The shell and tube exchanger consists of four major parts:
Front Header—this is where the fluid enters the tubeside of the exchanger. It is sometimes referred to as the Stationary Header.
Rear Header—this is where the tubeside fluid leaves the exchanger or where it is returned to the front header in exchangers with multiple tubeside passes.
Tube bundle—this comprises of the tubes, tube sheets, baffles and tie rods etc. to hold the bundle together.
Shell—this contains the tube bundle.
The remainder of this section concentrates on exchangers that are covered by the TEMA Standard.
Shell and Tube Exchanger: Geometric Terminology
The main components of a shell and tube exchanger are shown in Figure 2 a, b and c and described in Table 1.