EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATION OF THE EFFECT OF BAFFLE CUT SHAPE ON SHELL SIDE PRESSURE DROP IN SHELL AND TUBE HEAT EXCHANGER

Shell and Tube Heat Exchanger (STHE) is widely used in industry due to its high performance and serviceability. The pressure drop and the heat transfer are considered as the major factors in the design of a STHE. In this study, an experimental investigation is carried out to predict the pressure drop in the shell side of STHE for three different types of baffle cut equivalent in the flow area. The first baffle type is a segmental baffle with baffle cut of 25%. The second and third types are concave and convex baffle cuts which have not been suggested in the literatures. Each type is tested for four baffle spacings as 175, 140, 115 and 100 mm and four mass flow rates of 1000, 2000, 3000, and 4000 kg/hr. The results show that the pressure drop increases with increasing the mass flow rate and also with decreasing the baffle spacings. Also, it is noted that the concave baffles cut cause more pressure drop. For the convex type baffles cut it is noted that the pressure drop decreases when the baffles spacing is 100 mm for all flow rate tested in contrast to other types that the pressure drop is increasing