Heat transfer characteristics calculation for aero-engine shell-tube fuel-oil heat exchanger

A dimensionless relationship (Re~St·Pr^2/3)was introduced for calculating the heat transfer coefficients in tube and shell sides of shell-tube fuel-oil heat exchanger, and a heat transfer characteristics calculation model of shell-tube fuel-oil heat exchanger was established based on efficiency-number unit method. Based on little experimental data of one shell-tube fuel-oil heat exchanger of aero-engine, the relationships of Re~St·Pr^2/3 were fitted for tube and shell sides of this heat exchanger, and the relationships were applied to heat transfer characteristics calculation of a similar shell-tube fuel-oil heat exchanger. A case study shows that the relative errors of the outlet temperature in tube and shell sides are less than 6. 5% and the relative error of total heat transfer is less than 7.4%, indicating that the calculation results are in good agreement with experimental data. The method presented can be applied to calculate the heat transfer characteristics of aero-engine shell-tube fuel-oil heat exchanger in design and validation stages.