONCLUSION
• Heat transfer in convection is a mixed phenomenon of
conduction and advection.
• Boundary layer formations is dependent on velocity of
fluid. As velocity increases thickness of boundary layer
decreases.
• Heat transfer co efficient and surface heat flux depended
on thickness of boundary layer.
• Hence these values increases from case 1 to case 3. They
have to be least at case 1 and highest at case 3.

26. FUTURE SCOPE OF WORK
• Fins can be designed to increase the heat transfer.
• Fins are extended surface area, as the area increases heat
transfer rate also increases.
• More materials with higher thermal conductivity have to be
researched. Increase in thermal conductivity increases the
heat transfer also.

27. References
1) CFD ANALYSIS OF SHELL AND TUBE TYPE HEAT EXCHANGER USING
TRIANGULAR FINS by Swapnanel Sharma and D H Das of NIT
Silcher in December 2012.
2) CFD ANALYSIS OF CROSS FLOW AIR TO AIR TUBE TYPE HEAT
EXCHANGER by Vikas Kumar, D. Gangacharyulu, Parlapalli MS Rao
and R. S. Barve.
3) A COMPARISON STUDY BETWEEN CFD ANALYSIS AND
EXPERIMENTAL WORK ON HEAT EXCHANGERS by E. Kruger in
January 2010.
4) A NUMERICAL ANALYSIS OF FIN-TUBE PLATE HEAT EXCHANGER BY
USING CFD TECHNIQUE by Ahmed F. Khudheyer and Mahmoud Sh.
Mahmoud.
5) CFD SIMULATION OF HEAT TRANSFER IN SHELL AND TUBE HEAT
EXCHANGER carried out by Khairun Hasmadi Othman of University
Malaysia Pahang in April 2009.
6) Applied computational fluid dynamics by Andre Bakker.