Brandon White, Engineer, Experimental Research
HTRI has launched a new experimental program at the Research & Technology Center (RTC), focusing on seal strip performance on shellside flow in shell-and-tube heat exchangers. While current methods are based on TEMA E-shell test data, HTRI is expanding the methodology to unbaffled TEMA X-shell configurations, which are widely used.
A key outcome of the tests is the quantification of the distortion factor δ. This factor corrects the mean temperature difference in the overall heat-transfer equation applied to the complex C-stream. Representative computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations illustrate how seal strips redirect the C-stream into the more efficient B-stream, thereby boosting heat-exchanger effectiveness.
To accelerate the exploration of seal-strip designs, HTRI is coupling high-fidelity CFD solvers with high-performance-computing (HPC). Automated mesh generation and a parametric workflow enables hundreds of simulations spanning a wide range of strip geometries, spacing patterns, inlet pressures, fluid properties, and flow rates. By leveraging parallel processing and advanced turbulence models, HTRI plans to extract performance metrics (pressure drop, leakage reduction, and heat transfer enhancement) for each case, feeding the results into surrogate-based optimization tools that rapidly identify the most effective seal-strip configurations for X-shell heat exchangers.
This content was taken from the technical presentation “Seal Strip Performance in TEMA X Shells”, delivered at our 2025 Global Conference. This presentation and other conference materials can be purchased by members for $495. For information on purchasing the 2025 Global Conference materials, contact [email protected].
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