Step-by-step 3D COMSOL tutorial — k-ε turbulence, Nonisothermal Flow, heat transfer coefficient, and pressure analysis
In this course you will build a complete 3D simulation of a shell-and-tube heat exchanger from scratch using COMSOL Multiphysics and the Heat Transfer Module.
What you’ll learn
- How to simulate a shell-and-tube heat exchanger in COMSOL Multiphysics from scratch.
- How to set up the Nonisothermal Flow multiphysics coupling with the k-ε turbulence model.
- How to build and work with complex 3D geometry including tubes, baffles, and shell.
- How to assign multiple materials to different domains and boundaries.
- How to apply interior wall boundary conditions and thin layer heat conduction.
- How to compute and interpret the equivalent heat transfer coefficient and pressure drop.
- How to visualize temperature distribution and velocity streamlines in 3D.
Course Content
- Introduction –> 1 lecture • 3min.
- Model Setup –> 3 lectures • 20min.
- Materials –> 1 lecture • 1min.
- Physics & Boundary Conditions –> 2 lectures • 7min.
- Definitions & Mesh –> 1 lecture • 2min.
- Solving –> 1 lecture • 1min.
- Results –> 1 lecture • 7min.
Requirements
In this course you will build a complete 3D simulation of a shell-and-tube heat exchanger from scratch using COMSOL Multiphysics and the Heat Transfer Module.
Shell-and-tube heat exchangers represent 65 percent of the heat exchanger market and are used in oil refineries, nuclear power plants, and chemical processing industries. In this course you will model the real physics — two fluids at different temperatures flowing through the same device and exchanging heat through steel tube walls and baffles.
We start with a blank 3D model. You will load the geometry, assign materials to separate fluid domains, configure the Nonisothermal Flow multiphysics coupling with the k-ε turbulence model, set all boundary conditions, build the mesh, run the solver, and extract engineering results including the equivalent heat transfer coefficient and pressure drop on both the tube side and shell side.
What makes this course different:
— Every single click is shown on screen. Nothing is skipped.
— You work with a real 3D industrial geometry, not a simplified toy model.
— You extract real engineering output — h_eq, pressure drop, temperature distribution — exactly as you would in professional practice.
— You learn to use symmetry to cut computational cost in half without losing accuracy.
— You finish with a working model you can reuse, extend, and apply to your own heat exchanger designs.
This course is for engineering students, thermal engineers,
and researchers who want to move from theory to a validated
3D simulation. No prior COMSOL experience is required.