Introduction to Heat Exchangers

The basics of heat transfer

What are exchangers for?
Main heat exchanger types
 Lecture series
Introduction to heat
exchangers Q = U A T
Selection of the best
type for a given
application
Selection of right
shell and tube
Design of shell and
tube
 Contents
Why we need heat exchangers
The basics of their design
Some general features of exchangers
Different types of exchanger
 What are heat exchangers for?
To get fluid streams to the right temperature
for the next process
reactions often require feeds at high temp.
To condense vapours
To evaporate liquids
To recover heat to use elsewhere
To reject low-grade heat
To drive a power cycle
Example of an exchanger

Bundle for shell-and-tube exchanger

Feed-effluent exchanger

Feed-effluent
Exothermic reaction
exchanger

Heat recovery
 Distillation

Reflux condenser

Top product
Feed Column

Reboiler

Bottom product
 Power cycle

Steam turbine

Boiler Condenser
Feedwater
heater
 Q = U A T
yw

Thot

Tcold

We have thermal resistances in series

1 1 yw 1
rcold rhot
U cold w hot
 Local and mean values
Overall means from the hot side to the
cold side including all resistances
However it is still at a particular point in the
exchanger: i.e. it is local
Hence you can have a local, overall
coefficient
LOCALLY q UT

FOR WHOLE EXCHANGER

Q T U m AT Tm
Integrating local over the exchanger
area
Local equation

dQ
dQ
Rearranging q
dA
UT

dQ
dA
UdA
T

dQ
and integrating Q T A UdA

T T

Total area AT
 Definitions of mean values
From previous slides
Q T
U m AT
Tm

dQ
Q T A UdA
Comparing the two sides T T

1 1 dQ

Tm Q T Q T Um
1
UdA
AT AT
Special case where Ts are linear with Q
Eqn. integrates to
give log. mean
temperature

Temperature
difference - LMTD Ta

Ta Tb Q
Tm TLM Tb
ln( Ta / Tb )
 Multipass exchangers
T1
For single-phase duties, T2

Temp.
theoretical correction t2
factors, FT, have been
t1
derived
FT values are less than 1 Q

Do not design for FT less

than 0.8

Tm FT TLM
Typical FT correction factor curves

1.0
FT
R=10.0 R=0.1

0.5
0.0 P 1.0

t2 t1 T1 T2 T,t = Shell / tube

P ;R side
T1 t1 t2 t1

1, 2 = inlet / outlet
 Thermal effectiveness
Stream temperature rise divided by the
theoretically maximum possible
temperature rise
T1,in T1,out

T1,in T2 ,in

T1,in T1,out

T2,out T2,in
 Compactness
Can be measured by the heat-transfer area
per unit volume or by channel size
Conventional exchangers (shell and tube)
have channel size of 10 to 30 mm giving
about 100m2/m3
Plate-type exchangers have typically 5mm
channel size with more than 200m2/m3
More compact types available
 Main categories of exchanger
Heat exchangers

Recuperators Regenerators

Wall separating streams Direct contact

Most heat exchangers have two streams, hot

and cold, but some have more than two
 Recuperators/regenerators

Recuperative
Has separate flow paths for each
fluid which flow simultaneously
through the exchanger
transferring heat between the
streams
Regenerative
Has a single flow path which the hot
and cold fluids alternately pass
through.
 Double Pipe
Simplest type has one tube inside another - inner
tube may have longitudinal fins on the outside

However, most have a

number of tubes in the outer
tube - can have very many tubes
thus becoming a shell-and-tube
 Shell and Tube
Typical shell and tube exchanger as used in the
process industry
Shell-side flow
Complete shell-and-tube
 Plate and frame
Plates hung vertically and
clamped in a press or frame.
Gaskets direct the streams
between alternate plates and
prevent external leakage
Plates made of stainless steel or
higher quality material
Plates corrugated to give points
of support and increase heat
transfer
 Plate types

Corrugations on plate
improve heart transfer
give rigidity

Many points of
contact and a
tortuous flow path

Chevron Washboard
 Flow Arrangement within a PHE
Gaskets
arranged for
each stream to
flow between
alternate plates

Alternate plates (often same plate types inverted)

 Air-cooled exchanger
Air blown across finned tubes (forced
draught type)
Can suck air across (induced draught)

Finned tubes
ACHE bundle
 Plate-fin exchanger

Made up of flat plates (parting sheets) and

corrugated sheets which form fins
Brazed by heating in vacuum furnace
Can have many streams
7 or more streams are typical
 Cooling Towers
Large shell with packing at the bottom over
which water is sprayed
Cooling by air flow and evaporation
Air flow driven by forced or natural
convection
Need to continuously make up the cooling
water lost by evaporation
 Used for batch Agitated Vessel
heating or cooling
of fluids
An agitator and
baffles promote
mixing
A range of agitators
are used
Often used for
batch chemical
reaction
 Proprietary types
Types described so far are generic types
These can be made by any company with
necessary skills (no real patent protection)
There are now many special, proprietary
exchangers made by one company or a
small number of companies under licence
One example is the printed circuit
exchanger by Heatric
 Printed circuit heat exchanger
Plates are etched to
give flow channels
Stacked to form
exchanger block
Block diffusion welded
under high pressure
and temperature
Bond formed is as
strong as the metal
itself
 Distribution of types
in terms of market value in Europe

Waste Heat
Boilers Other Heat
Cooling Towers Recovery
5%
9% 10%

Air Coolers
10%
Other Proprietary
2%

Other Plate
4%

Plate & Frame Shell & Tube

13% 42%

Other Tubular
5%