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Purpose: Conventional electric heaters mostly use U-shaped electric heating tubes and the hollow tube electric heaters are new type ones that rely on the heat transfer tubes as heating elements. However, in the original design, the fluid flows through the annular gaps between the shell wall and the supporting plates, the chambers between supporting plates are generally stagnant zones. The purpose of study is to overcome these deficiencies. Design/methodology/approach: A modified approach is proposed in which the heating tubes are surrounded by holes on the supporting plates, thus the stagnant flow zone can be eliminated and the heating surfaces of both inside and outside the tube can be fully used. Numerical simulations were carried out on four schemes of hollow tube electric heaters, i.e. plate blocked, countercurrent, parallel and split. The results show that the two schemes of parallel and split can reduce the temperature difference between the two sides of the fixed tube plate, and thus reduce thermal stress and prolong the service life. Findings: The split scheme of electric heater has the highest comprehensive index, moderate heat transfer coefficient and minimum pressure drop on the shell side. Its average heat transfer coefficient and comprehensive index are, respectively, 15.7% and 52.9% higher and its average pressure drop and tube wall temperature are, respectively, 57.6% and 19 K lower than those of the original plate blocked scheme, thus it can be recommended as the best scheme of the hollow tube electric heaters. Originality/value: Based on the original design of hollow tube electric heater with plate blocked scheme, three plate perforated schemes were proposed and investigated. The thermal and flow features of the four schemes were compared in terms of heat transfer coefficient, pressure drop and comprehensive index ho·Δpo−1/3. The split scheme can reduce the temperature difference between two sides of the fixed tube plate with reduced thermal stress. It has moderate tube wall temperature and heat transfer coefficient, the smallest shell side pressure drop and the highest comprehensive index ho·Δpo−1/3, and it can be recommended as the optimal scheme. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The power plant feedwater heaters and the countercurrent U-tube heat exchangers all involve half-cylindrical shell space. • Half-cylindrical space heat exchangers with ladder helical, orifice and segmental baffles were experimentally investigated. • The ladder helical baffle scheme has superior heat transfer coefficient and comprehensive index than those of the other ones. • The orifice baffle scheme has higher comprehensive index but lower heat transfer coefficient than those of segmental ones. • The average values of h o Δ p o −1/3 of ladder helical and orifice baffle schemes are about 15% higher than that of segmental one. The superheated steam cooling section and the condensate cooling section of the power plant feedwater heaters and the countercurrent U-tube heat exchangers all involve heat transfer in half-cylindrical shell space. The overall and shell-side heat transfer coefficients (h.t.cs.), pressure drop, and the comprehensive performances of some half-cylindrical space heat exchangers with different baffle structures were experimentally investigated. The investigated structures include three ladder helical baffle types [single inclined ladder helical (SH), dual inclined ladder helical (DH) and folded ladder helical (FH)], three orifice baffle types [fillet triangle orifice (F), trefoil-orifice (T) and quatrefoil-orifice (Q)], and segmental baffles (S), and all schemes are of two baffle pitches. Under the same baffle pitch and working condition, the experimental results show that the shell-side h.t.cs. of the ladder helical baffle schemes are higher than those of the orifice baffle schemes and segmental baffle ones; and the shell-side pressure drops of the orifice baffle schemes are much lower than those of the ladder helical baffle schemes and the segmental ones. The values of average comprehensive index h o Δ p o −1/3 of the ladder helical schemes FH-40, DH-40 and the orifice baffle schemes F-40 and T-40 are respectively 14.26%, 17.58%, 15.62% and 12.82% higher than that of the segmental scheme S-40. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• A novel helical baffle with small inclined angle and folded structure is proposed. • The new helical baffles can be created by cheap 2D laser cutting and folding. • The leakage between two folded helical baffles can be greatly decreased. • The novel electric heaters have excellent flow and heat transfer performances. • Folded helical baffles are more excellent at large equivalent angles in this work. The difficult manufacturing of helical baffles hinders the widespread application of the enhancement technology and the shortcut leakage between adjacent baffles impairs the enhancement effects. To solve these two issues, the promising anti-leakage and easy-to-manufacture helical baffles with small inclined angle and folded structure are proposed, which can be produced by 2D laser cutting and simple mechanical folding. The influence of different helical baffle configurations, including three normal helical schemes, three axial separation helical schemes, three novel folded axial separation helical baffle schemes and a segmental scheme on the performance of electric heaters are numerically investigated. The equivalent angles of helical schemes adopted in this work are 15°, 20° and 25°, and the inclined angle of helical baffles under axial separation connection style is 10°. Compared with the corresponding axial separation scheme without folding, the leakage can be significantly decreased, the heat transfer coefficients h and the comprehensive indices h ⋅Δ p −1/3 of FH15(10)°, FH20(10)° and FH25(10)° are increased by 6.5%/2.3%, 12.2%/7.3% and 20.4%/13.0%, and the averaged tube wall temperatures T w are decreased by 12.5 K, 25.4 K and 54.7 K, respectively. This research can provide feasibility for the extended application of helical baffles in electric heaters or heat exchangers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]