Experimental and CFD characterization of the jacket vessel heat transfer process

Abstract

Heat exchange processes are widely applicable in industry and research. The process of design and optimization of these types of devices is of particular interest, since they generate a high rate of exergy destruction. In this study, a correlation between the data presented by the OpenFOAM® software computer model of the assembly of a jacketed vessel heat exchanger has been made. The influence of the overall heat transfer coefficient on the temperature profile and the relationship between Reynolds number and the heat yielded by hot water have been studied. It has been concluded that the theoretical-experimental model has an analogy with the CFD one, which has showed an admissible error of 9.3% for different volumetric flows in relation to the overall heat transfer coefficient and temperature. Therefore, it shows a significant advantage in the use of the computational model to find a correlation with the experimental data. Additionally, the cost of experimentation can be reduced using computational tools.