Question

How is shell side heat transfer coefficient calculated?

Answer 1

Explanation:

While you may be able to model the flow within a shell-and-tube heat exchanger using Fluent and calculate the heat transfer coefficient (U=q/A⌂T) at various locations over the transfer surface, know that you will only get out what someone else has put in, albeit indirectly through property and transport relationships. That is to say, it may or may not accurately correspond to an actual heat exchanger--even if the flows are all reasonably accurate on a gross scale. This is an "exercise" and not an "experiment". You should compare any results you obtain to measured heat transfer coefficients: inside tubes, through bends and tube sheets, across tube bundles, over and through baffles, etc. There is no substitute for measurements.