Will the fluid in the shell side of a floating-head heat exchanger flow inside the tube box?
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As shown in the diagram, does the fluid in the shell side of the floating-head heat exchanger pass through the 15 support plates, 31 hooks, and 24 floating-head flanges, flow to the tube box, and then return to the shell side outlet? If it is possible, why not locate the shell side outlet pipe at the tube bank?
No way, the tube box carries the fluid in the tube side.
This is a single shell pass, right? In that case, the inlet and outlet of the shell pass are located at both ends of the shell pass
If the shell-side fluid does not flow through the large tube bank, how is the shell-side fluid separated from the tube bank? Are there any sealing elements used for this purpose? From the drawings, it seems that there are no sealing elements on either the support plate 15 or the shell-side cylinder.
The shell side of the tube bank is separated by heat exchange tubes; half of these tubes run from left to right, and then turn back toward the tube box from the floating head at the rear end
I took another close look and finally understood what you meant. You’re asking why the shell-side outlet isn’t located at the bottom of the right-side tube bank. Piece 15 serves not to create a flow deflection effect but rather to support the heavy floating head. It’s possible for the outlet to be at the very right end as you suggested; I hadn’t considered that before. I’ll wait for an expert’s reply
Yes, there is a gap between the floating head and the tube box, but it’s very small; the flow rate is low as well. If the shell side outlet is connected to the bottom of the tube box, the fluid flowing through such a small gap does not have sufficient heat exchange capacity.
The one on the right is called a large hat or floating head; the one on the left is what’s known as a tube box. I think there will be no normal flow of medium between the large cap and the floating head, but there will be convection due to temperature differences, or perhaps some swirling.