Tube bundle oil cooler
A tube bundle oil cooler is a specific, common type of heat exchanger design used primarily for water-cooled applications. It is the core component that makes this efficient heat transfer possible.
What is a Tube Bundle?
A tube bundle is not the entire cooler; it is the central, internal assembly of parts that facilitates the heat exchange. Think of it as the “engine” of the oil cooler.
A standard tube bundle consists of:
- Tubes: A series of parallel tubes (often made of Admiralty Brass, Copper-Nickel, or Stainless Steel) through which one fluid flows (usually the coolant – water or glycol mix).
- Tube Sheets: Thick metal plates at each end of the bundle. The tubes are securely seated into holes in these sheets, often by expansion or welding. The tube sheets create a pressure-tight seal separating the two fluids.
- Baffles: Perforated plates placed at intervals along the length of the tubes inside the shell. They serve two critical functions:
- Support the Tubes: Prevent vibration and sagging.
- Direct Fluid Flow: Force the shell-side fluid (the oil) to flow back and forth across the tubes instead of just straight along them. This creates turbulence, which dramatically improves heat transfer efficiency.
The entire bundle is inserted into a larger outer pressure vessel called the shell.
How a Tube Bundle Oil Cooler Works:
This design is known as a Shell and Tube Heat Exchanger.
- Shell-Side Fluid (Oil): Hot oil enters the shell, which is the outer casing. The baffles force the oil to weave around the outside of the tubes, transferring its heat to the tube walls before exiting cooled.
- Tube-Side Fluid (Coolant): Cool coolant is pumped into one end of the cooler (the “head” or “end cap”), is distributed through the tubes, absorbs heat from the tube walls, and exits at the other end as warm coolant.