The Influence of the Dimension of Central Tube on Shell-Side Performance of Continuous Helical Baffle Heat Exchanger

Limited by manufacturing technology, there have to be a central tube designed at the center shaft position of CHBSTHX. In this paper, the influence of dimension of central tube on the shell-side performance of the heat exchanger is investigated by means of CFD. Research presents that the pressure drop is greater in central area than that in perimeter zone; the dimension of central tube influences heat transfer and pressure drop limitedly, similar fluid condition provides similar shell-side performance of heat transfer and pressure drop respectively regardless of the dimension of central tube; larger dimension of central tube brings greater drop of the integrated performance of heat exchanger, in the designed dimension, about 3%~4% of integrated performance drop follows the dimension of the central tube increases step by step.