Numerical Investigation on the Performance of Shell and Tube Heat Exchanger With Different Porous Baffles Configurations
Abstract
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 ( ∆ P ) 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.