S-SS-3-28 Optimal Application of Shellside Sealing Devices

S. A. Bouhairie

2014

This report documents two approaches to analyze the performance of different sealing devices. The first approach examines an exchanger with a fixed sealing device count and varied baffle spacing. The second approach considers an exchanger with fixed shellside geometry but different sealing device types and arrangements. Comparisons are made between experimental data, open literature, computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations, and Xist 7. For seal strip installation, Xist 7 predicts lower C-stream flow fractions by 56% and higher pressure drop by 35% relative to measured data and CFD. We provide recommendations for optimal sealing device configurations and propose new correlations for pressure drop.