Numerical simulation of the thermal behavior of heat transfer equipment operated at low temperature

The paper presents a method for calculating the non-steady heat transfer in a shell and tube heat exchanger. The characteristic equations were solved with a Finite Element Method. As the geometry is cylindrical and axial symmetry was assumed, the equations were solved in a two dimensional geometry. The interpolation functions are linear and the Galerkin method was applied. The process occurred without phase change. For the solving of the algebraic equations associated with the differential equations, we used the method of steepest descendent (gradient method). As results, we present the temperature profile for the tube and shell gas. (author)