Many processes require external heat: power generation, industrial furnaces, drying, petrochemicals… This heat may be generated by an industrial boiler, as in this case.
Heat exchangers are also widely used. They are used to transfer heat (or “heat flux”) between a hot and a cold fluid, by means of a physical separation (wall) preventing them from mixing. Here, the heat exchanger recovers the heat produced by gas combustion and transfers it to the heat transfer fluid, water.
For environmental imperatives, but also to limit energy costs, optimizing the efficiency of thermal systems is a priority today. Efficiency is defined here as the ratio between the energy actually recovered by the heat transfer fluid and the total energy produced by gas combustion. It’s the heat exchanger that enables the heat transfer fluid to capture the energy produced, so special attention must be paid to it.
The choice here is to use finned tubes. The fins increase the exchange surface area and therefore the heat exchanger’s capacity to capture the heat flux. The thermal characteristics of the material are also important, as are those of the fluid and the flow, through the Nusselt number.
The aim here is to quantify the efficiency of an industrial boiler featuring a new heat exchanger design.
