Influential analysis of tube arrangement and tube spacing on film distributions

Simulation method is adapted to predict the film characteristic outside the tubes in horizontal-tube falling film evaporator using FLUENT software.The effects of tube arrangements,tube spacing on the film thickness are presented.Numerical simulation results show that tube arrangement and tube spacing have little effect on the top tube,but for the tube below the top tube,the film thickness of staggered mode is significantly less than that of aligned mode.In addition,the film thickness of the tube in the second row reduced with the increase of tube spacing.