Flow Distribution on the Tube Side of a High Temperature Heat Exchanger and Chemical Decomposer

Authors

Gayatri Kuchi, University of Nevada, Las VegasFollow
Valery Ponyavin, University of Nevada, Las VegasFollow
Yitung Chen, University of Nevada, Las VegasFollow
Steven Sherman, Idaho National Laboratory
Anthony Hechanova, University of Nevada, Las VegasFollow

Document Type

Conference Proceeding

Publication Date

11-11-2008

Publication Title

Proceedings of the ASME International Mechanical Engineering Congress and Exposition

Publisher

ASME

Volume

8 PT. A

First page number:

903

Last page number:

910

Abstract

Numerical simulations of a high temperature shell and tube heat exchanger and chemical decomposer (thereafter — heat exchanger) with straight tube configuration have been performed using Fluent 6.2.16 code to examine flow distribution on the tube side. The heat exchanger can be a part of sulfur iodine thermochemical water splitting cycle which is one of the most studied cycles for hydrogen production. Uniformity of the flow distribution in the heat exchanger is very critical because the flow maldistribution among the tube or shell sides can result in decreasing of chemical decomposition and increasing of pumping power. In the current study the flow rate uniformity in the heat exchanger tubes has been investigated. Simulations of the straight tube configuration, tube configuration with baffle plate arrangement and with pebble bed region inside the tubes were performed to examine flow distribution on the tube side. It was found the flow maldistribution along the tube direction is very serious with the simple tube configuration. An improvement of the header configuration has been done by introducing a baffle plate in to the header section. With the introduction of the baffle plate, there was a noticeable decrease in the flow maldistribution in the tubes. Uniformity of flow was also investigated with catalytic bed inside the tubes. A significant decrease in flow maldistribution was observed with this arrangement. But if the catalytic bed zone is created on the shell side, then the improved header configuration with a baffle plate is best suitable to avoid flow maldistribution.

Keywords

Fluid dynamics; Heat exchangers; Hydrogen as fuel

Disciplines

Electro-Mechanical Systems | Energy Systems | Fluid Dynamics | Mechanical Engineering | Oil, Gas, and Energy | Sustainability

Language

English

Comments

Conference held: Seattle, Washington, USA, November 11–15, 2007

Permissions

Use Find in Your Library, contact the author, or interlibrary loan to garner a copy of the item. Publisher policy does not allow archiving the final published version. If a post-print (author's peer-reviewed manuscript) is allowed and available, or publisher policy changes, the item will be deposited.

Repository Citation

Kuchi, G., Ponyavin, V., Chen, Y., Sherman, S., Hechanova, A. (2008). Flow Distribution on the Tube Side of a High Temperature Heat Exchanger and Chemical Decomposer. Proceedings of the ASME International Mechanical Engineering Congress and Exposition, 8 PT. A 903-910. ASME.