Abstract:

A finite element analysis model of a heat exchanger was built，which is composed of shells，tubes，plates etc. The external boundary temperature field was mapped to ANSYS by coulping the CDB file from FLUENT with ANSYS multifield model. The whole temperature field of the heat exchanger was firstly simulated in FLUENT using a technique of “simulation in subsections，integration of the whole”，to obtain the processing thermal analysis of the heat exchanger. A CDB file from FLUENT including information such as solid surface’s nodes，elements and thermal loads etc. was output，then the sequence coupling was applied. After the nodal file was interpolated，the CDB file was read and solved to obtain the solid surface temperature field in ANSYS model. It was proved by contrast that there is no difference in temperature field setted by the present method with that of CFD. Therefore，in this coupling process，there was no precise loss between the datum from CFD and ANSYS，this feature provided a reliable basis for thermal-stress study of shell and tube heat exchanger.