Heat Exchangers

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 Types of Heat Exchangers
• Double-pipe simplest
type consists of two
concentric pipes of
different diameters.
– Parallel flow
– Counter flow
• Compact large heat
transfer surface area per
unit volume, with area
density  > 700m2/m3.
• Examples: car radiator ( =
1000m2/m3, human lung ( =
20,000m2/m3.
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• In compact heat exchanger, two
fluids move perpendicular to each
other called cross-flow.
• Cross-flow is further classified as
unmixed and mixed flow.
• Unmixed  the plate fins force
the fluid to flow through a
particular interfin spacing and
prevent it from moving in the
transverse direction.
• Mixed the fluid is free to move
in the transverse direction

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• Shell-and-tube heat exchanger The most common
type of heat exchanger in industrial applications.
• They contain a large number of tubes (sometimes
several hundred) packed in a shell with their axes
parallel to that of the shell.
• Heat transfer takes place as one fluid flows inside the
tubes while the other fluid flows outside the tubes
through the shell.
• They are relatively large size and weight.

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• Shell-and-tube heat
exchangers are further
classified according to the
number of shell and tube
passes involved.
• One-shell-pass and two-
tube-passes  all tubes
make one U-turn in the
shell.
• Two-shell-passes and four-
tube-passes  involves
two passes in the shell and
four passes in the tubes.
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• Plate and frame  consists of a series of plates with
corrugated flat flow passages.
• The hot and cold fluids flow in alternate passages.
• Well suited for liquid-to-liquid heat exchange
applications, provided that the fluids are at about the
same pressure.

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 The Overall Heat Transfer Coefficient
• A heat exchanger typically involves two flowing fluids
separated by a solid wall.
• Heat is transferred
• from hot fluid to wall by
convection
• through the wall by
conduction, and
• from the wall to the cold fluid
by convection.
• The thermal resistance network
• Two convection, and
• One conduction resistances
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• For a double-pipe heat exchanger, the thermal
resistance of the tube wall is
(1)

• Then the total thermal resistance becomes

(2)
• When one fluid flows inside a circular tube and the
other outside of it, we have

Ai   Di L Ao   Do L

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• In analysis, it is convenient to combine all the thermal
resistance in the path of heat flow from the hot fluid to
the cold fluid into a single resistance R.
(3)
• where U is the overall heat transfer coefficient.
• Cancelling the ∆T and the eqn. (3) reduces to
(4)
• When the wall thickness of the tube is small and the
thermal conductivity of the tube material is high
(Rwall =0), and the inner and outer surfaces of the tubes
are almost identical ( Ai  Ao  As), Eqn. (4) simplifies to
(5)
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 Fouling Factor
• The performance of the heat exchangers usually
deteriorates with time as a result of accumulation of
deposits on heat transfer surfaces.
• The layers of deposits represents additional resistance
to heat transfer and causes the rate of heat transfer to
decrease.
• The fouling factor Rf  the net
effect of these accumulations
on heat transfer.
• 2 types of fouling:
• Precipitation of deposits
• Corrosion
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• The overall heat transfer coefficient need to be modified
to account for the effects of fouling on both inner and
outer surfaces of the tube.
• For an unfinned double pipe heat exchanger, in can be
expressed as
(6)

• where Rf,i and Rfo are the

fouling factors for those
surfaces.

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 Analysis of Heat Exchangers
• Two tasks:
1. To select a heat exchanger that will achieve a
specified temperature change in a fluid stream
of known mass flow rate, or
2. To predict the outlet temperature of the hot and
cold fluid streams in a specified heat exchanger.
• Two methods used in the analysis:
– The log mean temperature difference (LMTD) -
best suited for task 1.
– The effectiveness – NTU (the number of transfer
units) - best suited for task 2.
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• Heat exchanger usually operates for a long time without
changing its operating conditions.
• Hence, its analysis can be greatly simplified with the
following assumptions:
– steady flow
– negligible kinetic and potential energy changes
– constant specific heat of a fluid
– negligible axial heat conduction
– the outer surface of the heat exchanger is perfectly
insulated.

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• Under these assumptions, the first law of
thermodynamics requires that the rate of heat transfer
from the hot fluid to be equal to the rate of heat
transfer to the cold one, i.e.
Q  m c T  T   C T  T 
c pc c ,out c ,in c (7)
c ,out c ,in

 h c ph Th ,in  Th ,out   Ch Th ,in  Th ,out 

Q  m (8)
• where Cc and Ch are heat capacity rate for both fluids.
• The rate of heat transfer in a heat exchanger can be
expressed as
(9)

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The Log Mean Temperature Difference
(LMTD) Method
• Consider the parallel-flow
double pipe heat exchanger.
• An energy balance on each fluid
in a differential section of the
heat exchanger can be
expressed as

(10)


(11) 15
• Taking their differences
(12)
• The rate of heat transfer in the differential section of the
heat exchanger can also be expressed as
(13)
• Substituting Eqn. (13) into (12) and rearranging gives
(14)

• Integrating from the inlet of heat exchanger to its outlet

(15)

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• Solving Eqn. (7) and (8) for mcCpc and mhCph and
substituting into Eqn. (15) after some rearrangement
(16)
• where
(17)
• is the log mean temperature difference.
• ∆T1 and ∆T1 are the temperature difference between
the two fluids at two ends (inlet and outlet).
• It makes no difference
which end of the heat
exchanger is designated as
the inlet or the outlet.
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 Counter-Flow Heat Exchangers
• The relation already given for
the log mean temperature
difference for parallel-flow heat
exchanger can be used for
counter-flow heat exchanger.

Tlm,CF  Tlm, PF
• A smaller surface area is
needed to achieve heat transfer
rate in a counter-flow heat
exchanger.
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 Multipass and Cross-Flow Heat
Exchangers: Use of a Correction Factor
• The log mean temperature difference relation
developed is limited to parallel- and counter-flow heat
exchangers only.
• To simplify the analysis for cross-flow and multipass
shell-and-tube heat exchangers, it is convenient to
express the log mean temperature difference relation
as
(18)
• where F is the correction factor, and ΔTlm,CF is the log
mean temperature difference for counter-flow case.
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• The correction factor F is less than unity for a cross-flow
and multipass shell-and-tube heat exchanger.
• That is F<=1. The limiting value of F = 1 corresponds to
the counter-flow heat exchanger.
• Thus, F is a measure of deviation of the ∆Tlm from the
corresponding values for the counter-flow case.
• The F for common cross-flow and shell-and-tube heat
exchanger configurations is given in the charts versus
two temperature ratios P and R defined as

(19) (20)
• where the subscripts 1 and 2 represents the inlet and
outlet, respectively, and T and t represents the shell-
and tube-side temperatures. 20
F charts for common shell-and-tube and cross-
flow heat exchangers

Shell-and-tube heat exchanger Cross-flow heat exchanger

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 Heat Exchanger Selection Procedure
using LMTD Method
• With the LMTD method, the task is to select a heat exchanger
that will meet the prescribed heat transfer requirements. The
procedure to be followed by the selection procedure is:
1. Select the type of heat exchanger suitable for the
application.
2. Determine any unknown inlet or outlet temperature and the
heat transfer rate using an energy balance.
3. Calculate the log mean temperature difference ∆Tm and the
correction factor F, if necessary.
4. Obtain the value of the overall heat transfer coefficient U.
5. Calculate the heat transfer surface area As.
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 The Effectiveness-NTU Method
• This method is based on a dimensionless parameter called
the heat transfer effectiveness , defined as
(19)

• The actual heat transfer rate in a heat exchanger

(20)
• The maximum temperature difference
(21)
• The maximum possible heat transfer rate in a heat
exchanger is
(22)
• where Cmin is the smaller of Ch and Cc. 23
• Determination of Q max requires the availability of the
inlet temperature of the hot and cold fluids and their
mass flow rates.
• Once the effectiveness of the heat exchanger is known,
the actual heat transfer rate can be determined from
(23)
• where
Q Cc Tc ,out  Tc ,in  Tc ,out  Tc ,in
If Cc  Cmin     
Qmax Cc Th,in  Tc ,in  Th,in  Tc ,in

If Q Ch Th,in  Th,out  Th,in  Th,out

Ch  Cmin    
Qmax Ch Th,in  Tc ,in  Th,in  Tc ,in

• Therefore the  enable us to determine the Q without

knowing the outlet temperatures of the fluids. 24
• The effectiveness of a heat exchanger depends on
the geometry of the heat exchanger as well as the
flow arrangement.
• For a double-pipe parallel-flow heat exchanger, Eqn.
(15) can be rearranged as
(24)

• Also, solving Eqn. (20) for Th, out gives

(25)
• Substituting Eqn. (25) into (24) after adding and
subtracting Tc, in simplifies to
(26)
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• Manipulate the definition of effectiveness to obtain
Q Cc Tc ,out  Tc ,in  Tc ,out  Tc ,in Cmin
    
Qmax Cmin Th ,in  Tc ,in  Th ,in  Tc ,in Cc
• Substituting this result into Eqn. (26) and solving for
 gives
(27)

• Taking either Cc or Ch to be Cmin, the relation becomes

(28)

• Cmin is the smaller heat capacity, and Cmax is larger

one. 26
• Effectiveness relations of heat exchangers typically
involve dimensionless group UAs/Cmin, called the
number of transfer units NTU.
(29)

• For specified values of U and Cmin, NTU is a measure

of the heat transfer surface area As, thus, the larger
the NTU, the larger the heat exchanger.
• In heat exchanger analysis, it is convenient to define
a capacity ratio c.
(30)
• The effectiveness of a heat exchanger is a function of
the NTU and the capacity ratio c.
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28
Effectiveness for Heat Exchangers

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30
 Selection of Heat Exchangers
• The proper selection of heat exchangers depends on
several factors:
– Heat transfer rate
– Cost (procurement, operation and maintenance)
– Pumping power
– Size and Weight
– Type
– Materials
– Other Considerations (leak-tight, safety and
reliability, quietness)
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