Results: 35% baffle cut dropped pressure drop to 65 kPa (good) but U fell to 235 (bad). 20% baffle cut? Pressure drop: 110 kPa—unsafe for the diesel pump. She needed a different geometry entirely.
But a new warning blinked red: Vibration potential. Bundle natural frequency close to vortex shedding frequency. htri heat exchanger design
Elena smiled at the screen. The blinking cursor was gone. But somewhere in the cloud, HTRI was already running a thousand more simulations, waiting for the next young engineer to ask: What if I try a helical baffle? Results: 35% baffle cut dropped pressure drop to
She clicked to the (shell-and-tube) module. The color-coded flow map showed dead zones near the shell’s center. The baffle spacing was too wide—fluid was meandering, not turbulent. She reduced baffle spacing from 500 mm to 300 mm. Re-ran. She needed a different geometry entirely