As shell and tube heat exchanger is widely employed in various field of industries, heat exchanger design remains a constant optimization challenge to improve its performance. The heat exchanger design includes not only the architectural geometry of either the shell and tube configuration or the additional baffles but also the working fluid. The baffle design including the baffle angle and the baffle distance has been understood as key parameter controlling the overall heat exchanger effectiveness. In addition, a room of improvement is open by substituting the conventional working fluid with the nanomaterials-enriched nanofluid. The nanomaterials, e.g. Al2O3, SiO2, TiO2, increases the thermal conductivity of the working fluids, and hence, the more efficient heat transfer process can be achieved. This chapter provide an insight on the performance improvement of shell and tube heat exchanger by modifying the baffle design and utilizing nanofluids.
Part of the book: Heat Transfer
The wire and tube heat exchanger has been mostly utilized as a condenser unit in various refrigeration systems. As a class of extended surface-based heat exchanger, not only the operating condition but also the geometry of the wire and tube heat exchanger plays a critical role in determining the overall performance of the heat exchanger. Despite the fact that the current designs that include the inline, single-staggered, and woven matrix-based wire and tube heat exchangers already exhibits positive performance, future design and optimization remain challenging from the thermal and fluids engineering point of view. To guide the optimization strategy in the heat exchanger design, this chapter provides an insight into how the geometrical design impacts the performance of various wire and tube heat exchangers, which can be deduced from either the heat exchanger capacity or efficiency.
Part of the book: Heat Exchangers