This work aims to evaluate the thermal and hydraulic performance (TPF) of shell and tube heat exchanger with structured metal foam baffles. The configurations of the metallic foam baffles contain baffles with 20% cut ratio, double cut ratio (2 × 10%), and helical tape form. Additionally, the impact of baffles inclination angle of 0° and 30° were also investigated in the first two configurations. For these entire configurations, metal foam was kept with constant volume. Numerical simulations using ANSYS FLUENT 2025 R2 software were performed to estimate the TPF of the heat exchanger for each configuration. Nusselt number (Nu), outlet temperature, and pressure drop () were calculated and compared with those obtained from conventional solid baffles. All the results were obtained at a mass flow range of 1.2 to 2.0 kg/s. The findings demonstrated that the use of metallic foam baffles generally reduced the pressure drop by up to 52% compared with solid baffles. In comparison to solid baffles, the double‐cut design (2 × 10%) showed a 54.4% increase in the Nu with a 23% reduction in pressure drop and 2.389 increase in the TPF value. Additionally, it was observed an increase of 74% in the Nu, and an increase of 4.906 in the TPF for the helical tape configuration.
R. Faraj, Abbas J. Jubear Al‐ Jassani, H. Al-Bugharbee· Heat Transfer· 0 citations
This study aims to develop and evaluate an innovative design of a shell and tube heat exchanger (STHX) featuring porous sectional baffles to enhance its thermal and hydraulic performance (TPF). A numerical investigation based on computational fluid dynamics (CFD) is conducted to analyze the TPF of STHX. A parametric study is performed to evaluate the effects of baffle inclination angle and double cut ratio design on heat transfer and pressure drop characteristics. The model included six metal foam baffles with an initial cut ratio of 20 % (MFBs), and its performance was compared to that of a conventional heat exchanger with solid baffles. The effect of foam baffle inclinations at various angles (0°,10°, 20°, 30° and 30° parallel) was also analysed. Also, the effect of the double-cut ratio of the foam baffle (2×10 %, 2×15 %, 2×20 %, and 2×10 % parallel) over a range of mass flow rates between 1.2 and 2.0 kg/s and
R
e
range (11000-16000). The results showed that the use of MFBs lead to a maximum reduction of
∆
P
by 32 % with (2×10 %) design at 2 kg/s accompanied by a significant improvement in TPF. Furthermore, a 30° baffle inclination improved the TPF to 2.207 at (1.2 kg/s), accompanied by a 50 % increase in
N
u
and a 25.5 % reduction
∆
P
. The best TPF was recorded at the ratio (2×10 %), where the (TPF) = 2.389 at 1.2 kg/s, with a
N
u
improvement of 54.4 % compared to a solid baffle. The obtained results provide useful design guidelines for STHXs widely used in energy, petrochemical, and chemical processing industries.
R. Faraj, A. J. J. Al-jassani, H. Al-Bugharbee· Mathematical Models in Engin...· 0 citations