Improved tube structure and segmental baffle to enhance heat transfer performance of elastic tube bundle heat exchanger

•Three novel elastic tube bundle heat exchangers were proposed.•The thermohydraulic performance of four heat exchangers were compared.•The vibration-enhanced heat transfer of four heat exchangers were compared.•A novel heat exchanger with superior thermohydraulic was obtained. Based on conventional elastic tube bundle heat exchangers, three novel elastic tube bundle heat exchangers were proposed by improving the tube bundle structure and adding segmental baffles in the heat exchanger to obtain a better comprehensive heat transfer effect. The heat transfer performance and vibration-enhanced heat transfer performance of conventional elastic tube bundle heat exchanger without baffles (CETB-NB), improved elastic tube bundle heat exchanger without baffles (IETB-NB), conventional elastic tube bundle heat exchanger with baffles (CETB-HB) and improved elastic tube bundle heat exchanger with baffles (IETB-HB) were compared qualitatively and quantitatively by numerical simulation. Numerical results show that improving the tube bundle structure and adding baffles in the heat exchanger can remarkably enhance the vibration-enhanced heat transfer performance and heat transfer capability of the heat exchanger. At the same inlet velocity, the vibration-enhanced heat transfer capability of the CETB-NB, IETB-NB, CETB-HB and IETB-HB are increased by 2.55%, 6.53%, 5.09% and 7.96% respectively. In the inlet velocity range of 0.1–1.0 m/s, compared with the CETB-NB, the heat transfer capacity of the IETB-NB is improved by 8.44%, 6.91%, 5.50% and 2.41%, respectively. Compared with the CETB-HB, the heat transfer capacity of the IETB-HB is improved by 5.14%, 4.21%, 4.03% and 2.14%, respectively. At the same inlet velocity, the pressure drop of the heat exchanger is IETB-HB, CETB-HB, IETB-NB and CETB-NB from largest to smallest. Considering the heat transfer and pressure drop of the heat exchanger comprehensively, the IETB-HB has obvious advantages in vibration-enhanced heat transfer performance and thermohydraulic performance.