Numerical simulation on the convective heat transfer at the shell pass of spiral-wound LNG heat exchanger

Spiral-wound heat exchanger is the key equipment for the liquefaction of natural gas, and its heat transfer performance has a significant effect on the level of liquefaction process. In this paper, the convective heat transfer of singlephase mixed refrigerant at the shell pass of spiral-wound LNG heat exchanger was numerically simulated by Fluent software based on the structure and features of spiral-wound heat exchanger. It is indicated that the diameter of heat exchange tube is one of the important factors influencing the shell-side heat transfer. The shell-side heat transfer coefficient and the shellside refrigerant pressure drop increase with the increase of the tube diameter and the mass flow of shell-side refrigerant. The deviation between the experimental value and the simulation result is lower than 20%, indicating that both of them are more matched. In conclusion, this newly established numerical simulation model is feasible for studying the heat transfer performance of spiral-wound heat exchanger.