With reliable structure

mature design methodology and wide applications

shell-and-tube heat exchanger is the major form of heat exchange equipment and widely used in chemical

oil refining

power

food

medicine

aerospace and many other industries.In this study

a new type of baffle

namely curved baffle

is proposed and used to construct a shell-and-tube heat exchanger.Heat transfer and flow resistance of fluid in the shell side were studied numerically and experimentally.For the experiments

heat exchangers with curved baffles were designed and constructed

and the traditional heat exchanger with plane baffles was also made for comparison.Tube bundles in these heat exchangers are detachable for investigation of the effects of baffle structure and distance between them.By changing volumetric flow in the tube or shell-side and the inlet temperature of tube-side fluid

a large amount of experimental data about the pressure drop and heat transfer coefficient in the shell side were obtained for different baffle structures.For the simulation

numerical analysis models for the curved baffle heat exchanger and plane baffle heat exchanger were established using the software Fluent.Results indicate that for the same structural parameters and flow conditions

shell-side pressure drops caused by baffles with the curved baffle heat exchanger are 9%—24% lower than those with the conventional segmental baffle

while the shell-side heat transfer coefficient is increased by 3%—11% with the curved baffles.