What is the tubesheet of a heat exchanger?
Answers
Answer:
Tube sheets have holes drilled to accept a series of tubes inside of an enclosed tubular pressure vessel. These pressure vessels, commonly referred to as shell and tube heat exchangers, are the most common heat exchangers used in oil refineries and large chemical plants.
Explanation:
A tube sheet is usually made from a round flat piece of plate,sheet with holes drilled to accept the tubes or pipes in a accurate location and pattern relative to one another.The tube sheets are used to support and isolate tubes in heat exchangers and boilers or to support filter elements. Tubes are attached to the tube sheet by hydraulic pressure or by roller expansion.
tube-sheet-designing-for-heat-exchanger
In cases where it is critical to avoid fluid intermixing, a double tube sheet can be provided. The design of tube sheets is a fairly precise and complex process; the exact number of tubes needs to be established and a pattern of holes calculated to spreads them evenly over the tube sheet surface. Large exchangers may have several thousand tubes running through them arranged into precisely calculated groups or bundles. Sheet design and production is largely automated these days with computer software (like CAD) performing the calculations and the tube sheet drilling done on computer numerical control (CNC) machines.
In this design, the outer tube sheet is outside the shell circuit, virtually eliminating the chance of fluid intermixing. The inner tube sheet is vented to atmosphere so any fluid leak is easily detected.