Heat Exchanger Post Lab

Summary
The aim of this experiment is to understand the principles of heat exchanger operation and
investigate the relationships between flow rate of water and heat transfer duty. In this experiment
we measured the temperature of water entering and leaving a shell and tube heat exchanger at 2
inlets and 2 outlets (hot and cold respectively), while changing the flow rate of the cold water for
both co-current and counter current. The rate of heat transfer calculated from this experiment is
called the “duty” of the heat exchanger. The “duty” is defined as the amount of heat needed to
transfer from the hot side to the cold side of the heat exchanger over a period of time.
https://www.webbusterz.org/how-to-calculate-the-heat-duty-for-heat-exchangers/
The heat gained by the cold fluid stream is equal to the heat lost by the hot fluid stream giving an
energy balance of the overall system. All heat exchangers will follow the Zeroth, 1 st and 2nd laws of
thermodynamics which descibes the exchange of heat between mediums inside the heat exchanger.
In the Co-Current flow direction both streams enter the heat exchanger at the top and leave at the
bottom, whereas in the Counter Current flow direction the streams enter from opposite ends of the
heat exchanger.

Summary in Context of course and wider chemical engineering.

Heat exchangers are used to transfer heat from one medium to another, either gas or liquids. They
are used to heat or cool mediums in a process. Some uses in the chemical engineering industry
include: chemical processing systems, food processing systems, automobile radiators, and waste
heat recovery units. Waste heat recovery that occurs in the exhaust of gas turbines. The heat
generated from this process can be transferred using a heat exchanger to heat multiple process
streams.1 Heat exchangers are also used a lot in everyday appliances such as refrigeration, heating
and air-con systems.2

Experimental Methods
In this experiment a shell and tube heat exchanger is used to transfer heat between fluids without
mixing fluids with each other. The unit is shown below:

Figure 2

Figure 1 Figure 3 Figure 4

The schematic diagram of a shell and tube heat exchanger and the equipment setup for counter-
current and co-current is shown above.
To carry out this experiment ensure heat exchanger is switched to the correct mode (co or counter
current) before starting. First of all, we will start with measuring the counter-current flow. Turn on
the cold-water supply be opening the tap then turn on MAIN and HEATER switches (two white
switches in Figure 1). Set the hot water temperature control to 60 oC using yellow buttons (digital
screen beside heat input red light) and set the cold water and hot water flow rate to 10 mLs -1 and 35
mLs-1 respectively (using the flow control dials located at bottom right of machine). Keep an eye on
the flow rates and temperature of system throughout experiment to ensure no deviation from set
values. Once the temperature has stabilised to 60oC record T1, T2, T3, T4 from the temperature
indicator screen and Vcold/Vhot from the flow rate controls. Repeat the recording of parameters for
different cold water flow rates (10, 20, 30, 40 and 50mLs-1). Once the counter-current experiment
has been completed, carry out the same steps above but using the co-current mode.

Results + Discussion

Table 1 Flow direction: Co-current

Table 2 Flow direction: Co-current

Table 3 Flow direction: Counter current

Table 4 Flow direction: Counter current

 Graph showing Heat transfer rate against the cold water mass flow rate
Counter current Qhot vs
1400 mCold
Linear (Counter current
1200 Qhot vs mCold)
Counter current Qcold vs
1000
Heat tranfer rate/ W

mCold
Linear (Counter current
800 Qcold vs mCold)
Co-current Qhot vs
600 mCold
400 Linear (Co-current Qhot
vs mCold)
200 Co-current Qcold vs
mCold
0 Linear (Co-current Qcold
5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 vs mCold)
Cold water mass flow rate/ kg/s

Table 1 and 2 shows the Co-current flow in a heat exchanger. There were 5 samples calculated, using
increasing flow rates of cold water. The temperatures T1 (Hot inlet), T2 (Hot outlet), T3 (Cold inlet)
and T4 (Cold outlet) were recorded from the digital display screen. The mean fluid temperature of
hot and cold streams was calculated using Tmean = (Tinlet + Toutlet)/2. As shown in Table 2 the
mean temperature of the hot and cold streams decreased from 57.85 oC to 54.6 oC and 20.7 oC to
15.95oC respectively. The mass flow rate for hot stream remains constant at approx. 34.5kgs-1 which
is calculated using the formula given for the density of water (as a function of temperature in
degrees Celsius) p = -4.582x10-6 Τ2 –4.0007x10-5 Τ + 1.004. This is then multiplied by the volumetric
flow rate of 35mLs-1. Next the heat transfer rate for each fluid stream is calculated by multiplying the
temperature difference between inlet and outlet by the specific heat capacity (Cp= 6x10 -9 T4 –1.0x10-
6 3
Τ +7.0487x10-5 T2 –2.4403x10-3 Τ +4.2113). As seen in Table 2 the heat transfer rate increases as
the mass flow rate increases in both the hot and cold streams, from 620.4473 to 1271.81 and
569.6056 to 1268.82 respectively. The hot stream increases by approximately 51% and the cold
stream increases by 55%. Table 3 and 4 shows the counter current flow direction. The other group
also took 5 samples of different cold water flow rates (10-50 mLs-1) The mean temperature of the hot
and cold streams also both decreased, from 61.25 oC to 55.3 oC and 27.7 oC to 17.1 oC respectively.
The heat transfer rate for both the hot and cold streams also increased similarly to the co-current
flow direction to approx. 1300 W. As shown in figure 1 the Co-current flow direction has a steeper
gradient for both Qhot vs mCold and Qcold vs mCold that the corresponding counter current
gradients. In table two the sample 2 and 3 values have a negative heat loss to the environment, this
is because the heat transfer rate gained by cold water is greater than heat transfer rate lost by hot
water, therefore implying a heat gain from environment.

Error and reliability

When using the heat exchanger, the demonstrator informed us that we must wait for at least 5
minutes until the temperature of the system has stabilised. My group was using the counter-current
heat exchanger and although we waited for 5 minutes our values for sample 3 and 4 kept fluctuating
even after waiting another 5 minutes so we took the values when temperatures had stopped largely
fluctuating. The cold-water flow rate kept deviating from our set values, possibly due to pressure
within the system. When talking to the other group carrying out the Co-current experiment, they did
not wait the full 5 minutes, they recorded values as soon as they stopped fluctuating. The flow rate
readings are read from the top of the float, so some human error may have been made as readings
were not digital. Also, our heat exchanger could not carry out a flow rate of 50mLs-1 so we had to use
a cold-water flow rate of 48 mLs-1. In table two the sample 2 and 3 values have a negative heat loss
to the environment, this is because the heat transfer rate gained by cold water is greater than heat
transfer rate lost by hot water, therefore implying heat has been gained from the environment. The
heat exchanger is well insulated so this is unlikely, instead the results may have been taken too
quickly and temperature was not given time to stabilise.

The formulas given for density of water and the specific heat capacity where very complex, using
values with a lot of significant figures/decimal places required checking of calculations to ensure
they are accurate. Using excel for these calculations reduces error as it uses tabulated values to a
large number of significant figures to increase accuracy of calculated values and avoids human error
when typing formulae into a calculator.

Conclusions
From this experiment we can conclude that increasing the cold-water flow rate causes an increased
rate of heat transfer in both the co-current and counter current systems. Both flow directions obey
the Zeroth, First and Second laws of thermodynamics. Comparing between co- current and counter
current the temperature difference is usually larger in the counter current than the co-current, thus
enabling a higher efficiency of heat transfer between hot and cold fluids in the counter current heat
exchanger.3However, from the graph, the gradient implies the co-current is more efficient due to
steeper gradient even if the counter current has higher final Qhot and Qcold values. The percentage
of heat losses are higher overall for counter current compared to co-current, however, the value for
the final flow rate of approx. 50mLs-1 is lower for the counter current heat exchanger, implying that
at higher cold-water flow rates the counter current is a more efficient and sustainable operating
mode compared to co-current. From our experiment carried out and results obtained the final
conclusion is that the co-current mode is most effective as it has the lowest average ∆Q% across all 5
samples (-3.65) compared to the average for corresponding counter current value (7.71).

References
1. Ipieca. (n.d.). Heat exchangers (2022). [online] Available at:
https://www.ipieca.org/resources/energy-efficiency-solutions/efficient-use-of-heat/heat-
exchangers-2022/#:~:text=Heat%20exchangers%20are%20used%20to.
2. www.sciencedirect.com. (n.d.). Heat Exchanger - an overview | ScienceDirect Topics.
[online] Available at: https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/engineering/heat-
exchanger#:~:text=Heat%20exchangers%20are%20used%20in.
3. Ng, W. (2018). Counter-current heat exchangers enjoy higher efficiency compared to co-
current heat exchangers. [online] Looking at life with a scientific lens. Available at:
https://ngwenfa.wordpress.com/2018/11/08/counter-current-heat-exchangers-enjoy-
higher-efficiency-compared-to-co-current-heat-exchangers/#:~:text=Overall%2C%20the
%20counter%2Dcurrent%20heat.
Calculations