NUMERICAL ANALYSIS FOR TWO PHASE FLOW DISTRIBUTION HEADERS IN HEAT EXCHANGERS

B.Babu, Florence.T, M.Punithavalli, B.R.Rohit

Abstract: A flow header having number of multiple small branch pipes are commonly used in heat exchangers and boilers. In beginning the headers were designed based on the assumption that the fluid distribute equally to all lateral pipes. In practical situation the flow is not uniform and equal in all lateral pipes. Mal distribution of flow in heat exchangers significantly affects their performance. Non-uniform flow distribution from header to the branch pipes in a flow system will lead to 25% decrease in effectiveness of a cross flow heat exchanger. Mal distribution of flow in the header is influenced by the geometric parameters and operating conditions of the header. In this work the flow distribution among the branch pipes of dividing flow header system is analyzed for two phase flow condition. In the two phase flow condition, the effect of change in geometric cross sectional shape of the header (circular, square), inlet flow velocities are varied to find the flow mal distribution through the lateral pipes are investigated with the use of Computational Fluid Dynamics software.

Keywords: circular, square headers and Computational Fluid Dynamics software. (CFD)

DOI: https://doi.org/10.15623/ijret.2015.0410044