Created in COMSOL Multiphysics 6.

Concentric Tube Heat Exchanger

Dimensioning Tool

This model is licensed under the COMSOL Software License Agreement 6.0.
All trademarks are the property of their respective owners. See www.comsol.com/trademarks.
About the Application
Dimensioning quantities are the first indicators of the behavior of a heat exchanger. This
application aims at computing these quantities for a given configuration of a heat
exchanger.

The example of two concentric tubes separating two distinct fluids is chosen for the study.
The fluids can run either in counterflow or in parallel flow. Both tubes and fluids can be
customized through the user interface.

After computation, the temperature, pressure profiles and several quantities are displayed.
Among them are:

• The log mean temperature difference (LMTD), which measures a global temperature
difference of the heat exchanger according to:
ΔT 2 – ΔT 1
ΔT lmtd = ---------------------------
ΔT 2
ln  ----------
 ΔT 1

• The overall heat transfer coefficient between inner and outer tubes;
• The effectiveness ratio of exchanged heat flux to maximum possible exchanged heat
flux;
• The number of transfer units (NTU) ratio of overall heat transfer coefficient to
minimum heat capacity rate.

Additional data are also given while defining the geometry and fluid properties such as
available volume and mass, compactness (the ratio of exchanged surface to heat exchanger
volume), or material properties.

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The figure below illustrates the user interface.
Temperature and
pressure plots

Tabbed panels for

configuring the tubes
and the flows

Computation settings
and information

Dimensioning data

In the tabbed panels—Tubes; Flow, Inner Tube; and Flow, Outer Tube—you set the
geometrical parameters, the material properties of the tubes and fluids, and the operating
conditions.

The fluid materials can depend on the pressure and the temperature. In this case, the View
material property function button displays the graph of the material property as a

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function of pressure and/or temperature. In addition, the indicative values shown in the
user interface are computed at the prescribed Inlet temperature and Outlet pressure.

The ribbon at the top of the application window displays the action buttons.

Reset all Compute Create report Open application

parameters to simulation on last documentation
default values computation

After computation, numerical results are presented in the Results, Mass and Dimensions
sections.

The Embedded Model

The application solves the classical concentric tube heat exchanger model. There are
options to change the geometry, materials, and boundary conditions. Because the
Reynolds number can reach high values for high inlet mass flow rate, the turbulence
regime can also be chosen for the study. The next paragraphs further detail the embedded
model.

MODEL DEFINITION
The concentric tubes are represented by a 2D axisymmetric model where two rectangles
are revolved to form the tubes (see Figure 1). Compared to a 3D model, the number of

4 | CONCENTRIC TUBE HEAT EXCHANGER DIMENSIONING TOOL

degrees of freedom is largely reduced, but this simplification is only valid if the boundary
conditions at the inlets and outlets are also axisymmetric.

Inner tube

Outer tube

Interface
Symmetry axis between tubes

Figure 1: Unrevolved geometry of the concentric tubes.

The interface between the two domains is not fully modeled as a thin domain but as a
boundary with a dedicated boundary condition for walls and thermally resistive layers in
thin shell structures (Thermally thick approximation).

The flow in each tube can be solved by either a laminar or a turbulent formulation, which
can be different between the tubes. The Algebraic yPlus turbulence model is used when
solving in the turbulent formulation. Finally, heat transfer and fluid flow equations are
coupled by the Nonisothermal Flow multiphysics coupling feature, which automatically
takes into account the turbulence models chosen for the flows.

Finally, the model assumes that exchanges between the tubes and the surroundings are
neglected.

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Table 1 lists the application’s default parameters. The results shown when starting it for
the first time correspond to these parameter values.
TABLE 1: DEFAULT APPLICATION PARAMETERS.

PARAMETER VALUE PARAMETER VALUE

Inner radius 25 mm Inner inlet temperature 360 K

Outer radius 40 mm Inner inlet mass flow rate 0.1 kg/s
Length 10 m Inner outlet pressure 2 bar
Thin interface thickness 1 mm Outer inlet temperature 300 K
Outer tube thickness 1 mm Outer inlet mass flow rate 0.25 kg/s
Outer outlet pressure 2 bar

RESULTS
The results presented here correspond to the default application parameters. Water runs in
both tubes in counterflow with the conditions presented in Table 1. A turbulence model
is used for the computation. The temperature profiles are shown in Figure 2.

Figure 2: Temperature profiles in the inner tube (blue) and outer tube (green).

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The pressure profiles are shown in Figure 3.

Figure 3: Pressure profiles in the inner tube (blue) and outer tube (green).

The Reynolds numbers are around 7500 and 1500 for inner and outer tubes, respectively,
thus justifying the use of a turbulence model. The pressure drops are approximately 15 Pa
and 80 Pa.

Table 2 summarizes the remaining dimensioning quantities of the heat exchanger.

TABLE 2: DIMENSIONING QUANTITIES OF THE HEAT EXCHANGER FOR DEFAULT APPLICATION PARAMETERS.

QUANTITY VALUE

Exchanged power 14,730 W

Pressure drop, inner tube 12.92 Pa
Pressure drop, outer tube 72.8 Pa
Reynolds number, inner tube 7721
Reynolds number, outer tube 1433
Log mean temperature difference (LMTD) 34.06 K
Overall heat transfer coefficient 275.4 W/(m2·K)

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TABLE 2: DIMENSIONING QUANTITIES OF THE HEAT EXCHANGER FOR DEFAULT APPLICATION PARAMETERS.

QUANTITY VALUE

Effectiveness 0.5871
Number of transfer units (NTU) 1.034
The values should be completed with the mass and dimensions of the heat exchanger
presented in Table 3.
TABLE 3: MASS AND DIMENSIONS OF THE HEAT EXCHANGER FOR DEFAULT APPLICATION PARAMETERS.

QUANTITY VALUE

Inner fluid mass 19.23 kg

Outer fluid mass 30.47 kg
Overall fluid mass 49.7 kg
Inner tube volume 1.963·10-2 m3
Outer tube volume 3.063·10-2 m3
Overall volume 5.027·10-2 m3
Heat exchanged surface 1.571 m2
Compactness 31.25 m2/m3

Reference
1. H. Lee, Thermal Design, John Wiley & Sons, 2010.

Application Library path: Heat_Transfer_Module/Applications/

concentric_tube_heat_exchanger

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