FLOW ACROSS BANKS OF TUBES

Flow across Banks of Tubes

Industrial applications
• Steam generation in a boiler
• Air cooling in the coil of an air conditioner.

• Typically, one fluid moves over the tubes, while a

second fluid at a different temperature passes through
the tubes.
• In this section we are specifically interested in the
convection heat transfer associated with cross flow
over the tubes.
Fig. Schematic of a tube bank in cross flow
• The tube rows of a bank can be either aligned or staggered
• The configuration is characterized by the tube diameter D and by the transverse pitch ST and longitudinal
pitch SL measured between tube centres.
• Flow around the tubes in the first row of a tube bank is similar to that for a single (isolated) cylinder in
cross flow

Fig. Aligned. Fig. Staggered.

• h associated with a tube is determined by its position in the bank.
• h for a tube in the first row is approximately equal to that for a single tube in cross flow, whereas larger h
are associated with tubes of the inner rows.
• The tubes of the first few rows act as a turbulence-generating grid, which increases the h value for tubes
in the following rows.
• In most configurations, however, heat transfer conditions stabilize, such that little change occurs in
the convection coefficient for a tube beyond the fourth or fifth row.

For airflow across tube bundles composed of 10 or more rows (NL ≥10), Grimison has obtained a
correlation of the form
 N L  10 
 
Nu D  C1 Re mD ,max  2000  Re D ,max  40, 000 
(Eq. 1)
 Pr  0.7 
where C1 and m are listed in Table
V D
Re D ,max  max

 Table. Constants of Eq. 1 and 2 for airflow over
The above result can be extended to other fluids through
a tube bank of 10 or more rows
insertion of the factor 1.13Pr1/3,
Nu D  1.13C1 Re mD ,max Pr1 3
 N L  10 
 
 2000  Re D ,max  40, 000  (Eq. 2)
 Pr  0.7 
All properties appearing are evaluated at the film temperature
If N L  10, a correction factor may be applied such that
Nu D  C2 Nu D
 N L 10   N L 10 
where C2 is given in Table
Table. Correction factor C2
• The Reynolds number ReD,max for the above correlations is based on Vmax occurring within the tube bank.

• For the aligned arrangement, Vmax occurs at • For the staggered configuration, Vmax may occur at
the transverse plane A1 of Figure. and from either the transverse plane A1 or the diagonal plane A2
the mass conservation requirement for an of Figure.
incompressible fluid • It will occur at A2 if the rows are spaced such that
ST 2  S D  D    ST  D 
Vmax  V
ST  D The factor of 2 results from the bifurcation experienced by the
fluid moving fromthe A1 to the A 2 planes.
Hence Vmax occurs at A 2 if
2 12
 2  ST   ST  D
SD  SL     
  2   2
ST
Vmax  V
2( S D  D )
 Zukauskas has proposed a correlation of the form Table. Constants of Eq. 3 for the tube
14 bank in cross flow
 Pr 
Nu D  C Re mD ,max Pr 0.36  
 s
Pr
(Eq. 3)
 N L  20 
 
 0.7  Pr  500 
1000  Re  2  10 6
 D ,max 

• where all properties except Prs are evaluated at the arithmetic

If NL < 20, a correction factor may be
mean of the fluid inlet and outlet temperatures.
applied such that
• Due to heat transfer fluid temperature may increase or
Nu D  C2 Nu D (Eq. 4)
decrease, if we evaluate fluid properties at fluid inlet  N L  20   N L  20 

temperature significant error could result for large fluid

where C2 is given in Table
temperature change. Because of that fluid properties are
evaluated at the arithmetic mean of the inlet (𝑇𝑖 = 𝑇∞) and
outlet (To) temperatures.
 (a) aligned
• Tubes beyond the first row are in the turbulent wakes of upstream tubes, and for moderate values of SL
convection coefficients associated with downstream rows are enhanced by turbulation of the flow.
• Typically, the convection coefficient of a row increases with increasing row number until approximately the
fifth row, after which there is little change in the turbulence and hence in the convection coefficient.
• Operation of aligned tube banks with ST /SL < 0.7 is undesirable.
 (b) staggered tubes

• For the staggered array, however, the path of the main flow is more tortuous and a greater portion of the
surface area of downstream tubes remains in this path.
• In general, heat transfer enhancement is favoured by the more tortuous flow of a staggered arrangement,
particularly for small Reynolds number (ReD ≤100).
• The fluid may experience a large change in temperature as it moves through the tube bank, the heat transfer
rate could be significantly over predicted by using (∆𝑇 = Ts − T∞) as the temperature difference in Newton’s
law of cooling.
• As the fluid moves through the bank, its temperature approaches Ts and ∆𝑇 decreases.
• The appropriate form of T is shown to be a log-mean temperature difference,

Tlm 
 Ts  Ti   Ts  To 
 T T 
ln  s i 
 Ts  T 
where Ti and To are temperatures of the fluid as it enters and leaves the bank, respectively. The outlet
temperature, which is needed to determine ∆𝑇lm, may be estimated from

Ts  To   DN h 
 exp   
Ts  Ti  VN S c
 T T p 
where N = the total number of tubes in the bank
NT = the number of tubes in the transverse plane
Once ∆𝑇lm is known, the heat transfer rate per unit length of the tubes may be computed from


q '  N h DTlm 
• The pressure drop associated with flow across a tube bank.
• The power required to move the fluid across the bank is often a major operating expense and is directly
proportional to the pressure drop

𝜌𝑉max (Eq. 5)
𝛥𝑝 = 𝑁𝐿 𝜒 𝑓
2
 Fig. Friction factor ƒ and correction factor 𝜒 for Eq. 5. Fig. Friction factor ƒ and correction factor 𝜒 for
In-line tube bundle arrangement Eq. 5. Staggered tube bundle arrangement

 The friction factor ƒ and the correction factor 𝜒 are plotted in Figures. pertains to a square, in-line tube
arrangement for which the dimensionless longitudinal and transverse pitches, PL= SL/D and PT = ST /D,
respectively, are equal.
 Note that the Reynolds number appearing in Figures 7.13 and 7.14 is based on the maximum fluid
velocity Vmax.