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Thermal design of intermediate fluid vaporizer for subcritical liquefied natural

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Article in Journal of Natural Gas Science and Engineering · April 2016

DOI: 10.1016/j.jngse.2016.04.031

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 Journal of Natural Gas Science and Engineering 32 (2016) 10e19

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Journal of Natural Gas Science and Engineering

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jngse

Thermal design of intermediate fluid vaporizer for subcritical liquefied

natural gas
Shuangqing Xu*, Xuedong Chen, Zhichao Fan
Hefei General Machinery Research Institute (HGMRI), National Engineering & Technology Research Center on Pressure Vessel and Piping Safety, Hefei
230031, PR China

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: The re-gasification process plays an important role in the liquefied natural gas (LNG) supply chain. The
Received 18 February 2016 advantages of an intermediate fluid vaporizer (IFV) include the better energy efficiency, less sensitivity to
Received in revised form ambient conditions and no icing or frosting problem. In this paper, the thermal design method has been
11 April 2016
established for the IFV when vaporizing the subcritical LNG. The typical heat transfer characteristics in
Accepted 11 April 2016
Available online 13 April 2016
the different sections and flow boiling zones have been predicted. The effects of the operating param-
eters such as the inlet mass flow rate and pressure of LNG and the inlet seawater temperature on the heat
transfer coefficients and the required heat transfer areas of the thermolator, evaporator, condenser and
Keywords:
Liquefied natural gas
the whole IFV have been investigated. The results indicate that the increase in the LNG pressure not only
Intermediate fluid vaporizer changes the heat transfer coefficient in each flow boiling zone but also influences the transition from one
Heat transfer flow boiling zone to another, and ultimately leads to a profitless increase of the required heat transfer
Thermal design area of the condenser. The results reported here would provide insight into the vaporization process of
subcritical LNG and give guidance to the potential design optimization of an IFV.
© 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
The re-gasification of liquefied natural gas (LNG) plays an
important role in the LNG supply chain. And various types of va-
porizers have been developed to accomplish this task, including the
open-rack vaporizer (ORV), the submerged combustion vaporizer
(SCV), the ambient air vaporizer (AAV) and the intermediate fluid
vaporizer (IFV), etc.
The selection of an optimum vaporizer type for a given LNG
receiving terminal depends on the plant site location, climatic
condition, throughput capacity, demand fluctuation and operating
flexibility, etc (Patel et al., 2013). Nowadays the ORV, SCV and IFV
are three mainly-used vaporizers in the base load LNG re-
gasification terminals. The main features of an ORV are the sim-
ple construction and operation, high turndown ratio and reliable
Abbreviations: AAV, ambient air vaporizer; DPM, distributed parameter model;
HTA, heat transfer area; HTC, heat transfer coefficient; IFV, intermediate fluid
vaporizer; LNG, liquefied natural gas; LPM, lumped parameter model; NG, natural
gas; ONB, onset of nucleate boiling; ORV, open-rack vaporizer; SCV, submerged
combustion vaporizer.
* Corresponding author.
E-mail address: shuangqingx@126.com (S. Xu).
safety aspect, etc. The SCV can be used to supplement ORV when
the seawater temperature does not meet the predefined require-
ment, or to provide the flexibility in meeting the peak demands
during cold seasons. The AAV is good choice for the peak shaving
plants, smaller terminals, and site locations where seawater is not
allowed to be used or difficult to access. Compared with the above
LNG vaporizers, the main advantages of an IFV include no icing or
frosting problem, low requirement for seawater quality, low carbon
emission, and less sensitivity to ambient conditions, etc (Bai et al.,
2013; Chen and Chen, 2010; Liu et al., 2013; Pu et al., 2014; Xu et al.,
2015). Besides, the IFV is superior for the floating storage and re-
gasification unit and the cold energy recovery system due to its
compact volume and indirect heat transfer. As a result, the in-
vestigations on this kind of vaporizer have been growing fast
recently (Bai et al., 2013; Chen and Chen, 2010; Iwasaki and Asada,
2002; Iwasaki et al., 2000; Liu et al., 2013; Pu et al., 2014; Xu et al.,
2015).
An IFV is typically a compact shell-and-tube heat exchanger
with three parts, namely an evaporator to vaporize the interme-
diate fluid by a heat source fluid, a condenser to release the latent
heat of the intermediate fluid to LNG, and a thermolator to heat the
natural gas (NG) to the specified temperature before use. The
evaporator and condenser of an IFV are often arranged in one single

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jngse.2016.04.031
1875-5100/© 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
 S. Xu et al. / Journal of Natural Gas Science and Engineering 32 (2016) 10e19
large shell. While the thermolator is essentially an optional section.
It can be either integrated with the evaporator and condenser, or
equipped as a standalone heat exchanger (Iwasaki and Asada, 2002;
Iwasaki et al., 2000; Yamamoto et al., 2002).
Due to its highly integrated configuration, the thermal design of
an IFV is more complex than the conventional shell-and-tube heat
exchangers. Since LNG exchangers are featured by large tempera-
ture difference, the distributed parameter model (DPM) is often
recommended in the thermal design and performance analysis
(Pacio and Dorao, 2011). This is performed by dividing each heat
exchanging section into small elements, applying the energy bal-
ance to each section and the whole system, and determining the
local heat transfer rate by heat transfer coefficient (HTC) correla-
tions. Bai et al. (2013) proposed a method for calculating the heat
transfer area (HTA) of an IFV, where the Cooper correlation (Cooper,
1984) and the modified Nusselt formula (Jung et al., 2004a) were
adopted for the predictions of the boiling and condensation HTCs of
the intermediate fluid. Using this similar thermal model, Pu et al.
(2014) analyzed the performance of an IFV under different pro-
cess variables. Xu et al. (2015) published their recent work on the
selection of intermediate fluid and its saturation condition for an
IFV with the candidate refrigerants of propylene, propane, isobu-
tane, butane, and dimethylether, where the more accurate boiling
HTC correlation from Jung et al. (2004b) and the condensation
buddle effect correction (Kern, 1958; Nikitin et al., 2008) were
considered in HTC predictions of the intermediate fluid. So far, it
should be noted that these reported literature all deal with the
supercritical LNG, i.e., the operating pressure of LNG is higher than
its critical value, and the LNG will become supercritical when
heated to exceed its critical temperature.
As for the heat exchanger processing subcritical fluid, Jin et al.
(2014) reported the performance analysis of a heat transfer tube
in SuperORV, where the flow boiling of subcritical LNG was divided
into different regimes including the single-phase liquid convection,
subcooled boiling, saturated boiling and liquid deficient (i.e. mist
flow) zones. While for the subcritical water evaporator application
of Zambrana et al. (2008), the tube length calculation was based on
three main flow boiling regions including the single-phase liquid
convection, subcooled boiling and two-phase saturated boiling.
And the subcooled boiling regime was further divided into the
partial flow boiling, fully developed boiling and significant void
flow zones. It can be seen that the liquid-vapor phase change needs
to be taken into consideration in subcritical flow boiling simula-
tions. The transition from different flow boiling zones should be
addressed and appropriate flow boiling HTC correlations should be
selected for each zone. This difference makes the thermal design
process even more complex than the supercritical cases.
In this paper, a thermal design method has been established for
the IFV processing the subcritical LNG. A steady state distributed
parameter model has been adopted with the applicable HTC cor-
relation in each section and each flow boiling zone of the IFV. The
heat transfer performance in each section and flow boiling zone,
including the HTC, temperature and heat flux profiles along the
tube lengths, has been analyzed. And the effects of the operating
parameters on the thermal design results have been investigated.
The obtained results will provide insight into the vaporization of
the subcritical LNG and give guidance to the potential design
optimization of the IFV.
2. Model description
2.1. Physical model
Fig. 1a schematically shows a typical IFV configuration. The
undergoing processes and notations of different variables have
11
been described in detail in our previous work (Xu et al., 2015).
Considering the liquid-to-vapor phase change of the subcritical
LNG, the condenser section is divided into five flow boiling zones
along the tube length, namely the single-phase liquid convection,
subcooled flow boiling, saturated flow boiling, mist flow boiling,
and single-phase vapor convection zones (see Fig. 1b).
The design specifications and selected parameters used in the
present calculations are listed in Table 1. The operating parameters
of the selected cases are based on the design specifications of a
floating LNG receiving terminal in North China with a total
throughput of 76 kg s
1. The design vaporization capacity and
minimum inlet temperature of seawater in one single IFV unit are
50 kg s
1 and 280 K, respectively. Considering the plant re-
gasification capacity and site climatic conditions, the variations of
the design specifications in this paper are intended to investigate
the influences of the throughput and inlet temperature of seawater
on the thermal design results when operating the IFV under the
different subcritical LNG pressures. The heat source fluid of
seawater and the intermediate fluid of propane are considered in
these calculations.
2.2. Numerical model
Due to the large temperature difference encountered in an IFV,
the distributed parameter model is utilized (Bai et al., 2013; Pu
et al., 2014; Xu et al., 2015). This thermal model is based on the
energy balance for each section of an IFV and the whole system. The
underlying assumptions include a steady and uniformly distributed
mass flow rate, no heat loss to ambient and the single tube and shell
pass for each section.
The energy balances, as expressed by Equation (1), are estab-
lished based on the reference fluids of NG for the thermolator,
seawater for the evaporator, and LNG for the condenser, respec-
tively. By ignoring the wall fouling resistance, the overall HTC in
each section is determined by Equation (2).
mDH ¼ UADTm (1)


1 1 1 Ao do do
¼ þ þ ln (2)
U ho hi Ai 2k di
Where m and DH represent the mass flow rate and enthalpy dif-
ference of the reference fluid; U, A and DTm are the overall HTC,
required HTA, and logarithmic mean temperature difference for
each element, respectively; ho and hi are the shell side and tube side
HTCs calculated by the correlations in Section 2.3; Ao and Ai are the
outer and inner surface areas of the heat transfer tube; do and di are
the outer and inner diameters of the tube; and k is the thermal
conductivity of the tube wall.
2.3. HTC correlations
2.3.1. Internal single-phase convection
The tube side single-phase convective heat transfer processes in
an IFV include those of the seawater in the thermolator and evap-
orator, and the subcooled LNG and superheated NG in the
condenser. The internal single-phase convective HTCs are predicted
by the classic Dittus-Boelter correlation with the characteristic
lengths of the inner tube diameters (Yang and Tao, 1998) (see
Equation (3)).
Nu ¼ 0:023Re0:8 Pr n (3)
Where n ¼ 0.4 for heating the fluid and n ¼ 0.3 for cooling the fluid.
12 S. Xu et al. / Journal of Natural Gas Science and Engineering 32 (2016) 10e19

Fig. 1. Physical model of an IFV. (a) Schematic of the heat transfer process in a typical IFV and (b) LNG flow boiling regimes in the condenser section.

Table 1
Design specifications and selected parameters for the subcritical LNG re-gasification cases.

LNG/NG Seawater Intermediate fluid

mng (kg$s
1) Png (kPa) Tng1 (K) Tng3 (K) DTsup (K) Psw (kPa) Tsw1 (K) DTsw (K) Type Tsat,IF (K)

60e120 3000e4000 111 275 20 400 281e285 5 Propane 268

2.3.2. External single-phase convection 2.3.4. Internal subcooled flow boiling

The convective HTC of NG in the shell side of the thermolator is The subcooled flow boiling HTC of LNG in the tube side of the
estimated by the Zhukauskas formula (Yang and Tao, 1998) (pre- condenser is determined by the Bergles-Rohsenow method
sented in Equation (4)). The characteristic length is the outer tube (Bergles and Rohsenow, 1964), which estimates the total heat flux
diameter of the thermolator. by the contributions from the single-phase liquid convection and

8
>
> 1:04Re0:4 Pr 0:36 ðPr=Prw Þ0:25 1 < Re < 5  102
>
>
> 0:5 0:36
< 0:71Re Pr ðPr=Prw Þ0:25 5  102 < Re < 103
Nu ¼ 0:35ðs1 =s2 Þ Re0:6 Pr 0:36 ðPr=Prw Þ0:25
0:2
s1 =s2  2; 103 < Re < 2  105 (4)
>
>
>
> 0:40Re0:6 Pr 0:36 ðPr=Prw Þ0:25 s1 =s2 > 2; 103 < Re < 2  105
>
:
0:031ðs1 =s2 Þ0:2 Re0:8 Pr 0:36 ðPr=Prw Þ0:25 2  105 < Re < 2  106

2.3.3. External pool boiling fully developed subcooled nucleate boiling (see Equation (6) and
The pool boiling HTC of the intermediate fluid in the evaporator Equation (7)).
is calculated by the correlation of Jung et al. (2004b), which predicts
. 
perfectly the experimental boiling HTC of propane (Equation (5)). h¼q T
T (6)
w f
" #C2 !0:53
kf qDb rg ( "
h ¼ 41:4 ð
log10 Pr Þ
1:52 1
(5)
#2 )0:5
Db kf Tsat rf q ¼ qspl 1þ
qsnb
1

qonb
(7)
2 30:5 qspl qsnb
Where C2 ¼ 0:835ð1
Pr Þ 1:33
, Db ¼ 0:0146b4gðr2
s r Þ5 and
f g
b ¼ 35 . Where qspl is the heat flux from single-phase liquid convection and
 S. Xu et al. / Journal of Natural Gas Science and Engineering 32 (2016) 10e19 13

is calculated by the Dittus-Boelter correlation (Equation (3)). The

heat flux from fully developed subcooled nucleate boiling in this
relation qsnb is often assumed to be identical to that for saturated
boiling (Carey, 1992), and the correlation in Section 2.3.5 is utilized.
The heat flux of qonb is estimated using the fully developed boiling
correlation at the wall temperature corresponding to the onset of
nucleate boiling (ONB), which is predicted by the model from Davis
and Anderson (1966) (as shown in Equation (8)).
!0:5
8sqTsat
Tw;ONB ¼ þ Tsat (8)
rfg kf rg

2.3.5. Internal saturated flow boiling

The internal saturate flow boiling HTC of LNG in the condenser is
predicted by the Chen method (Ghiaasiaan, 2008). The HTC is
assumed the sum of a bulk convection contribution and a nucleate
boiling contribution (as expressed by Equation (9)). The Dittus-
Boelter correlation (Equation (3)) is used to calculate the bulk
convection term. While the nucleate boiling term is based on the
correlation of Forster and Zuber (1955) (shown in Equation (10)).

h ¼ hfc;sat þ hnb;sat (9)

0 1
k0:79 0:45 r0:49
Cpf
hnb;sat ¼ 0:0122@ ADT 0:24 DP 0:75 S
f f
sat sat (10)
s0:5 m0:29
f
0:24 r0:24
rfg g

Where DTsat ¼ Tw
Tsat and DPsat ¼ Psat ðTw Þ
P.

2.3.6. Internal mist flow boiling

The mist flow boiling HTC of LNG in the tube side of the
condenser is computed using the modified Dittus-Boelter equation
with the average properties of the pseudo-fluid (Carey, 1992) (see
Equation (11)). And the recommended x value is 0.95 (Carey, 1992;
Jin et al., 2014).
!
r k m Pr
g Prg G
0:023Re0:8 x; f ; f ; f ; f
0:4
Nu ¼ (11)
rg kg mg Prg
Fig. 2. Configuration diagram of the calculation program.
Where
! 2 30:4
xþð1
xÞðrg =rf Þðkg =kf Þ 4 xþð1
xÞðrg =rf Þ
G x; rrf ; kkf ; mmf ; Pr
Prf
g
¼ xþð1
xÞðrg =rf Þðmg =mf Þ xþð1
xÞðrg =rf ÞðPrg =Prf Þ
5 . The first step is to prepare and input the process parameters.
g g g
The design specifications including mng, Png, Tng1, Tng3 and Tsw1 are
typically determined by the gas source, user requirement and ter-
2.3.7. External condensation minal location for a given LNG vaporization task. Psw and Tsw3 are
The average condensation HTC of intermediate fluid in the shell selected based on the engineering experience and environmental
side of the condenser is estimated by applying a correction factor of protection concerns, etc. The outlet temperature of NG from the

1/6
Neff to the modified Nusselt equation to account for the bundle condenser Tng2 is determined by its superheat DTsup, which is an
effect in horizontal condensers (Kern, 1958; Nikitin et al., 2008) (see important parameter influencing the performance of the IFV. The
Equation (12)). The effective tube number Neff is determined by unknown process parameters of msw and Tsw2 are then determined
tube layout and the characteristic length of outer tube diameter is by the energy balance of the whole IFV system and that of the
used. thermolator.
Once the inlet and outlet temperatures of seawater and LNG/NG
2   30:25 in each section are obtained, the three parts of the IFV are divided
g rf rf
rg k3f rfg  
1=6
into elements along the tube length based on the constant tem-
Nu ¼ 0:794 5 , Neff (12)
mf do ðTsat
Tw Þ perature difference or constant increment of vapor quality. After
the parameter preparation and heat exchanger segmentation, the
thermal design procedure outlined by the dashed box in Fig. 2
begins. The design procedure needs to be executed for each part
3. Solution procedure of an IFV, while only a general flow diagram is shown here for
briefness.
Fig. 2 schematically shows the thermal design procedure. For each section, the initial value of the overall HTA is calculated
14 S. Xu et al. / Journal of Natural Gas Science and Engineering 32 (2016) 10e19

by the lumped parameter model (LPM) and then updated according

to the workflow shown in Fig. 2. For the HTC calculations using tube
wall temperature, an initial value is taken as the mean temperature
of fluids inside and outside the tube. The tube wall temperature is
then updated by Equation (13) during the iterations (GB151, 1999).

Tm;h hh þ Tm;c hc
Tw ¼ (13)
hh þ hc

Where Tw is the mean temperature of the tube wall; Tm,h and Tm,c
are the mean temperatures of the hot and cold fluids; hh and hc are
the HTCs of the hot and cold sides, respectively.
The thermophysical properties of all working fluids during the
numerical calculations are estimated from NIST standard database
(Lemmon et al., 2007). The LNG/NG and seawater are approximated
by methane and water, respectively (Bai et al., 2013; Jin et al., 2014;
Pu et al., 2014; Xu et al., 2015).

4. Results and discussion

Fig. 4. Tube side, shell side and overall heat transfer coefficients along the tube length
in the evaporator at Png ¼ 3500 kPa, mng ¼ 90 kg s
1 and Tsw1 ¼ 283 K.
4.1. Heat transfer performance analysis

Fig. 3 illustrates the distributions of tube side, shell side and

overall HTCs along the tube length in the thermolator at
Png ¼ 3500 kPa, mng ¼ 90 kg s
1 and Tsw1 ¼ 283 K. The tube side HTC
of the thermolator hi,th remains almost constant at 9057 W m
2 K
1
due to the small change in seawater temperature along the tube
length. The shell side HTC ho,th decreases from 2995 to
2630 W m
2 K
1 as the NG temperature rises along the tube length.
The overall HTC Uth then shows slight decrease from 1555 to
1451 W m
2 K
1.
Fig. 4 presents the distributions of tube side, shell side and
overall HTC along the tube length in the evaporator for the repre-
sentative case of Png ¼ 3500 kPa, mng ¼ 90 kg s
1 and Tsw1 ¼ 283 K.
The tube side and shell side HTCs of the evaporator, denoted as hi,ev
and ho,ev, vary from 6226 to 5867 W m
2 K
1 and from 3446 to
2411 W m
2 K
1, respectively. The resulted overall HTC values Uev
decrease from 1603 to 1312 W m
2 K
1.
The tube side, shell side and overall HTC profiles along the tube
length in the condenser are shown in Fig. 5. The representative case
of Png ¼ 3500 kPa, mng ¼ 90 kg s
1 and Tsw1 ¼ 283 K is also taken as Fig. 5. Tube side, shell side and overall heat transfer coefficients along the tube length
an example. It is observed that the tube side HTC of the condenser in the condenser at Png ¼ 3500 kPa, mng ¼ 90 kg s
1 and Tsw1 ¼ 283 K.
hi,co follows the general characteristics of the flow boiling curve, i.e.,

Fig. 6. Tube wall temperature, bulk fluid temperature and heat flux along the tube
length in the condenser at Png ¼ 3500 kPa, mng ¼ 90 kg s
1 and Tsw1 ¼ 283 K. The onset
Fig. 3. Tube side, shell side and overall heat transfer coefficients along the tube length of nucleate boiling (ONB) points for the single-phase liquid and subcooled flow boiling
in the thermolator at Png ¼ 3500 kPa, mng ¼ 90 kg s
1 and Tsw1 ¼ 283 K. zones are also plotted.
 S. Xu et al. / Journal of Natural Gas Science and Engineering 32 (2016) 10e19 15

Table 2
Process variables and required heat transfer areas for the selected design cases.

Selected design cases Process variables Required heat transfer areas

Case No. Png (kPa) mng (kg s
1) Tsw1 (K) Tsw3 (K) Tsw2 (K) msw (kg s
1) Tng2 (K) Ath (m2) Aev (m2) Aco (m2) Atot (m2)

1 3500 60 283 278 281.78 2332.94 201.94 298.15 2169.14 459.75 2927.05
2 3500 90 283 278 281.78 3499.41 201.94 384.11 3253.72 719.90 4357.72
3 3500 120 283 278 281.78 4665.87 201.94 462.90 4340.65 989.04 5792.58
4 3500 90 281 276 279.78 3495.87 201.94 465.58 3747.01 719.90 4932.49
5 3500 90 285 280 283.78 3502.45 201.94 328.59 3178.32 719.90 4226.81
6 3000 90 283 278 281.76 3528.59 197.27 385.90 3255.60 695.32 4336.82
7 4000 90 283 278 281.80 3469.93 206.11 382.32 3245.70 739.68 4367.70

Fig. 7. Effect of LNG inlet flow rate on the overall heat transfer coefficient profiles for (a) the thermolator, (b) evaporator and (c) condenser.

the fast increase after nucleate boiling initiation, the inflection after
partial dryout, and the sharp decrease after nucleate boiling sup-
pression (Ghiaasiaan, 2008). The typical hi,co values are found to be
4882e5996 W m
2 K
1 in the single-phase liquid convection zone,
6048e7269 W m
2 K
1 in the subcooled flow boiling zone,
7707e18934 W m
2 K
1 in the saturated flow boiling zone,
7839e7861 W m
2 K
1 in the mist flow boiling zone, and
4493e7657 W m
2 K
1 in the single-phase vapor convection zone.
The shell side HTC ho,co ranges from 939 to 1117 W m
2 K
1 along
the tube length, and shows even less variation in the saturated flow
boiling zone. The calculated overall HTC Uco varies from 698 to
892 W m
2 K
1, and presents a plateau at about
820e892 W m
2 K
1 in the saturated flow boiling zone.
Rearranging Equation (2) by dividing Ao in both sides, the con-
tributions from tube side, tube wall and shell side thermal re-
sistances to the total can be reflected. In practice, it is
recommended to compare the proportion of each thermal resis-
tance to the total and apply heat transfer enhancing strategy on the
side that contributes most in order to obtain better effectiveness
(Yang and Tao, 1998). The percentages of the external to total
thermal resistance in the condenser Uco/ho,co reaches about
70e87%. It indicates that the external condensation of the
16 S. Xu et al. / Journal of Natural Gas Science and Engineering 32 (2016) 10e19
Fig. 8. Effect of seawater inlet temperature on the overall heat transfer coefficient profiles for (a) the thermolator, (b) evaporator and (c) condenser.
intermediate fluid behaves as a limiting step in the heat transfer
process of the condenser. This is similar to the supercritical LNG
vaporization case reported previously (Xu et al., 2015). In order to
improve the performance and to reduce the required HTA of the
condenser, some appropriate intensification strategies should be
applied on the shell side. The heat transfer tubes with finned or
grooved surface would be beneficial (Yang and Tao, 1998).
Fig. 6 shows the tube wall temperature Tw,co, bulk fluid tem-
perature Tf,co and heat flux qco along the tube length in the
condenser. The ONB point Tw,ONB is also presented. Tw,co and Tf,co
increase almost linearly in the single-phase liquid and single-phase
vapor convection regimes. The values of qco show approximate
linear decreases in these two regimes. After the tube wall tem-
perature exceeds the ONB point of about 182.2 K, nucleate boiling
occurs. Tf,co then approach the constant saturation temperature of
181.9 K. In the saturated flow boiling zone, qco shows slight increase
from 7.1  104 to 7.7  104 W m
2, while Tw,co decreases slightly
from 192 to 186 K.
4.2. Effect of operating parameters
4.2.1. Effect of inlet mass flow rate of LNG
The effect of inlet LNG flow rate on the process variables and the
required heat transfer areas can be obtained by comparing the re-
sults for Case No. 1 to No. 3 as shown in Table 2. With the constant
Png of 3500 kPa and Tsw1 of 283 K, and varied mng from 60 to
90 kg s
1, the intermediate temperatures of seawater and NG (i.e,
Tsw2 and Tng2) are calculated to be 281.78 K and 201.94 K, respec-
tively. The required flow rate of seawater ranges from 2333 to
4666 kg s
1. The required HTAs of the thermolator, evaporator,
condenser sections and the whole IFV, denoted as Ath, Aev, Aco and
Atot, are calculated to be 384 m2, 3254 m2, 720 m2 and 4358 m2 for
the representative case of Png ¼ 3500 kPa, mng ¼ 90 kg s
1 and
Tsw1 ¼ 283 K (i.e., Case No. 2).
Among the three sections of the IFV, it is observed that only Aev
shows a proportional relationship with the inlet LNG flow rate. This
is because Uev is not sensitive to the LNG flow rate as LNG does not
participate in the heat transfer process there (Fig. 7b). In the ther-
molator, the required mass flow rate of seawater increases with the
inlet LNG flow rate. Both the tube side and shell side Reynolds
numbers then increase. Therefore, Uth increases with LNG flow rate
(see Fig. 7a), and Ath shows an increase less than the proportionality
in the LNG flow rate. While for the condenser, the required HTA Aco
increases with the LNG flow rate and the tube numbers at given
length also increases. Considering the bundle effect as corrected in
Equation (12), the external condensation HTC and thereby the heat
 S. Xu et al. / Journal of Natural Gas Science and Engineering 32 (2016) 10e19
Fig. 9. Effect of LNG inlet pressure on the overall heat transfer coefficient profiles for (a) the thermolator, (b) evaporator and (c) condenser.
flux decrease. The calculated tube side HTC also decreases (results
not shown here). Uco thus demonstrates a decrease with LNG flow
rate (see Fig. 7c), and the variation of Ath is faster than the pro-
portionality in the LNG flow rate. In general, as Aev accounts for
almost 74e75% of the total HTA of the IFV Atot for all the design
cases shown in Table 2, Atot presents approximate proportionality
with LNG flow rate.
4.2.2. Effect of inlet temperature of seawater
The comparison between Case No. 4, No. 2 and No. 5 as shown in
Table 2 reveals the effect of inlet seawater temperature on the
thermal design results. With Tsw1 ranges from 281 to 285 K at the
constant Png of 3500 kPa and mng of 90 kg s
1, the calculated in-
termediate temperature of NG Tng2 is 201.94 K. And the interme-
diate temperature and required mass flow rate of seawater are
279.78e283.78 K and 3496e3502 kg s
1, respectively. The required
HTAs of the thermolator and evaporator decrease with the increase
of Tsw1, while the HTA of the condenser shows no variation. This
indicates that utilizing the warmer seawater will make the IFV
more compact and more competitive. And it explains the attraction
of IFV in the LNG receiving terminals built in the equatorial regions
(Patel et al., 2013).
Fig. 8 shows the overall HTC profiles for the thermolator,
17
evaporator and condenser at different inlet temperatures of
seawater. The changes in the thermophysical properties of seawater
and NG lead to the increase of the tube side, shell side and there-
after the overall HTCs in the thermolator. As for the evaporator, the
overall HTC Uev shows a monotonous decrease with Tsw1. However,
the tube side and shell side HTCs undergo different variation
trends, i.e., the tube side HTC hi, ev first decrease and then increase,
while the shell side HTC ho, ev first increase and then decrease with
Tsw1 (results not shown here). Since seawater does not participate
in the heat transfer process in the condenser, Uco presents no
variation and this explains the constant Aco results in Table 2.
4.2.3. Effect of inlet pressure of LNG
The effect of LNG inlet pressure is reflected by comparing the
results from Case No. 6, No. 2 and No. 7 in Table 2. With Png varies
from 3000 to 4000 kPa at the constant mng of 90 kg s
1 and Tsw1 of
283 K, the calculated intermediate temperature of seawater Tsw2 is
around 281.8 K. The required mass flow rate of seawater decreases
from 3529 to 3470 kg s
1. The intermediate temperature of NG Tng2
ranges from 197.27 to 206.11 K. The required HTAs of the thermo-
lator and evaporator show small variations within the selected
ranges of Png, i.e., the maximum deviations of Ath and Aev are only
0.9% and 0.3%. The required HTA of the condenser increases with
18 S. Xu et al. / Journal of Natural Gas Science and Engineering 32 (2016) 10e19

predicted. Results indicate that the overall HTC of the thermolator

increases with the inlet flow rate and pressure of LNG and the inlet
seawater temperature. The overall HTC of the evaporator decreases
with the inlet seawater temperature, but shows no or little varia-
tion with respect to the LNG inlet flow rate and pressure. The
overall HTC of the condenser decreases with the inlet LNG flow rate
and remains constant with the increased inlet temperature of
seawater. While the increase in LNG pressure not only changes the
HTC in each flow boiling zone but also influences the transition
from one flow boiling zone to another in the condenser. The effects
of the operating parameters on the required HTA of the thermo-
lator, evaporator, condenser and the whole IFV have been investi-
gated. The percentage of the HTA in the condenser corresponding
to each flow boiling zone at different LNG inlet pressures has also
been calculated. It is found that the increase in the LNG pressure
leads to a profitless increase of the required HTA of the condenser.

Acknowledgement
Fig. 10. Percentage of the heat transfer area in the condenser corresponding to each
flow boiling zone at different LNG inlet pressures. The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support from
National Natural Science Foundation of China under the grant
number of 21406046.
the inlet LNG pressure though the relative deviation is rather small.
The distributions of overall HTCs along the tube length in the Nomenclature
thermolator, evaporator and condenser at different inlet LNG
pressures are presented in Fig. 9. The increase in the inlet pressure A area, m2
leads to obvious change of the thermophysical properties of NG and Cp isobaric heat capacity, J kg
1 K
1
causes an increase in the shell side HTC of the thermolator. The Db bubble departure diameter, m
temperature difference of seawater shows little change with Png, d diameter, m
and the tube side HTC of the thermolator decrease slightly. As a g gravitational acceleration, m s
2
result, Uth demonstrates an increase with the inlet LNG pressure. DH enthalpy difference, J kg
1
Although LNG does not participate directly in the heat transfer in h heat transfer coefficient, W m
2 K
1
the evaporator, the change in Png leads to slight difference of Tsw2 k thermal conductivity, W m
1 K
1
and consequently shows little influence on the overall HTC of the l dimensionless tube length, -
evaporator. The variation of the overall HTC in the condenser Uco is m mass flow rate, kg s
1
more complex. The increase in LNG pressure not only changes the N tube number, -
HTC in each flow boiling zone but also influences the transition n constant, -
from one flow boiling zone to another. With the increase of the inlet P pressure, Pa
LNG pressure, the transitions from single-phase liquid convection PT tube pitch, m
zone to subcooled flow boiling zone and that from the subcooled q heat flux, W m
2
flow boiling zone to saturated flow boiling zone have been post- rfg heat of vaporization, J kg
1
poned along the tube length, while the transitions from the satu- S Chen's suppression factor, -
rated flow boiling zone to mist flow boiling zone and that from the s1 horizontal distance between neighboring tubes, m
mist flow boiling zone to single-phase vapor convection zone have s2 vertical distance between neighboring tubes, m
been advanced. In general, the increase of inlet LNG pressure de- T temperature, K
creases Uco in most portions of the single-phase liquid convection DTm logarithmic mean temperature difference, K
and subcooled flow boiling zones but increases the percentages of DTsup superheat of the natural gas, K
the HTA of the whole condenser corresponding to these two zones. DTsw temperature drop of seawater (Tsw1
Tsw3), K
On the other hand, the increase of Png increases Uco in the later U overall heat transfer coefficient, W m
2 K
1
portion of the saturated flow boiling zone and the whole mist flow x vapor quality, -
boiling but decreases their contributions to the total HTA of the
condenser. As for the single-phase vapor convection zone, although Greek symbols
the increase of LNG pressure increases Uco and its HTA percentage, b contact angle, 
they cannot counteract the negative effects from the other zones. m viscosity, Pa s
Thus, it is found that this increase in LNG pressure leads to a r density, kg m
3
profitless increase of Aco (see Table 2 and Fig. 10). s surface tension, N m
1

5. Conclusions Subscripts
0 initial value
The thermal design method has been established for the 1, 2, 3 based on inlet, intermediate or outlet condition
subcritical LNG vaporization process in an IFV. The steady state co, ev, th condenser, evaporator or thermolator
distributed parameter model has been adopted with the selected eff effective
HTC correlations in the thermolator, evaporator, and the segmented fc forced convection
flow boiling zones of the condenser. The typical heat transfer f, g liquid or gas phase
characteristics in each section and flow boiling zone has been h, c hot or cold side
 S. Xu et al. / Journal of Natural Gas Science and Engineering 32 (2016) 10e19 19

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