Consideration of maldistribution in heat exchangers using the hyperbolic dispersion model

Axial temperature profiles in a shell and tube heat exchanger are numerically calculated for given maldistributions on the tube side. For comparison the same maldistributions are handled with the parabolic and hyperbolic dispersion model with fitted values for the axial dispersion coefficient and third sound wave velocity. The analytical results clearly demonstrate that the hyperbolic model is better suited to describe the steady state axial temperature profiles.