Third Year Project Air Coolers (Air cooled heat exchangers)

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Air Coolers

What are air coolers? does a typical air cooler include? are they used ? are they used ?

What

When

Structure When Types

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Air Coolers
Air

coolers (condensers) are heat exchangers which use air as a cooling medium other than water.

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Air Coolers

Air coolers (condensers) mainly consists of the following:

1. Bundles of finned tubes. 2. Fan(s) drived by electric motors. 3. Supports to the structure (plenums ,

louvers)

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Air Coolers
Tubes

are arranged in bundles , through which air flows by the action of fans.

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Plenums

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When 1. 2.

are air coolers used ?

In arid or semi arid areas In areas where the available water needs extensive treatment in order to be used.

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Air Coolers
Air 1. 2.

cooled heat exchangers may be used to Reject sensible heat from the hot fluid Condense the hot fluid

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Air Coolers
For

the purpose of rejecting sensual heat , we have 2 arrangements : Forced draft air coolers

1.

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Air Coolers
For

the purpose of rejecting sensual heat , we have 2 arrangements : Forced draft air coolers

1.

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Air Coolers
For

the purpose of rejecting sensual heat , we have 2 arrangements : Induced draft air coolers

2.

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Air Coolers
For

the purpose of rejecting sensual heat , we have 2 arrangements : Induced draft air coolers

2.

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For

the purpose of condensing the hot fluid , we have a different arrangement: air cooled condenser

A-frame

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Design of air coolers (condensers)
It

includes two main parts:

1. Sizing
Choosing tube diameter , length of tubes , pitch , number of passes , number of tubes etc. Checking on the fouling , and on pressure drop on both of the air and tube side.

2. Choice of the fans , and motors that

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drive them.

Air Coolers
Design of air coolers (condensers)
You

will refer in this into 2 references:

1. Process heat transfer , Kern D.Q.

Chapter 12 :Condensation of Single Vapors

2. Process heat transfer : Principles and

applications , Serth R.W.

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Chapter 12 : Air Cooled Heat Exchangers Special attention to Example 12.1 , p.645

Air Coolers
Design of air coolers (condensers)
Steps

are well mentioned in example 12.1 except in the part of calculating the heat transfer coefficient (h) of the tube side. this part we will refer to Kern

In

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Air Coolers
Design of air coolers (condensers)
In

Kern , we will take the approach of using equation 12.45 in order to calculate the heat transfer coefficient of the tube side
tw= f(hi) Assume hi Get tw

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it to calculate hi using equation

Air Coolers
Design of air coolers (condensers)

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What is required from you to deliver:
1.

A pdf file containing the following:

a) An introduction about the air coolers

containing

What are air cooled heat exchangers? When are they used? What are their advantages? Advantages and disadvantages of each of induced and forced draft

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Thank you

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