Introduction to Heat Exchangers

Course objectives What are exchangers for? Exchanger types How are they specified? The design task
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Objectives
By the end of the course you will be familiar with the main exchanger types know which is likely to be the best type for a given application understand what are the key factors in exchanger design be able to estimate the size and cost of key exchanger types have the background necessary to start using commercial exchanger design software be an informed purchaser of heat exchangers
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Lecture series
Introduction to heat exchangers Selection of the best type for a given application Selection of right shell and tube Design of shell and tube
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Q = U A T

Contents
Why we need heat exchangers The basics of their design Some general features of exchangers Different types of exchanger The design process

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Example of an exchanger

Bundle for shell-and-tube exchanger

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What are heat exchangers for?

To get fluid streams to the right temperature for the next process
reactions often require feeds at high temp.

To condense vapours To evaporate liquids To recover heat to use elsewhere To reject low-grade heat To drive a power cycle

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Feed-effluent exchanger

Feed-effluent exchanger

Exothermic reaction

Heat recovery
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Distillation
Reflux condenser

Top product

Feed

Column
Reboiler

Bottom product
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Typical crude oil distillation

Top pump around Desalter Top pump around Heavy gas oil

Naphtha and gases

Kerosene

Distillation tower

E2
Bottom pump around

Light gas oil

E2
Kerosene

E3
Light gas oil

E5

Heavy gas oil

E4 E1 E5
Storage Bottom pump around

Furnace

E6
Reduced crude

Reduced crude

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Power cycle

Steam turbine

Boiler
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Feedwater heater

Condenser

Q = U A T
yw
Thot

Tcold

We have thermal resistances in series

yw 1 1 1 rcold rhot U cold w hot

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Heat utilities
Hot utilities
Boiler generating service steam (maybe a combined heat and power plant) Direct fired heaters (furnace) Electric heaters

Cold utilities
Cooling tower (wet or dry) providing service cooling water Direct air-cooled heat exchanger
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Thermal integration
or process integration

Reducing the hot and cold utility needs by interchanging heat between process streams If the plant needs are primarily heat, thermal integration is usually by pinch technology - Software HX-Net If the plant is concerned with heat and work, pinch technology is supplemented with exergy analysis
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Local and mean values

Overall means from the hot side to the cold side including all resistances However it is still at a particular point in the exchanger: i.e. it is local Hence you can have a local, overall coefficient LOCALLY UT q FOR WHOLE EXCHANGER
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U A T Q T m T m

Integrating over the exchanger area

Local equation
dQ q UT dA dQ UdA T dQ T T Q

dQ dA

Rearranging

and integrating

UdA
AT

Total area AT

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Definitions of mean values

From previous slides

T Q U m AT Tm dQ UdA T AT QT

Comparing the two sides

1 1 T Tm Q
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dQ T Q

1 Um AT

UdA
AT

Special case where Ts are linear with Q

Eqn. integrates to give log. mean temperature difference - LMTD

Temperature

Ta

Tm TLM
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Ta Tb ln( Ta / Tb )

Q
Tb

Multipass exchangers
For single-phase duties, theoretical correction factors, FT, have been derived FT values are less than 1 Do not design for FT less than 0.8
T1 Temp. T2

t2
t1

Tm FT TLM
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Typical FT correction factor curves

For shell and tube with 2 or more tube-side passes

Curves are for different values of R

t2 t1 T1 T2 P ;R T1 t1 t2 t1
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T, t = Shell / tube side 1, 2 = inlet / outlet

Thermal effectiveness
Stream temperature rise divided by the theoretically maximum possible temperature rise

T1,in

T1,in T1,out T1,in T2 ,in

T1,out

T2,out
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T2,in

Compactness
Can be measured by the heat-transfer area per unit volume or by channel size Conventional exchangers (shell and tube) have channel size of 10 to 30 mm giving about 100m2/m3 Plate-type exchangers have typically 5mm channel size with more than 200m2/m3 More compact types available

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60

Hydraulic diameter, mm 10 1

Compactness

0.1
Human lungs

Special Car radiator Plate fin Plate Shell-&-tube 100

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1000

m2/m3

10 000

Main categories of exchanger

Heat exchangers

Recuperators
Wall separating streams

Regenerators
Direct contact

Most heat exchangers have two streams, hot and cold, but some have more than two
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Recuperators/regenerators
Recuperative Has separate flow paths for each fluid which flow simultaneously through the exchanger transferring heat between the streams Regenerative Has a single flow path which the hot and cold fluids alternately pass through.
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Rotating wheel

Double Pipe
Simplest type has one tube inside another - inner tube may have longitudinal fins on the outside

However, most have a number of tubes in the outer tube - can have very many tubes thus becoming a shell-and-tube
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Shell and Tube

Typical shell and tube exchanger as used in the process industry

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Shell-side flow

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Complete shell-and-tube

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Plate and frame

Plates hung vertically and clamped in a press or frame. Gaskets direct the streams between alternate plates and prevent external leakage Plates made of stainless steel or higher quality material Plates corrugated to give points of support and increase heat transfer
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Plate types

Corrugations on plate improve heart transfer give rigidity

Many points of contact and a tortuous flow path
Chevron
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Washboard

General view of plate exchanger

Plate exchanger normally refers to a gasketted plateand-frame exchanger

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Flow Arrangement within a PHE

Gaskets arranged for each stream to flow between alternate plates

Alternate plates (often same plate types inverted)

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Air-cooled exchanger
Air blown across finned tubes (forced draught type) Can suck air across (induced draught)

Finned tubes
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ACHE bundle

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Plate-fin exchanger

Made up of flat plates (parting sheets) and corrugated sheets which form fins Brazed by heating in vacuum furnace
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Can have many streams

7 or more streams are typical

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Typical plate-fin

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Spiral (plate)

Good for streams with large solids

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Cooling Towers
Large shell with packing at the bottom over which water is sprayed Cooling by air flow and evaporation Air flow driven by forced or natural convection Need to continuously make up the cooling water lost by evaporation

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 Used for batch heating or cooling of fluids An agitator and baffles promote mixing A range of agitators are used Often used for batch chemical reaction
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Agitated Vessel

Proprietary types
Types described so far are generic types These can be made by any company with necessary skills (no real patent protection) There are now many special, proprietary exchangers made by one company or a small number of companies under licence One example is the printed circuit exchanger by Heatric

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Printed circuit heat exchanger

Plates are etched to give flow channels Stacked to form exchanger block Block diffusion welded under high pressure and temperature Bond formed is as strong as the metal itself
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Printed circuit exchanger

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Note that compact does not mean small but means large surface area per unit volume

Distribution of types
in terms of market value in Europe
Waste Heat Boilers 5%

Cooling Towers 9% Air Coolers 10% Other Proprietary 2% Other Plate 4% Plate & Frame 13% Other Tubular 5%

Other Heat Recovery 10%

Shell & Tube 42%

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Preliminary points on selection

Tubes and cylinders can withstand higher pressures than plates If exchangers can be built with a variety of materials, then it is more likely that you can find a metal which will cope with extreme temperatures or corrosive fluids More specialist exchangers have fewer suppliers, longer delivery times and must be repaired by experts S&Ts cannot normally give high thermal effectiveness,
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Design sequence
Design the process flow flow-sheet Specify the heat exchanger requirements Select the best exchanger type for the job Thermal design of exchanger Mechanical design of exchanger Looping back may be necessary at any stage but can be difficult because of the project timetable
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Who does what?

Design the process flow flowsheet Specify the heat exchanger requirements Select the best exchanger type for the job Thermal design of exchanger Mechanical design of exchanger
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Processor/ end user

Contractor

Manufacturer

Exchanger specification
Heat load (duty) along with the terminal temperatures of the streams Maximum pressure drop each streams
liquids - 0.5 bar gases/vapours below 2bar - 10% of inlet pressure

Design pressures and temperatures Size/weight constraints Standards to apply

General standards like ISO, TEMA, ASME etc Companies own standards

Other requirements
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The designer must supply an exchanger which

Meets the stated specification Has reasonable initial costs and operating costs (most exchangers are bought on the basis of the cheapest tender) Has a reasonable lifetime
no damaging vibration no thermal fatigue no unexpected fouling or corrosion

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