Research Update: Shellside Longitudinal Liquid-phase and Flow Boiling Heat Transfer for Vertical Plain Tube Bundles

Vertical shellside boiling is used for a variety of applications, including

• vertical thermosiphon reboilers where hot fluid must be on the tubeside
• steam generators/waste heat boilers, which use very hot or corrosive fluids as the heating medium
• vertical feed-effluent exchangers, whose vertical orientation prevents phase separation

Ideal vertical shellside reboilers have no baffles and pure longitudinal flow; in reality, tube supports (e.g., RODbaffles^®) are necessary for prevention of tube vibration.HTRI collected liquid-phase and flow boiling heat transfer data in a vertical plain tube bundle with no baffles; longitudinal flow exists outside the tubes and has a constant flow area. We also evaluated different heat transfer methods using both the collected data and literature data and propose improved methods for single-phase flow and boiling. We concluded that all heat transfer calculations should use the hydraulic diameter instead of the Nusselt diameter. This webinar will discuss HTRI findings and recommendations.