Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Air Coolers Rules of Thumb
Air Coolers Rules of Thumb
Forced Draft
Induced Draft
Better
Freezing conditions
Power requirement
No limit
Maintenance
Excerpt from Rules of Thumb for Chemical Engineers, Fifth Edition, by Stephen Hall (ButterworthHeinemann, 2012). Table of Contents and accompanying spreadsheet templates at
www.pipesizingsoftware.com/book
Table 2-12: Variables that must be optimized for air-cooled heat exchanger design (Ref 18)
Variable
Considerations
Rule of thumb for face velocity approaching the tube bundle (total flow divided by
total area of bundle):
- 3 row coil: 240 to 275 m/min (800 to 900 ft/min)
- 4 row coil: 150 to 210 m/min (500 to 700 ft/min)
- 5 row coil: 140 to 180 m/min (450 to 600 ft/min)
- 6 row coil: 100 to 150 m/min (350 to 500 ft/min)
Air-side film coefficient varies to the 0.5 power of air mass velocity
Air-side pressure drop varies to the 1.75 power of air mass velocity
Tube length
Length is established in conjunction with the bundle width. There are usually two
bundles in a section, and two fans per section. Bundle width normally limited to 3.2 m
to 3.5 m (10 ft to 11.5 ft); fans are commonly 3.6 m to 4.3 m (12 ft to 14 ft) in
diameter. API 661 specifies minimum fan coverage of 40%. Therefore, tubes are
typically in the range of 8 m to 10 m long (26 ft to 33 ft).
Tube outside
diameter
Fin height
Usual fin heights are 9.5 mm, 12.7 mm, and 15.9 mm (3/8 in., 1/2 in., and 5/8 in.)
Selection depends on relative values of air-side and tube-side film coefficients
With higher fins, fewer tubes can be accommodated per row
Typically, use higher fins for steam condensers and water coolers
Typically, use lower fins for gas coolers and viscous liquid hydrocarbon coolers
Fin spacing
Tube pitch
Excerpt from Rules of Thumb for Chemical Engineers, Fifth Edition, by Stephen Hall (ButterworthHeinemann, 2012). Table of Contents and accompanying spreadsheet templates at
www.pipesizingsoftware.com/book
Variable
Considerations
Number of tube
rows
Most exchangers have for to six tube rows, but can range from three to ten
Air-side film coefficient varies inversely with number of tube rows
More rows advantage: more heat transfer area in the same bundle width, reducing
number of bundles and sections
More rows disadvantage: increases fan horsepower for the same air velocity and
lowers the Mean Temperature Difference
Typically, four or five tube rows for steam condensers and water coolers
Typically, six or seven tube rows for gas coolers and viscous liquid hydrocarbon
coolers
Number of tube
passes
Distribution of tubes in the various passes need not be uniform; especially useful in
condensers where the flow area in each pass can be gradually reduced as the liquid
fraction increases progressively
Optimize to obtain uniform pressure drop in each pass
Fan power
consumption
Power varies directly with volumetric air flow rate and pressure drop
Fan horsepower varies to the 2.75 power of the air mass velocity
Optimum air mass velocity is higher when air-side heat transfer coefficient is highly
controlling (e.g., steam condensers and water coolers)
Exchangers are usually designed with a pressure drop between 0.3 in H2O and 0.7 in
H2O