The U-tube heat exchanger is a type of shell and tube heat exchanger. It belongs to petrochemical equipment and is composed of main components such as tube box, shell and tube bundle. It is named because its heat exchange tube is U-shaped.

The U-tube heat exchanger is a heat exchange tube bent into a U shape, and both ends of the tube are fixed on the same tube sheet. Since the heat exchange tube can be freely extended and retracted, thermal stress will not be generated due to the temperature difference between the tube and shell, and the thermal compensation performance is good; the tube pass is double-pass or multi-pass, the process is long, the flow rate is high, the heat transfer performance is good; the pressure bearing capacity is strong. Because the U-tube heat exchanger has only one tube sheet, the tube bundle can be pulled out of the shell, and the shell side is easy to clean, but the cleaning inside the tube is slightly difficult, so the medium in the tube must be clean and not easy to scale. U-tube heat exchangers are generally used in high temperature and high pressure conditions, especially when the temperature difference between the shell and the metal wall of the heat exchange tube is large.