1. CFD ANALYSIS OF CROSS FLOW AIR TO AIR TUBE TYPE HEAT EXCHANGER
Vikas Kumar1*, D. Gangacharyulu2*,
Parlapalli MS Rao3 and R. S. Barve4
1 Centre for Development of Advanced Computing, Pune University Campus, Pune, India
2 Thapar Institute of Engineering & Technology, Patiala, India
3 Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
4 Crompton Greaves Ltd, Kanjur Marg, Mumbai, India

2. Introduction
Closed Air Circuit Air Cooled (CACA) electrical motors are used in various industries for higher rating (500 kW and above) applications
Heat generation due to the energy losses in the windings of motors at various electrical loads under operating condition
Cold air is circulated in the motor to remove the heat generated
The hot air generated in the motor is cooled by using an air to air tube type cross flow heat exchangers
The motor designers are interested to know the temperature distribution of air in the heat exchanger and pressure drop across the tube bundle at various operating parameters, e.g., different hot & cold air temperatures and fluid (hot & cold) flow rates

3. Large Electrical Motor
Heat exchanger
Source: M/S Crompton Greaves Ltd. Mumbai, India

4. Heat Exchanger Geometry
External hot air
cooled air
Internal hot air
External cold air
cooled air

5. OBJECTIVE Predictions of Pressure Air flow and
Predictions of
Pressure
Air flow and
Temperature distributions
in the heat exchangers

6. Heat Exchanger Geometry

7. Table 1: Geometrical details of the heat exchanger
Sl. No.
Description
Unit
Value/Type 1.
Overall dimension mm
 1760 x 100 x 765 2.
Tube inner diameter 22 3.
Tube outer diameter 26 4.
Tube length
1610 5.
No. of tubes - 27 6.
Transverse pitch 61 7.
Longitudinal pitch 41

8. Modeling Considerations
Geometry has symmetry in width wise.
A section of heat exchanger consisting of 9 rows & 3 columns has been considered for analysis. Each column has 9 tubes.
Tube is modeled as solid blockage, whereas, the inner volume of the tube has been modeled as blockage with gaseous properties to allow the ambient air to pass through it by using PHOENICS CFD Software.
Conduction takes place from the tube wall & convection takes place from the surface of the tube.
The partition plate and baffle participate in heat transfer.
Temperature & flow distributions have been considered to be three dimensional in nature.
k-ε turbulence model has been considered.
Hybrid difference scheme has been used.

9. Grid generation for heat exchanger
The distribution of cells in the three directions are given below:
X Direction : 55
Y Direction : 48
Z Direction : 232
The total number of cells in the computational domain is 612,480.

10. Fig. 3: Side view of the grid

11. Table 2: Operating boundary conditions of the heat exchanger
Sl. No.
Input parameters
Unit
Value 1.
Temperature of cold air oC 35 2.
Temperature of hot air 63 3.
Volumetric flow rate of cold air
cfm (cu.m/m)
388 (10.98) 4.
Volumetric flow rate of hot air
228.80
(6.48)

12. Results & Discussions
The highest pressure region has been observed nearby the top of the separating plate, which may be due to the large change in the momentum of the cold fluid caused by the plate.
Hot fluid recirculation has been observed at the top corner of 1st & 4th section.
The temperature drop of the hot air in the 1st section of the heat exchanger is higher than 4th section because of the high temperature difference between the cold air and the hot air.

13. Fig. 4: Pressure distribution in the heat exchanger

14. Fig. 5: Velocity distribution in the heat exchanger

15. Fig. 6: Temperature distribution in the heat exchanger

16. Fig. 7: Temperature distribution in the tube bundle of the heat exchanger

17. Table 3: Comparison of air temperature prediction at various outlets
Sl. No.
Inlet temperature, oC
Outlet temperature, oC
Remarks
Cold air
Hot air 2nd section
Hot air 3rd section
Hot air
1st section
4th section 1.
34.4 63
41.9
51.8
46.8
Experimental 2.
44.70
49.55
43.68
PHOENICS Simulation 3. 61 65
50.9
44.32

18. Fig. 8: A comparison between the results of CFD simulation & experiments

19. Fig. 9: Temperature distribution in the heat exchanger – a case study

20. Fig. 10: Temperature distribution of the heat exchanger (after modification of central partition plate)

21. (Sun Ultra SPARC-450, 300 MHz)
Fig. 11: Effect of number of processors in computing time using parallel PHOENICS

22. Conclusions
A method for predicting the pressure, velocity & temperature distributions in the tube type heat exchanger associated with CACA large motor has been developed using PHOENICS CFD software.
The simulated results predict the temperature distribution reasonably at different locations of the heat exchanger.
The CFD model may be used to optimize its thermal performance by varying the location of the baffles & the partition plate in the heat exchanger and in turn to improve the performance of electrical motors.
The parallel PHOENICS can be used to reduce the design cycle of the equipment due to fast computation.

23. Acknowledgements
M/S Thapar Centre for Industrial Research & Development, Patiala, India for providing the necessary facilities to carry out this project
M/S Crompton Greaves, Mumbai, India for providing the funds in addition to drawing, design data and experimental results
M/S CHAM, U.K (support team) for technical help
M/S Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC), Pune, India for providing the facility to use PARAM for running parallel PHOENICS and funding for presenting this paper

24. THANK YOU