Table of Contents

1. Theoretical Background ............................................................................................................... 1

2. Experimental Setup ........................................................................................................................ 2
2.1 Setup.............................................................................................................................................. 2
2.2 Procedure .................................................................................................................................... 3
3. Results ................................................................................................................................................. 4
3.1 Calculation of energy in system .......................................................................................... 4
3.3 Table of Results ......................................................................................................................... 6
4. Discussion .......................................................................................................................................... 7
4.1 Temperature Profiles ............................................................................................................. 7
4.2 Errors ............................................................................................................................................ 8
4.3 Improvements ........................................................................................................................... 9
5. Literature ........................................................................................................................................... 9
6. Appendix...........................................................................................................................................10
6.1 Experimental Results ............................................................................................................10
1. Theoretical Background

Transferring heat is one of the key technical processes in the industry nowadays.
For that purpose, a heat exchanger is used in virtually every technical domain i.e.
power engineering. A heat exchangers main purpose is to transfer heat energy.
They transfer energy from a mass flow of higher energy to lower energy.
In accordance to the first law of thermodynamics (conservation of energy), heat
energy spontaneously flows from hotter matter to colder matter. Scientifically,
heat is a process variable. Applying heat to a body increases its internal energy and
hence the temperature. The temperature difference between two different bodies
is the driving force of heat transfer. As the temperature difference increases, the
energy transferred per unit time increases as well. This will stop once both bodies
are of the same temperature, i.e. they are in thermal equilibrium.
A heat exchanger can be characterised by it flow geometry. For an example, there
are the parallel-flow, counter-flow and cross-flow heat exchangers. A different
classification could be done by the state of matter the mass flows are in, i.e. liquid-
liquid, gaseous-liquid and gaseous-gaseous. There are also three very important
designs, namely the double pipe heat exchanger, shell and tube heat exchanger and
the plate heat exchanger.
A few examples of heat exchangers used in our daily life are the air conditioning
unit, the refrigerator and the water heater. In the experiment, a parallel-piped heat
exchanger is used. The mass flows are of gaseous and liquid states.
Hot fluid flows through the inner tube and cold air flows through the outer tube.
The difference between the amount of heat transferred between the parallel-flow
and counter-flow heat exchanger is examined. For the counter-flow heat
exchanger, the exit temperature of the colder fluid can become colder than the
hotter fluid.

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2. Experimental Setup

2.1 Setup

The double pipe heat exchangers total length is 14 meters. The cross section of
inner and outer tubes is 121mm and 181mm, respectively. In the experiment,
the heat exchanger is bended and be divided into 10 sections. Each of the said
sections are 1.4m. The sections are connected with elbow pipes. The inner radius
of said pipes are 13mm. There are ten temperature sensors that record
temperature at 10 different points of the pipes. The air flow is adjusted by turning
a knob. All measuring points can be seen in the following figure. The mass flow
controller has a potentiometer and a display for setting a target value and reading
the actual value of the flow. The pump of the heated circulating bath constantly
consumes 80 W, the consumption of the heater inside is measured and displayed.
All temperature sensors are of Pt1000 type. The temperature dependent
resistance transform the temperature read to a voltage signal (0-10V), by
converting the temperature from analog to digital (Labjack) and is finally read by a
computer. The signal is processed and displayed in LabView.

Fig 2.1. The pipes from the heat exchanger (Source: Script)

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2.2 Procedure

1. Turn on the computer and make sure the corresponding software is running on
the double-pipe heat exchanger.

2. Release the valve of the input water in the heat exchanger. Allow time for the
water to travel the pipe and adjust the water flow at 1,9 L/min.

3. Release the air (gate) valve. Adjust the air valve to make sure that the airflow is
75% and the heat exchanger is set to parallel flow.

4. Record every temperature from ten different measuring point.

5. Set the heat exchanger to counter flow and take the readings again.

6. Change the value of air flow from 75% to 35%. Follow the step 1 to 4 in for both
parallel and counter flow.

7. Change the value of water flow from 1,9 L/min to 1,2L/min and using the same
steps, measure the data when air flow is at 75% and 35%.

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3. Results

3.1 Calculation of energy in system

In order to obtain correct results in our experiment, all the units given in the script
must be converted to SI units.
From the script, the maximum flow rate of air is 200 L/min, the specific heat
capacity of water cw is 4181J/kgK and the specific heat capacity of air ca is
1006J/KgK.
Converting va,max to SI Units,
200 1 1
v , = = 3.33 10 /
60 1000

Flow rate of air 1 (75%), v , = , 0.75 = 3.33 0.75 = 2.5

10 /

Flow rate of air 2 (35%), v , = , 0.35 = 3.33 0.35 = 1.167

10 /
.
Flow rate of water 1, v , = = 3.167 10 /
.
Flow rate of water 2, v , = = 2 10 /

Mass flow rate of water 1, m , = 3.167 10 / 1000 / = 3.6167

10 /
Mass flow rate of water 2, m , = 2 10 / 1000 / = 2 10 /
Mass flow rate of air 1, m , = 2.5 10 / 1.3 / = 3.25 10 /
Mass flow rate of air 2, m , = 1.167 10 / 1.3 / = 1.5171
10 /
Using the temperature changes found between the pipes in the experiment and the
specific heat capacities of water and air, the heat loss (power) can be calculated.
The first set of data in our experiment will serve as examples of the calculations.
Q , = , , ( ) ,( )
10 4181
= 3.6167 (48.2 54) = 877.04

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Q , = , ,( ) , ( )
10 1006
= 3.25 (21.8 48.6) = 87.62

Q , = , + , = (87.62 877.04) = 789.42

Q , = , + = 87.62 + 48.57 = 136.19

, = , Q , = 131.19 789.42 = 658.23

The formula E = is used to calculate kinetic energy, while C = .

Taking first water flow as example,

3.167 10
C = = 0.28 /
(0.006)
10 1 0.28
E = 3.6167 = 1.418 10
2
From the script, the efficiency of a heat exchanger is given as
| |
=
| |
And for the first set of data,
|87.62|
= = 0.0999
|877.04|
For parallel flow,
4000 (48.2 54)
= 1+ = 1+ 0.0999
, 1006 (48.6 21.8)
= 0.188
For counter flow,
=
This will be calculated in the table.

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 3.3 Table of Results

These are the reference values calculated.

va,max 0.00333 [m3/s]

cw 4181 [J/kgK]
ca 1006 [J/kgK]
va,1 0.0025 [m3/s]
va,2 0.00167 [m3/s]
vw,1 0.00003167 [m3/s]
vw,2 0.00002 [m3/s]
mw,1 0.036167 [kg/s]
mw,2 0.02 [kg/s]
ma,1 0.00325 [kg/s]
ma,2 0.0015171 [kg/s]

Temperature heated circulating bath

50C
Waterflow 1 Waterflow 2
1,9 L/min 1,2 L/min
Airflow 1 Airflow 2 Airflow 1 Airflow 2
75% 35% 75% 35%
parallel counter parallel counter parallel counter parallel counter
Qw [W] -877.043 -877.043 -831.678 -740.950 -551.892 -760.942 -560.254 -660.598
- -
-Qa [W] -87.6226 92.52685 27.776887 32.050255 -70.29425 77.48715 25.487583 29.760951
Qloss,heat
[W] 789.420 969.569 803.901 773.000 481.598 838.429 534.766 690.359
Qloss,total
[W] 136.1926 -43.9569 76.3469 16.5197 118.8643 -28.9172 74.0576 18.8090
Qloss,bath -
[W] -653.2273 1013.5262 -727.5545 -756.4802 -362.7335 -867.3463 -460.7088 -671.5499
0.0999069 0.1054987 0.0333986 0.0432556 0.1273696 0.1018306 0.0454929 0.0450515
0.1897678 0.1054987 0.0753457 0.0432556 0.2898696 0.1018306 0.1213479 0.0450515

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 Water flow 1 Water flow 2
Cw
[m/s] 0.280166313 0.176928521
Ek [J] 0.001419431 0.000313037
Air flow 1 Air flow 2
Ca
[m/s] 9.829362271 6.566013997
Ek [J] 0.157001589 0.032703017

4. Discussion

4.1 Temperature Profiles

Below are the obtained temperature profiles for all 8 cases for the heat exchanger:

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Here, we can see for 3 cases counter flow, the exit temperature of water are lower
than the exit temperature of air.
By analyzing the data in the table of values, we can determine that the efficiency of
the counter flow heat exchanger is better than the parallel flow.
By comparing the parallel and counter flow values in first
experiment, the exit temperature of the air (49.2C as
compared to 48.6) in the counter flow was higher than the
parallel flow.

4.2 Errors
1. From the table of values, it can be observed that one of the temperature
sensors (9) measuring the air temperature were not accurate enough as a
sudden increase in temperature was recorded and then sudden drop when
the air was exchanging heat.

2. Any sudden movement of the pipes could change the values of the mass
flow and should be avoided.

3. The flow meter measuring the flow rate of water through the pipe was
defective as the value of the flow was fluctuating.

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4.3 Improvements

1. The thickness of the water pipe could have been reduced so that heat
exchanged by conduction is reduced and does not affect our experiment.

2. The material of the pipe tube could be changed to a one with a better
conduction factor.

3. Check error in equipment before starting experiment.

4. Avoid touching or moving the air or water tubes.

5. Literature

Script: Thermodynamics 1 Practical - Heat Exchanger, University Duisburg-Essen

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6. Appendix

6.1 Experimental Results

Temperature heated circulating bath

50C
Waterflow 1 Waterflow 2
1,9 L/min 1,2 L/min
Airflow 1 Airflow 2 Airflow 1 Airflow 2
75% 35% 75% 35%
Port parallel counter parallel counter parallel counter parallel counter
1 54.00 52.20 51.50 50.20 48.50 47.60 46.80 46.10
2 54.50 53.30 51.90 51.30 48.30 48.80 47.40 47.50
3 54.20 52.90 51.70 51.00 48.10 48.40 47.00 46.90
4 54.10 52.80 51.60 50.90 48.20 47.90 46.90 46.50
5 48.20 46.40 46.00 45.30 41.90 38.50 40.10 38.20
6 21.80 49.20 25.20 44.70 22.40 45.00 23.60 42.10
7 51.90 50.70 49.00 48.10 46.50 46.30 44.70 44.20
8 51.50 50.40 48.60 47.70 46.40 45.90 44.40 43.70
9 52.50 51.00 49.20 48.60 47.00 46.10 44.70 44.30
10 48.60 20.90 43.40 23.70 43.90 21.30 40.30 22.60
Pel [W] 48.57 48.57 48.57 48.57 48.57 48.57 48.57 48.57

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