Questions to Group 6

Compressor
● Why is the average molar mass so high (46 g/mol) while it should be of the range 14
g/mol?
● Why is the density of the fluid streams so less (1.89 kg/m 3) even at such high operating
pressures (= 20 bar)?
● Why is the power of the motor for running the compressor very less (0.24 MW) when
compared to the size of the plant, which is 125 MW ?
● What is the most sensitive parameter while designing the compressor?

In many cases, the flow leaving the centrifugal impeller is travelling near the speed of sound. It then
flows through a stationary compressor causing it to decelerate. The stationary compressor is ducting
with increasing flow-area where energy transformation takes place. If the flow has to be turned in a
rearward direction to enter the next part of the machine, eg another impeller or a combustor, flow
losses can be reduced by directing the flow with stationary turning vanes or individual turning pipes
(pipe diffusers)

As described in Bernoulli's principle, the reduction in velocity causes the pressure to rise

Surge[edit]
Surge - is a flow phenomenon at low mass flow rate operation for which the impeller cannot add
enough energy to overcome the system resistance or backpressure.[27] At low mass flow rate
operation, the pressure ratio over the impeller is high. The high back pressure, downstream of the
impeller, pushes flow back over the tips of the rotor blades towards the impeller eye (inlet).[28] This
rapid flow reversal (i.e., surge) exhibits a strong rotational component, which affects the flow angles
at the leading edge of the blades. The deterioration of the flow angles causes the impeller to be
inefficient and less flow is delivered downstream. (Therefore, surge is sometimes referred to as axi-
symmetric stall.) Thereby, the plenum downstream of the impeller is emptied and the (back)
pressure drops. As a result, less flow reverses over the rotor tips and the impeller gains becomes
again efficient. This cyclic events cause large vibrations, increase temperature and change rapidly
the axial thrust. These occurrences can damage the rotor seals, rotor bearings, the compressor
driver and cycle operation. Most turbomachines are designed to easily withstand occasional surging.
However, if the machine is forced to surge repeatedly for a long period of time, or if it is poorly
designed, repeated surges can result in a catastrophic failure. Of particular interest, is that while
turbomachines may be very durable, the cycles/processes that they are used within can be far less
robust.
Heat exchanger
● Is it possible practically to have such high overall heat transfer coefficients (450 W/m2-K)
having known that both the fluid streams on the shell side and tube side consist mainly
of gases (non-condensable gases)? (as usually this value for gases is less than 200
W.m2-K)
● The pressure drop on the shell-side is very high (=2.6 bar). How would you optimize it as
it adds to the increase in costs?
● What effect does the high shell-side velocity have on the shell design in view of flow
induced vibrations and tube thickness?
● Further, does this high shell-side velocity produce eddies that limits the heat transfer rate
to the tubes in that shell-region?
● What are the main (sensitive) variables that influence the design of the heat exchanger?
● What would be the ideal relation between the baffle cut and baffle spacing?
● In future due to application demand, if a phase change takes place due to more heat
transfer, would the current assumptions remain same with regards to tube allocation,
tube arrangement etc.?
● For 1-tube pass and 1-shell pass, won’t the correction factor, Ft be less than 1 as in this
case, the shell-side flow varies from axial to cross flow along the tube length?
● It was mentioned in the report that, longer tubes are cost effective however, the optimum
design has a very short tube length of 2.44 m. Can it be explained?
● For the failure criteria, why is the length = 1*lb considered while checking the buckling
failure? Isn’t it wise to check the criteria for a length of 2*lb as certain tubes are
supported by baffles that have a distance of 2*lb between them?
● In case of emergency shut down of the heat exchanger, how are the fluids inside the
reactor removed?
● While checking the Flow induced vibrations, which fluid velocity was considered,
maximum or average?

Distillation column
● Why mass fractions used instead of molar fractions?
○ These fractions are not corresponding to VLE-diagram and McCabe-Thiele
method.
● On what number of equilibrium stages are the other calculations based?
● How is the liquid surface tension (Eq. 4.17) determined? Seems too high.
● How is the weir length to diameter ratio determined (=a - value)?
● Is equation 4.28 (height of weir crest) used correctly? Formula is not presented
correctly.