Application of discontinuous helical baffles in shell-and-tube heat exchanger

Experimental investigations of heat transfer and flow resistance performance on shell-and-tube heat exchanger with smooth tubes supported by different kinds of baffles are carried out. Discontinuous helical baffles and segment baffles are used in the experiments and their performances are compared. The experimental results show that applying discontinuous helical baffles in shell-and-tube heat exchanger can enhance the heat transfer apparently. Under the same liquid velocity condition, the average convection heat transfer coefficient in the shell side of discontinuous helical baffles shell-and-tube heat exchanger is 1.39～1.67 times compared with that in the shell side of segment baffles shell-and-tube heat exchanger ,and the total average convection heat transfer coefficient is 1.15～1.37 times. But it makes flow resistance increase,and the flow resistance in the shell side is 3.25～3.67 times compared with that in the shell side of segment baffles shell-and-tube heat exchanger.