An experimental investigation of heat transfer enhancement for a shell-and-tube heat exchanger

For the purpose of heat transfer enhancement, the configuration of a shell-and-tube heat exchanger was improved through the installation of sealers in the shell-side. The gaps between the baffle plates and shell is blocked by the sealers, which effectively decreases the short-circuit flow in the shell-side. The results of heat transfer experiments show that the shell-side heat transfer coefficient of the improved heat exchanger increased by 18.2–25.5%, the overall coefficient of heat transfer increased by 15.6–19.7%, and the exergy efficiency increased by 12.9–14.1%. Pressure losses increased by 44.6–48.8% with the sealer installation, but the increment of required pump power can be neglected compared with the increment of heat flux. The heat transfer performance of the improved heat exchanger is intensified, which is an obvious benefit to the optimizing of heat exchanger design for energy conservation.