CFD Analysis of Cryogenic Helical Coiled Shell and Tube Heat Exchanger

Present study deals with the CFD (computational fluid dynamics) analysis of helical coil - shell and tube counter flow heat exchanger, which is used in cryogenic applications owing its compact construction and larger heat transfer area. The counter flow analysis is carried with two different fluids, namely gaseous hydrogen and liquid nitrogen, respectively. The analysis was carried out in ANSYS FLUENT 15.0 to get the static temperature, pressure, and velocity. Copper was chosen as a fabrication material for both shell and tube. The results revealed that for a given geometry of heat exchanger, an improvement in heat transfer and decrease in velocity were observed. Hence, the heat transfer and fluid flow analysis are essential for helical coil heat exchangers to get enhanced and extra quantitative approach.