REVIEW ON HEAT EXCHANGER TUBE-TOTUBESHEET JOINING

The heat exchangers are used in various fields for decades, such as in the power plants, automotive, refrigeration, air conditioning, and chemical industries, meaning they help a myriad of applications. Therefore, this paper discusses a critical issue from a practical perspective in a shell-and-tube heat exchanger. This issue is the tubeto-tubesheet joints inside the shell and tube heat exchanger. Due to the reliability and life of heat, exchangers directly relate to the tube-to-tubesheet joints' quality and its joining method. This article introduces a simple literature survey relating to the tubeto-tubesheet joints in the shell and tube type. The essential techniques for performing the tube-tubesheet joining are welding only, tube expansion, or combining these two processes. According to the results presented about techniques for performing the tube-tubesheet joining, it is suggested that the tube-tubesheet joining using a hybrid method compared to the conventional joints forming using welding only or tube expansion only. The tube expansion method is carried out through mechanical rolling, explosive expansion, and hydraulic expansion. This paper presents findings, advancements, and future research points that may help overcome the challenging issues and shortfalls and get efficient reliability and high operational life for these heat exchangers.