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Numerical study of heat transfer enhancement in a staggered tube bundle under various operating parameters of forced flow pulsation

A.R. Khayrullin, A.I. Khaibullina, E.R. Kirzhatskikh

Vestnik IGEU, 2026 issue 1, pp. 21—29

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Abstract in English: 

Background. The share of heat exchange equipment in industrial plants is significant, therefore, the efficiency of heat exchangers affects the technical and economic indicators of industrial plants taken as a whole. Increasing the efficiency of heat exchange equipment is possible due to the application of various methods of heat exchange enhancement, for example, due to forced flow pulsations, which are active methods of heat transfer enhancement. Despite the available positive results in this area, the consistent patterns of heat transfer under conditions of forced flow pulsations have not been sufficiently studied.

Materials and methods. The study of heat transfer patterns in a tube bundle has been carried out numerically using Ansys Fluent. Discretization of the Navier–Stokes and convective heat transfer (Fourier–Kirchhoff) equations have been carried out using the finite volume method. Validation of the numerical model has been carried out using the well-known criteria equation to predict heat transfer in tube bundles under steady-state flow conditions.

Results. As a result of numerical simulation, the influence of operating parameters on heat transfer of a staggered bundle under symmetric and asymmetric forced reciprocating flow pulsations has been established. It has been shown that with an increase of the product of the dimensionless amplitude and the Strouhal number Sh, which characterizes the pulsation intensity, an increase of the Nusselt number Nu occurs regardless of the Reynolds number Re and the Prandtl number Pr. It has been established that the number Nu in a pulsating flow increases with the growth of Re and Pr, while their influence on the increase of Nu in a pulsating flow compared to a steady flow is insignificant.  During the numerical study, a maximum intensification of heat transfer of 1,66 times has been obtained. It has been shown that the duty cycle of pulsations has an insignificant effect on heat transfer, while the thermohydraulic efficiency of the tube bundle is increasing in case of asymmetric pulsations. Empirical correlations to predict heat transfer in a staggered tube bundle under flow pulsations have been obtained.

Conclusions. The obtained results are aimed at increasing the efficiency of tubular heat exchangers by using pulsation methods of heat transfer enhancement.

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Key words in Russian: 
теплообменное оборудование, кожухотрубный теплообменный аппарат, пульсации потока, шахматный пучок труб, метод интенсификации теплообмена
Key words in English: 
heat exchange equipment, shell-and-tube heat exchanger, flow pulsations, staggered tube bundle, heat transfer enhancement method
The DOI index: 
10.17588/2072-2672.2026.1.021-029
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