HEAT EXCHANGER DESIGN

METHODOLOGY

o Process and design specifications

o Thermal and hydraulic design
o Mechanical design
o Manufacturing considerations and cost
o Optimization
 Process and Design Specifications
o Process or design specifications include all
necessary information to design and optimize an
exchanger for a specific application.
o It includes problem specifications for operating
conditions, exchanger type, flow arrangement,
materials, and design/manufacturing/operation
considerations.
o In addition, the heat exchanger design engineer
provides necessary and missing information on
the minimum input specifications required.
 Problem Specifications
o The design basis would require the
specification of operating conditions and the
environment in which the heat exchanger is
going to be operated.
o These include fluid mass flow rates (including
fluid types and their thermophysical
properties), inlet temperatures and pressures
of both fluids.
 Exchanger Specifications
o Based on the problem specifications and the design
engineer’s experience, the exchanger construction type
and flow arrangement are first selected. Selection of the
construction type depends
 On the fluids (gas, liquid, or condensing/evaporating) used
on each side of a two-fluid exchanger
 Operating pressures, temperatures, fouling and cleanability,
fluids and material compatibility corrosiveness of the fluids
 How much leakage is permissible from one fluid to the
other fluid
 Available heat exchanger manufacturing technology and
cost.
 Exchanger Specifications
• Next, the core or surface geometry and
material are selected.
• The core geometry (such as shell type,
number of passes, baffle geometry, etc.) is
selected for a shell-and-tube exchanger
• The surface geometry is chosen for a plate,
extended surface, or regenerative heat
exchanger.
 Example 1
A hydrocarbon gas has to be cooled in a chemical plant. A
stream of a liquid hydrocarbon is available to be used as a
coolant. The gas stream has to change its temperature from
255 C to 30C. The liquid stream has the inlet temperature of
25C. Both fluids are at relatively high pressures (i.e., the
respective pressures are of an order of magnitude 10 MPa). Is
it possible, using this incomplete set of process data, to offer a
selection of a feasible heat exchanger type that will be
capable of performing the task? Consider the following heat
exchanger types: shell-and-tube, double-pipe, welded plate,
gasketed plate, lamella, and spiral plate heat exchanger.
 Thermal and Hydraulic Design
• Heat exchanger thermal/hydraulic design
procedures involve exchanger rating and/or
exchanger sizing.
• Only two important relationships constitute
the entire thermal design procedure. These
are:
Enthalpy rate equations

Heat transfer rate equation

 Thermal Design: Rating Problem (1)
o Determination of heat transfer and pressure
drop performance of either an existing
exchanger or an already sized exchanger is
referred to as a rating problem.
o Inputs to the rating problem are the heat
exchanger construction, flow arrangement
and overall dimensions, heat transfer and
pressure drop characteristics, fluid flow rates,
inlet temperatures, and fouling factors.
 Thermal Design: Rating Problem (2)
• The fluid outlet temperatures, total heat
transfer rate, and pressure drops on each side
of the exchanger are then determined in the
rating problem.
• The rating problem is also sometimes referred
to as the performance or simulation problem.
 Thermal Design: Sizing
• In a broad sense, the design of a new heat
exchanger means
the determination/selection of an exchanger
construction type, flow arrangement
tube/plate and fin material,
the physical size of an exchanger to meet the
specified heat transfer and pressure drops
within all specified constraints.
 Example 2
Consider a heat exchanger as a black box with
two streams entering and subsequently
leaving the exchanger without being mixed.
How many variables of the seven
(thermodynamics) should minimally be known
to determine all design variables involved?
Example 2: Solution
 Example 3
• Using the conclusion from example 2,
determine how many different problems of
sizing a heat exchanger (UA must be
unknown) can be defined if the set of
variables includes only the seven mentioned
variables
Heat Exchanger Sizing Problem Types
 Example 4
• Using the procedure of example 3, how many
different problems of rating a heat exchanger
(UA known) can be defined?
 Example 5
Problem
 Effectiveness – NTU Method
The effectiveness-NTU method, the heat transfer rate
from the hot fluid to the cold fluid in the exchanger is
expressed as
 Hypothetical Heat Exchanger

A ‘‘perfect’’ counterflow heat exchanger of

infinite surface area and zero flow leakages
from one fluid to the other fluid, operating
with fluid flow rates and fluid inlet
temperatures the same as those of the actual
heat exchanger
Temperature distributions in a counterflow
exchanger of infinite surface area
 Effectiveness

NTU may also be interpreted as the relative

magnitude of the heat transfer rate compared to the
rate of enthalpy change of the smaller heat capacity
rate fluid
NUMBER OF TRANSFER UNIT
Effectiveness as a Function of Heat
Capacity Rate Ratio and NTU

Cf represents the counterflow exchanger

Effectiveness as a Function of Heat
Capacity Rate Ratio and NTU
Temperature Effectiveness for the Hot
Fluid
The temperature effectiveness of the hot fluid
is defined as a ratio of the temperature drop
of the hot fluid to the fluid inlet temperature
difference:
Temperature Effectiveness for the Cold
Fluid
The temperature effectiveness of the cold fluid
is defined as a ratio of the temperature rise of
the cold fluid to the fluid inlet temperature
difference:
 Example 6
Problem
In an oil-to-water heat exchanger, the oil enters the
exchanger at 100C with a heat capacity rate of 3700
W/K. Water is available at 15 C and 0.6 kg/s.
Determine the exit temperatures in (a) counterflow,
and (b) parallelflow arrangements for U =500 W/m2.K
and surface area of 10 m2. Consider cp=1.88 and 4.19
J/g.K for oil and water, respectively.
Example 6: Solution for Counter flow
Example 6: Solution for Parallel flow
Effect of Increasing One Independent Variable at
a Time on the Remaining Heat Exchanger
Variables
 Example 7
One important design point for a radiator design is to cool
the engine at 50 km/h on a road. Your responsibility as a
design engineer is to make sure that the coolant (50%
water–50% glycol) at the radiator inlet (top tank) does not
exceed 120 C temperature at 100 kPa gauge radiator cap
pressure. Determine the radiator top tank temperature for
the following conditions: engine heat rejection rate q = 35
kW, airflow rate 0.75 kg/s, air inlet temperature 53 C, and
water–glycol flow rate 1.4 kg/s. For this radiator, UA = 1180
W/K. The specific heats for the air and the water–glycol
mixture are 1009 and 3664 J/kg.K respectively. What will be
the outlet temperature of the water–glycol mixture?
Consider the radiator with both fluids unmixed.
 Example 8
In a 1–2 shell-and-tube exchanger, water
enters the shell at 21 C at a rate of 1.4 kg/s.
Engine oil flows through the tubes at a rate of
1.0 kg/s. The inlet and outlet temperatures of
the oil are 150C and 90C, respectively.
Determine the surface area of the exchanger
by effectiveness-NTU methods if U =225 W/ m
2.K. The specific heats of water and oil are
4.19 and 1.67 J/g .K respectively.
 THE P-NTU METHOD

Where P is the temperature effectiveness for fluid

1 or 2, depending on the subscript 1 or 2
 Temperature Effectiveness P

The values of P 1 and P 2 will always be less than or

equal to
 Number of Transfer Units, NTU

NTU 1 or NTU 2 is always less than or equal to NTU

Heat Capacity Rate Ratio R
Example 8
Example 8
Example 8
Example 8
Example 8
Example 8
Example 8
Example 8
Find Area for Each Heat Exchanger
 Example 9
In a 1–2 shell-and-tube exchanger, water
enters the shell at 218C at a rate of 1.4 kg/s.
Engine oil flows through the tubes at a rate of
1.0 kg/s. The inlet and outlet temperatures of
the oil are 150C and 90C, respectively.
Determine the surface area of the exchanger
by both the MTD and Effectiveness-NTU
methods if U = 225W/m2.K. The specific heats
of water and oil are 4.19 and 1.67 J/g K
respectively.
Example 9 (cont…)
Example 9: Effectiveness-NTU Method
The mean temperature difference
method

For counter flow

For a parallel flow exchanger

Mean temperature difference (MTD)
F value for Different Flow Arrangements
For Counter flow and parallel flow heat exchanger: F=1

For 1-2 Shell and Tube heat exchanger:

Example 9 (cont…): LMTD
Example 9 (cont…): LMTD
Example 9 (cont…) : LMTD
Example 9 (cont…) : LMTD & MTD

MTD method
 Example 10
Design a condenser in a distillation unit to operate at optimum
total annual cost. The particular unit under consideration uses
cooling water to condense vapor. It operates at a minimum
total annual cost if water leaves the condenser at 52C (325 K),
and at the given inlet fluid conditions and with installed
optimal heat transfer area. The outlet temperature of the
cooling water, however, may increase to 57C (330 K) due to
changing environmental considerations with a corresponding
decrease in the cooling-water mass flow rate and appropriate
resizing of the exchanger. Assuming that all inlet variables
(except for the mass flow rate of water) must stay unchanged,
determine how large the change of total annual cost would be
in excess of the established optimum value for the given
design, if the mentioned changes take place.
 Example 10 (cont…)
The additional information is as follows. The heat
exchanger condenses 2000 kg/h of vapor, which has an
enthalpy of phase change of 4*10^5J/kg. Condensation
occurs at 77 C (350 K). The inlet temperature of the
cooling water is 17C (290 K), and the specific heat of
water at constant pressure is 4.2 * 10^3J /kg K. The
overall heat transfer coefficient is 280 W/m 2 K. The
distillation unit must operate for 6500 hr/y. The unit
cost of cooling water is 2*10 ^5 c/kg, where c is the
monetary unit. The unit cost for the heat exchanger per
installed unit of heat transfer area is 300 c/m 2 . The
annual cost of heat exchanger operation is 20% of the
cost of installed heat exchanger area.
Example 10 (cont…)
Example 10 (cont…)
Example 10 (cont…)
Operating cost of a heat exchanger vs.
coolant exit temperature
Thanks