What is Shell & Tube Heat Exchanger?

October 14, 2016

Examples of shell and tube heat exchangers exist in every industry, but there's no need to tour a dirty plant room in search of one of these special vessels, for even the humblest residence has access to one of these essential energy transmitters.

What is a Shell and Tube Heat Exchanger?

Unlike the large pressurized vessels we've described in other articles, this intelligently engineered container doesn't just store condensed fluids. Instead, this active mechanism is designed to swap heat between one liquid medium and a second fluid. That doesn't sound like much work, but this clever design accomplishes its heat exchanging magic without mixing the two mediums. This is accomplished by placing one medium in the shell and the second in a tube stack that's also contained within the shell.

Designing Heat Salvaging Vessels

The petroleum industry uses shell and tube heat exchangers for several purposes, but thermal energy conservation rates highly on the usage chart. The exchanging mechanism leverages energy from wasted processes and redirects that energy so that key areas of a hydrocarbon-rich facility can be cooled or heated by the ancillary interfacing aptitude of what's basically a non-mixing energy conservation aid. Of course, what's been described so far is a fundamental design. Working vessels use headers to deliver the disassociated fluids, at which point a complex series of mechanical baffles enhances the distribution of the shell flow so that peak areal coverage is achieved between the two discrete mediums.

Exploring the Applications of an Active Vessel

Central heating furnaces use an elementary form of heat exchange, with a flame of natural gas or liquid fuel taking the place of the tube stack. More complex heating configurations recruit the tube stack when several energy states are present in the processing system. Superheated steam may flow in the shell side, for example, but the temperature difference created by the secondary fluid will result only in enough energy to heat the radiators in a large apartment complex. Meanwhile, on returning to our petroleum models, the diversity of the format makes many usages possible. The pressure-conscious design can handle the heated exhaust fumes of a post-catalyzing process within a large oil refinery, thus scavenging energy that can be applied elsewhere, or it can even reverse function to operate as a cooling aid.

A shell and tube heat exchanger is an essential part of a heat differential setup within a fluid-based system that requires an energy management feature, for it uses a pressure vessel and a tube stack to swap energy without those two energy sources ever making contact.

Contact Details

Fusion - Weld Engineering Pty Ltd
ABN 98 068 987619

1865 Frankston Flinders Road,
Hastings, VIC 3915

Ph: (03) 5909 8218

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