Overview
In order to demonstrate the fluid stream and convection heat transfer modeling capabilities of RadTherm, a coil-in-tube cross flow heat exchanger was simulated. The heat exchanger has hot engine oil (126°C at the inlet) flowing in the inner coil at 1.5 liter/min and water (90°C at the inlet) flowing in the larger cylinder at 10 liter/min.
Mesh Geometry
The heat exchanger surfaces were created in Rhino3D and meshed with ANSA. The mesh was exported into RadTherm. The model was parted out into eight components, including fluids. Boundary conditions for materials, surface conditions and flow rates were defined.
The Fluid Stream part type was used to define the fluid inside the coiled tube (used engine oil). On the exterior of the coiled tube the working fluid was standard water. The fluid stream part type automatically maps fluid streams along the length of the tube and computes volume, flow rate, and convection coefficient for each section of the tube. Seventy-two fluid nodes were created to represent the oil in the system.
RadTherm Simulation Thermal Results
The numerical solution from RadTherm was computed quickly, converging in 339 iterations to a tolerance of 4.5e-005°C and SS residual of 0.0056 W.
Comparison to Analytical Results Computed in MathCad Software
View Analytical Results PDF: This is a comparison between the length of the heat exchanger modeled in RadTherm and analytical solution designed to produce the same overall heat transfer power. The analytical approach agrees with the RadTherm results within approximately 2.5%.
Contact us to request a link to download this RadTherm model, complete with results. To run or view this model, you will need our RadTherm Software, Version 8.1 or later.
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