What Are the Advantages and Disadvantages of Shell and Tube Heat Exchangers?

Advantages

Highly efficient heat transfer performance: shell and tube heat exchanger has a large heat transfer area, the many pipes in the tube bundle and the fluid channels inside and outside the shell, can be fully contacted and heat transfer, can be quickly and efficiently complete the task of heat exchange between the liquid or gas to improve the efficiency of heat transfer.

Wide applicability: It is suitable for many different media, including water, steam, oil, various chemical materials, etc., covering many fields such as chemical industry, petroleum, food processing, electric power, shipbuilding, etc., and can meet the needs of various heat conversion, and can be operated stably under a wide range of working conditions from low to high temperatures, and from low pressures to high pressures.

Durable structure: usually made of durable materials such as carbon steel, stainless steel, copper, etc., can withstand high pressures and temperatures, has a long service life, some large shell and tube heat exchanger in the case of normal maintenance, can run for decades.

Lower maintenance costs: reasonable structural design, relatively simple, no overly complex wearing parts, maintenance and repair work is relatively easy. In the daily maintenance, the main equipment for regular inspection, cleaning and replacement of some seals, etc., can reduce maintenance costs and downtime.

Stable operation performance: its working principle is based on mature heat exchange theory, in the case of reasonable design and correct operation, it can stably realize the heat transfer, the fluctuation of temperature and pressure and other parameters is small, the stability of the whole process has less impact, which is conducive to ensuring the continuity of the production and the consistency of product quality.

Disadvantages

Larger footprint: some large shell and tube heat exchanger volume is large, in the installation needs to occupy a large space, for the site may be limited to a certain extent for the user, in the factory layout and equipment installation planning needs to be fully considered when the space requirements.

Higher initial investment: especially some high-end, large or with special materials and design requirements of the shell and tube heat exchanger, its acquisition cost is relatively high, which may be a greater burden for some users with limited budget. In addition, supporting installation projects such as pipe laying, infrastructure, etc. may also increase additional investment.

Cleaning and maintenance difficulties: some types of shell and tube heat exchanger, such as fixed tube and plate heat exchanger, the external or internal cleaning of the tube bundle is more difficult, especially when dealing with easy scaling, viscous or impurity-containing fluids, scaling and fouling is easy to accumulate on the surface of the tube bundle and inside the tube, affecting the efficiency of the heat transfer, the need to invest in more manpower and material resources to carry out regular cleaning and maintenance, and may even require specialized equipment and technical personnel to Even professional equipment and technicians may be required to operate.

Regular overhaul and replacement of parts: After a long time of use, some parts of the shell and tube heat exchanger, such as seals, gaskets, tube bundles, etc., may be aging, wear and corrosion, and need to be regularly overhauled and replaced, which increases the user's operating costs and maintenance difficulties. Moreover, the overhaul process may take a long time, which may lead to equipment downtime and have a certain impact on the production schedule.

There is a thermal stress problem: Due to the different fluid temperatures in the tube and shell processes, thermal stresses are generated between the heat exchanger shell and the tube bundle. When the temperature difference is large, it may lead to problems such as tube bending, breaking, or pulling off from the tube plate, affecting the normal operation and service life of the equipment. Therefore, for working conditions with large temperature differences, appropriate compensation measures need to be taken, such as the use of expansion joints, floating head structures, etc., which can increase the complexity and cost of the equipment