Wall Pressure and Effective Wall Shear Stresses in Heat Exchanger Tube Inlets With Application to Erosion-Corrosion

Abstract

Inclined flow into tube inlets is studied in order to identify flow characteristics associated with enhanced erosion-corrosion rates at tube inlets. Measured wall pressures and shear stresses are presented for inlet flow with inclination angles up to 60 deg for a tube Reynolds number of 71,000. These show that the areas with most potential for wear are located near the reattachment point of the recirculation bubble as well as in regions at the downstream side of the tube inlet. The latter are located opposite the recirculation region but away from the symmetry plane due to strong swirl of the flow in that region. The results are related to erosion-corrosion patterns observed in practice.