Computational Fluid Dynamics Investigation of Air Cooled Heat Exchangers

Cooling of process streams is a standard operation in many industries, and where possible water cooling is the most cost effective solution. However in areas where water supply is limited Air Cooled Heat Exchangers (ACHE's) are often the only alternative. The overall coefficient maybe limited by the air side heat transfer. To improve this coefficient the air flow should be evenly distributed and at as high velocity as possible over the whole bundle. The limits are set by the fan power consumption and the generated noise level. The required fan power forms a significant part of running costs. In order to keep these costs as low as possible knowledge concerning the flow distributions within the bundle can be important. Fluid bypass within the tube-side can be of similar importance. In design calculations an equal fluid flow velocity per tube is typically assumed from the total inlet mass flow. However if some of the fluid bypasses the tube bundle due to poor header design lower than expected fluid velocities in the tubes will be found, leading to underperforming ACHE's, since heat transfer and fouling behaviour are influenced by the fluid velocity. Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) has been found to be a powerful tool to investigate how fluid flows through a defined geometry. In this paper CFD techniques will be used to investigate the tube side and air side flow of ACHE's. The main focus will be on finding areas of fluid maldistribution within the air side and the effect of bypass on the tube-side of ACHE's. As a benchmark the pressure drop results of CFD simulations were compared to correlations available in the public domain and agreed well, giving confidence in the fluid flow patterns produced by the CFD simulations. The effect of the tube-side bypass was found to reduce the duty of the ACHE by 27 % in the worst case scenario that was tested. Maldistribution of the air-side flow was found in the ACHE, with the number of fans and depth of the plenum influencing the amount seen.