Air Cooler Piping Design (With PDF)

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Anup Kumar Dey August 10, 2019

Air Cooled Heat Exchangers are used in the plants to utilize the atmospheric air to
cool the hydrocarbon, process, and utility fluids by means of direct heat transfer
from the fluid (within the tube) to be cooled by air circulated by means of
forced/induced draft fan.

In Order to increase the heat transfer area, fins are also attached periphery of tubes.
These heat exchangers are generally designed, inspected, and tested as per EN-ISO
13706.

The purpose of this article is to provide guidelines for the Piping Design/Layout connected
to Air Cooled Heat Exchanger (Fig. 1) or Air Fin Fan Coolers. Click here to have a brief
idea of Air Cooled Heat Exchangers.

Types of Air Cooled Heat Exchangers / Air Cooler Types

There are three types of Air cooled heat exchangers

Forced Draft: The bundle is located on the discharge side of the fan. The fan is
below the finned tube bundle.
Induced draft: The tube bundle is located on the suction side of the fan, that is, the
fan is above the tube bundle and sucks the air from the bottom.
Natural Draft (Used only for applications like transformer Oil Cooling)

Depending on the position of the inlet and outlet nozzle air coolers, are of the following
types:

EVEN PASS ARRANGEMENT: Inlet nozzle of the air cooler is at the top side of the
header and the outlet nozzle is on the same side but at bottom of that header.
ODD PASS ARRANGEMENT: Inlet is at the top of the header and the outlet nozzle
of the air cooler is at the opposite header side but at bottom of the header.
SPLIT HEADER TYPE: When the differential temperature between inlet and outlet
nozzles exceeds 111 degrees Celsius then a split header arrangement is used.

Different Types of Construction Air-cooled Heat Exchangers

Single Pass Cooler
Multipass Cooler
U Tube Cooler

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 Fig. 1: A typical Air Cooled Heat Exchanger

Air Cooler Equipment Layout Design

As this equipment needs a good flow of air for the purpose of better cooling, the location
of the air fin fan cooler has to be such that it is not directly crowded or surrounded by
other structures or equipment which blocks the path of plenty of airflows.

This static equipment is generally installed on the top of the pipe rack or other structure
so that there is no difficulty or obstruction which can reduce proper airflow. Again by
installing the air-cooled heat exchangers on top of the rack, huge space on the ground
can be saved and the plant will become more compact.

Based on the width of the pipe rack or structure, normally the tube bundle length is fixed.
Thus supporting legs of the air cooler bundle comes on the main civil or structural beams,
which simplifies the pipe rack design. At the same time, it is desirable to adjust the pipe
rack or the structure’s longitudinal column spacing based on the width of the air cooler
bundle such that bundle legs straight away sit on top of the columns. Sometimes, This
may not be possible to adjust as each tube bundle might have varied widths depending
on service conditions, and adjusting pipe rack columns for different widths may not be
feasible from a structural design and detailing point of view.

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Walkways between two sets of air coolers are desired, which means if one cooler
consists of ten bundles and the other of five bundles then walkways have to be provided
in between, after the 10th bundle and before of next five bundles. This dimension of this

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walkway has to be a minimum of 1.5 to 2.0 m wide as this will be the only place at such
elevation to keep tools and parts during maintenance.

The air Fin Fan coolers on the pipe rack shall be located in such a way that the bundles
are accessible with a crane at least from one side.

Air Fin Fan coolers must have access platforms mounted on the air-cooled heat
exchanger structure at least on the operating side. An all-around platform is a better
provision for maintenance.

Air Fin coolers have motors hanging at the bottom of the coolers. Hence, It is required to
give access platforms underneath the cooler for maintenance of the motors. The localized
platform can also be used.

A regular staircase needs to be provided for accessing the air fin cooler platforms or
motor maintenance platforms.

Normally Inlet piping of air cooler requires a symmetrical distribution and loops. The
piping needs to be supported so either air cooler structural columns or pipe rack structure
columns need to be extended upwards to properly support the piping. Such data has to
be given at a very early stage in the project as this needs to be considered during pipe
rack design.

If the Air cooler is grade mounted then the area beneath the air cooler shall be paved to
avoid the flow of sand/ dust on tubes.

Fig. 2: Typical Layout of Air Cooled Heat Exchanger Piping

For two fans per bay, the height of the underside of the fan inlet bell (on forced draft units)
or of the underside of the bundle (on induced draft units) shall be at least 2 m or one fan
diameter (whichever is the greater) above the ground level, elevated floor or pipe bridge.
For three or more fans per bay, the height of the underside of the bundle shall be agreed
upon with the Principal.

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Air Cooler Piping Design Considerations
Air coolers are normally used when a large quantity of vapor is required for condensation
or a huge quantity of gas or liquid needs to be cooled. Such an application is common in
the case of column overhead vapor condensation. The major points which need to be
taken care of while pipe routing or laying air fin cooler connected piping (Refer Fig. 2, Fig.
3, Fig. 4, and Fig. 5) are as follows:

From the center line of the complete air cooler assembly, the piping distribution to the air
cooler should be symmetrical.

If the supply line has very low pressure, care needs to be taken to keep no. of bends or
elbows to a minimum. But functionality and stress requirements have to be considered.
Line sizing during the distribution has to be proper if required the same has to be checked
with the process or operations department.

Fig. 3: Typical Air Cooler Inlet Piping Arrangements

The length of all branch pipes for all tube bundles from its header has to be more or less
similar to keep pressure drop the same and this will ensure equal distribution of fluids to
all bundles.

Normally inlet side header box is considered fixed for piping connection and the other
header is floating. But the bundle can move in the transverse direction of tubes = 6 mm or
if it is fixed at one edge then it can move by 13 mm in the other direction (as per API 661).

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This displacement is required for piping header expansion compensation. However the
same has to be checked with the air cooler vendor as they may provide other
displacement provisions.

Types of Pipes | Classification of ...

Types of Pipes | Classification of Pipes (PDF)

Fig. 4: Air Cooler Outlet Piping Arrangements

The movement of tube bundles in a transverse direction could occur only when the piping
connected to equipment nozzles generates enough force to overcome the friction at the
bundle supports that is why it is a common practice to provide SS or PTFE plate at the
support point (but this must be consulted with the vendor) to ease the movement.

The loads due to thermal expansion, pipe, insulation & fluid weight, and an inside
pressure of piping created on the bundle nozzle shall be less than the limits given by EN-
ISO 13706. Sometimes vendor allows a more allowable load (normally 2 times the code
given allowable nozzle loads). So it is required to discuss the same with the vendor at the
initial stage of the project. The stress analysis of air cooler-connected piping systems is
covered here.

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Fig. 5: Typical Layout of Air Cooler Inlet and outlet Piping

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