Heat Exchangers

Thermal Analysis
Types of Heat Exchangers
Types of Heat Exchangers
Shell and Tube Heat Exchanger
Heat Transfer Through a Wall Analysis
Heat Transfer Through a Wall Analysis
Overall Heat Transfer Coefficient
New (clean) heat exchanger

where,

Fouled heat exchanger

Assumptions
1. The heat exchanger is insulated from its surroundings
2. Axial conduction is negligible
3. Potential and kinetic energy changes are negligible
4. Constant fluid specific heats
5. Constant overall heat transfer coefficient
 UA – Value and LMTD
The unit’s overall performance or UA value is defined
as the product of the overall heat transfer coefficient
and the heat transfer area. For parallel-flow
applications, the heat transfer rate is defined as the
product of the overall conductance and the log-mean
temperature difference, LMTD, i.e.,
Q = UA*LMTD
Where the LMTD is defined as,

Tout  Tin
LMTD 
T
ln out 

 Tin 
Parallel Flow

Q = UA·LMTD

T2  T1
LMTD 

ln T 
2
 
 T1
LMTD
LMTD
Counter Flow

Q = UA·LMTD

T2  T1
LMTD 

ln T 
2
 
 T1
Counter-Flow Heat Exchanger
T2  T1
LMTD 
ln T2 

 T1

where

T1  Th ,1  Tc ,1  Th ,i  Tc ,o
and

T2  Th ,2  Tc ,2  Th ,o  Tc ,i
 Size of Heat Exchanger

ΔTlm,cf The Log Mean Temperature Difference

Correction factor F Charts for S-n-T and X-F
heat exchangers
Correction factor F Charts for S-n-T and X-F
heat exchangers
 Effectiveness
The heat exchanger effectiveness, ε, is defined as the ratio of
the actual heat transfer rate, Q, in the exchanger divided by
the maximum heat transfer rate, Qmax,

The maximum theoretical heat transfer rate, Qmax, is limited by

the fluid with the minimum heat capacity rate,

m c  T  Tc ,i  m c  T  Th ,o 
 
p c c ,o p h h ,i

m c  T
p min h ,i  Tc ,i  m c  T
p min h ,i  Tc ,i 


where m c p min
 cp
is the smaller of m  
h
or m c 
p c
 Capacity Ratio
The capacity ratio, c, is a representative of the operational
condition of a given heat exchanger and will vary depending on the
geometry and flow configuration (parallel flow, counterflow, cross
flow, … etc.) of the exchanger. This value is defined as the minimum
heat capacity rate divided by the maximum capacity rate, i.e.,

𝒎𝒄𝒑
𝒎𝒊𝒏
𝒄=
𝒎𝒄𝒑
𝒎𝒂𝒙

It is important to note that the capacity ratio will be directly

proportional to the ratio of the mass flow rates if the specific heats
of the flows are fairly constant.
 NTU
The number of transfer units (NTU) is an indicator
of the actual heat transfer area or the physical size
of the heat exchanger. The larger the value of NTU
the actual the exchanger to its thermodynamic
limit. It is defined as,

UA
NTU 
m c p min
Effects of Capacity Ratio and NTU on the
effectiveness
Effects of Capacity Ratio and NTU on the
effectiveness
Effects of Capacity Ratio and NTU on the
effectiveness
Effectiveness Relations
NTU Relations