ChE 332 Washington State University

Fluid Mechanics and Heat Transfer Voiland School of Chemical Engineering

and Bioengineering
Spring, 2011 Richard L. Zollars

Problem 11.3, McCabe, Smith and Harriott

Aniline is to be cooled from 200 to 150ºF in a double-pipe heat exchanger having a total outside
area of 70 ft2. For cooling, a stream of toluene amounts to 8,600 lb/h at a temperature of 100ºF is
available. The exchanger consists of 1 ¼-in Schedule 40 pipe in 2-in Schedule 40 pipe. The
aniline flow rate is 10,000 lb/h. (a) If flow is countercurrent, what are the toluene outlet
temperature, the LMTD, and the overall heat-transfer coefficient? (b) What are they if the flow is
parallel? c) What differences are there in the answers between parts a) and b)? Why do these
differences arise? d) If the overall heat transfer coefficient was constant between counter flow
and parallel flow which geometry would require a larger heat transfer area? Why?

SOLUTION

(a) To cool the aniline from 200 to 150ºF requires the following amount of heat transfer

 BTU 
q aniline  m C p T  10,000
lbm
 0.54
  
 150  F  200  F   2.70  10 5

lbm  F 

BTU
h  h

where the heat capacity of aniline was obtained from Appendix 15 using the average
temperature of the aniline (150ºF). The negative sign indicates that the heat is being
transferred out of the aniline. This same amount of heat must be transferred to the toluene so

 BTU 
qtoluene  2.70  10 5
BTU lb
 m C p T  8,600 m  0.44
 

 Ttol , out  100  F 
h h  lbm F 
Ttol , out  171 F

The specific heat used above was at a temperature of 125ºF. This is close enough to the
average temperature of the toluene (135.5ºF) that we do not need to go through another
iteration. Thus the log-mean temperature difference would be

T2  T1 Taniline , in  Ttol , out   Taniline , out  Ttol , in  200  171  150  100
LMTD     38.6  F
 T2   Taniline , in  Ttol , out    200  171 
ln   ln   ln  

 1
T  T
 aniline , out  T 
tol , in 
  150  100  

The overall heat transfer coefficient then is

 q  U o Ao TL
BTU
2.70  10 5
h
 
 U o 70 ft 2 38.6  F 
BTU `
U o  100. 2
ft  h  F

(b) If the flow is parallel the same inlet and outlet temperatures still hold. Now, however, the
double pipe heat exchanger would look like the following.

Ttoluene, in = 100ºF Ttoluene, in = 171ºF

Taniline, in = 150ºF
Taniline, in = 200ºF

Note that the cold fluid (toluene) now has an exit temperature higher than the hot fluid
(aniline). This is not possible so it is not possible to compute a LMTD or an overall heat
transfer coefficient.

(c) The inlet and outlet temperatures for both the hot and cold streams do not change. The
difference lies in the LMTD and Uo values. The outlet temperature of the toluene was
calculated by equating the amount of heat that had to be removed from the aniline with the
amount of heat that needed to be transferred to the toluene. In the case of counterflow this
gave temperature approaches of 29ºF at the hot fluid inlet side and 50ºF at the hot fluid outlet
side. Both of these are possible. Because of the temperature rise in the cold fluid needed to
cool the aniline the approaches for parallel flow are 100ºF and -21ºF. This latter value is not
physically possible.

(d) Typically the required area for parallel flow would be larger because the LMTD is smaller
for parallel flow than it is for counterflow.