HEAT EXCHANGERS

HEAT EXCHANGERS
 Heat exchangers are devices that facilitate the exchange of heat between two fluids that are at
different temperatures while keeping them from mixing with each other.

 Heat exchangers are commonly used in practice in a wide range of applications, from heating and
air-conditioning systems in a household, to chemical processing and power production in large
plants.
 Heat exchangers differ from mixing chambers in that they do not allow the two fluids involved to mix.

 In a car radiator, for example, heat is transferred from the hot water flowing through the radiator
tubes to the air flowing through the closely spaced thin plates outside attached to the tubes.

 Heat transfer in a heat exchanger usually involves convection in each fluid and conduction through the
wall separating the two fluids.
 In the analysis of heat exchangers, it is convenient to work with an overall heat transfer coefficient U
that accounts for the contribution of all these effects on heat transfer.
 The rate of heat transfer between the two fluids at a location in a heat exchanger depends on the
magnitude of the temperature difference at that location, which varies along the heat exchanger.
 In the analysis of heat exchangers, it is usually convenient to work with the logarithmic mean
temperature difference LMTD, which is an equivalent mean temperature difference between the two
fluids for the entire heat exchanger.
 Application of heat exchangers

• Heat exchangers served the following purposes:

1. Control of temperature for process requirement and product quality
2. Conservation of energy
3. Protection of environment

• Accordingly, the application of heat exchangers can be identified three

broad categories; -Industrial, Health Services, Domestic. In each of the
categories again different type of heat exchangers may be used.
 Industrial Applications :
 Power generation (fossil fuel, nuclear, renewables)
 Refrigeration, air conditioning, cryogenics
 Petroleum refinery, petrochemicals, chemical process industries
 Metallurgy and material processing
 Transportation and space technology
 Electronic component cooling
 Health Service Applications :
 Heart Lung Machine –Cardiac Surgery Dialysis
 Preservations of cell, tissue, blood etc
 ICU, Incubator
 Hyperthermia for cancer treatment, cryosurgery etc

circuit for cardiopulmonary bypass

Domestic Applications :
• Comfort –Air conditioning
• Cooking and food preservation
 TYPES OF HEAT EXCHANGERS
• The simplest type of heat exchanger consists of two concentric pipes of different diameters, as shown in
Figure called the double-pipe heat exchanger.
• One fluid in a double-pipe heat exchanger flows through the smaller pipe while the other fluid flows through
the annular space between the two pipes.
• Two types of flow arrangement are possible in a double-pipe heat exchanger: in parallel flow, both the hot
and cold fluids enter the heat exchanger at the same end and move in the same direction.
• In counter flow, on the other hand, the hot and cold fluids enter the heat exchanger at opposite ends and
flow in opposite directions.
 One simple classification could be
1. Recuperators and 2. Regenerators
While Recuperators transfer heat directly from one fluid to other
fluid, in Regenerators there is an intermediate storage medium.
Recuperators-shell and tube heat exchanger, plate heat exchanger
etc.
Regenerators-fixed bed regenerator, rotating wheel regenerator etc
Classification of heat exchangers
• This classification is for recuperators.
• Majority of the recuperators are two fluid heat exchangers. For
certain special applications, one may have three fluid or multi fluid
heat exchangers. Only certain types of heat exchangers permit multi
fluid application.
Basic classification based on flow arrangement: One of the important classification of heat
exchanger(two fluid), is based on the relative direction of flow of two streams.
There are three main variation: (1) parallel flow, (2) counter current flow, and (3)cross flow
However, many of the heat exchangers have combination of two types of flow
arrangements like parallel-cross flow, counter-cross flow or compound flow.
Shell and tube Heat exchanger
(a)Single pass split-flow(TEMA G) exchanger (b) idealized shell
and tube fluid temperature variation
Figure: (a) Single pass divided-flow(TEMA J) exchanger with
shell fluid mixed (b) idealized shell and tube fluid temperature
distribution
• Some special heat exchangers: Though the classifications of heat
exchangers presented so far are very elaborative, there are many
special heat exchangers which do not fall in the category listed above.
Some of the special heat exchangers are named below.
• Heat pipe
• Scrapped surface and mechanically agitated heat exchanger
• Run around coil or fluid coupled heat exchanger
• Matrix heat exchanger
• Exchanger with combined heat and mass transfer, etc.