How many arrangements are there for heat exchanger tube bundles? What are the issues to consider in design?

There are four arrangements of tubes in a tube bundle: ① equilateral triangle, ② square, ③ staggered square (45° angle), ④ circular arrangement. There are also corner triangles. The equilateral triangle arrangement is the most commonly used; the spacing between tubes is equal, allowing the maximum number of tubes to be arranged on a given tube sheet area. Marking and drilling are straightforward, but it is difficult to clean between the tubes. When mechanical cleaning is required for channels, a square arrangement is generally used to ensure a 6 mm clearance for cleaning. With the same baffle spacing, the flow cross-section of the equilateral triangle and prototype arrangements is larger than that of the square and staggered square arrangements, which is conducive to increasing the flow velocity. The concentric circular arrangement provides more tubes than the triangular one, and they are evenly distributed around the shell, making short circuits less likely to occur. Refining companies generally use a square stagger pattern quite often. Regardless of the arrangement method, the distance between the wall of the outermost tube and the inner wall of the shell should not be less than 10 mm.

There are four arrangements of tubes in a tube bundle: ① equilateral triangle, ② square, ③ staggered square (45° angle), ④ circular arrangement. There are also corner triangles. The equilateral triangle arrangement is the most commonly used; the spacing between tubes is equal, allowing the maximum number of tubes to be arranged on a given tube sheet area. Marking and drilling are straightforward, but it is difficult to clean between the tubes. When mechanical cleaning is required for channels, a square arrangement is generally used to ensure a 6 mm clearance for cleaning. With the same baffle spacing, the flow cross-section of the equilateral triangle and prototype arrangements is larger than that of the square and staggered square arrangements, which is conducive to increasing the flow velocity. The concentric circular arrangement provides more tubes than the triangular one, and they are evenly distributed around the shell, making short circuits less likely to occur. Refining companies generally use a square stagger pattern quite often. Regardless of the arrangement method, the distance between the wall of the outermost tube and the inner wall of the shell should not be less than 10 mm.