Chapter 2

Literature Review
2.0 Introduction
Heat exchanger is one of the essential devices which are being used in large scale
operations such as food industries, manufacturing industries and chemical industries. In
smaller scale operations, heat exchangers are used by everyday people such as air heaters
and car radiators.
Heat exchanger is a device that operates by transferring thermal energy from one medium
to another medium, usually between a solid surface and a fluid of lower temperature and
they are both in thermal contact. Most heat exchangers operate with heat transfer between
fluids occurs through a wall separating them or into and out of a wall in a transient
manner. (Shah R.K.,2003)
This literature review will be discussing about the type of heat exchangers available,
applications of heat exchangers and discussing on shell and tube heat exchanger in more
details.

2.1 Type of heat exchangers

There are different types of heat exchangers used in the industries and they can be
categorized into three main types which are tubular heat exchangers, plate heat
exchangers and extended surface heat exchangers.
2.1.1 Tubular heat exchanger
Tubular heat exchangers consist of tubes which are circular. There are two entry points
which are hot fluid feed and cold fluid feed. The hot fluid flows on the inside tube while
the cold fluid flows on the outside of the walls of the hot fluid tube. In the tubular heat
exchanger, there are several parameters which could be manipulated in order to obtain the
result wanted by the operator such as diameter of the tubes, the number of pitch,
arrangement of tubes, number of tubes and the length of the tubes. There are several
types of heat exchangers which are under this category; among them are double pipe heat
exchanger, shell and tube heat exchanger, spiral tube heat exchanger and spiral tube heat
exchanger. Figure 2.1.1 shows a double pipe heat exchanger.

Figure 2.1.1 : Double pipe heat exchanger

Source : http://szfenggang.en.made-in-china.com/product/UovmbHIlrCWy/ChinaChemical-Industry-U-Tube-Titanium-Tubular-Heat-Exchanger-HE-018-.html

2.1.1.2 Double pipe heat exchanger

According to Sadik Kaka, 2002, a double pipe heat exchanger consists of a larger and a
smaller pipe diameter in which the pipe with smaller diameter is placed concentrically
into the pipe of larger diameter in order to give direction to the flowing fluid from one
section to another. A double pipe heat exchanger has two options of setting in terms of
direction of fluids flows. The first is a co-current or parallel flow double pipe heat
exchanger. The second one is a counter flow double pipe heat exchanger. Between the
two types of heat exchanger mentioned, the most efficient one is the counter flow double
pipe heat exchanger. The counter flow double pipe heat exchanger is more efficient due
to a turbulent, against-the-grain stripping effect of the fluids flowing in opposite direction
of one another. Figure 2.1.1.2 (a) shows a counter flow double pipe heat exchanger and
figure 2.1.1.2 (b) shows a co-current or parallel flow double pipe heat exchanger.

Figure 2.1.1.2 (a): counter flow double pipe heat exchanger

Figure 2.1.1.2 (b): co-current or parallel flow double pipe heat exchanger
Source: http://www.brighthubengineering.com/hvac/64548-double-pipe-heat-exchangerdesign/

2.1.1.3 Shell and tube heat exchanger

A shell and tube heat exchanger is made up of many tubes what is positioned in a large
cylindrical housing, which is the shell. The position of the tubes is in parallel to the shell
as it would function as transferring heat between two fluids. The scenario of flow of fluid
would be different if baffles were installed to the heat exchanger. The addition of baffles
would direct the flow across the tubes and continues to move with the same manner to the
next baffle compartment. The common parts of a shell and tube heat exchanger are frontend head, rear-end head, shell, tube, tube sheets and baffles. Different variants of the
shell and tube heat exchanger are applied in the industries and are used depending on the
type of industry. For example, the shell and tube heat exchanger can be used in
condensers, generating steam, cooling oil and preheaters in power plants. Among the
common types of shell and tube heat exchanger used in the industries are u-tube design,
floating head design and fixed tube sheet design. According to Rajiv Mukherjee (1998),
in terms of construction, fixed tube sheet heat exchanger design is the cheapest because
of its simple construction. Figure 2.1.1.3(a) shows a shell and tube heat exchanger that
uses u-tube design and figure 2.1.1.3(b) shows a shell and tube heat exchanger with a
fixed tube sheet design.

Figure 2.1.1.3 (a): shell and tube heat exchanger using u-tube design
Source: http://www.kvastainless.com/heat-exchangers.html

Figure 2.1.1.3 (b): shell and tube heat exchanger with fixed tube sheet design
Source: http://www.chinaogpe.com/buyingguide_content/Fixed_tube_sheet_type_heat_exchanger_1275.html

2.1.1.4 Spiral tube heat exchanger

A spiral tube heat exchanger is a round shape tube or coiled tube configuration. Similar to
a shell and tube heat exchanger, the tube is placed in a shell. There are three main types
of spiral tube heat exchanger which are using shell, co-axial designed condenser and coaxial designed evaporators. The generation of a vortex at the helical coil known as Dean
Vortex helps the helical and spiral coils to have better heat and mass transfer than straight
tubes [1] . The first type spiral tube heat exchanger is using shell whereby main feature of
this exchanger type is that there is a single passage for each fluid. During the operation,
the cold fluid enters at the periphery and flows towards the center whereby it exits by
using the cover and the hot fluid goes in the opposite direction, giving countercurrent
flow [4] . For the second type, the type II spiral tube heat exchanger was developed to
handle the growing demand for vaporizing and condensing capabilities within the process
industries [4] . For the third type, the type III spiral tube heat exchanger, the primary
purpose of the heat exchanger is that condensing a vapor or vapor mixture with or
without non-condensable gas in which it is required to lower the temperature of the
remaining vapor or gas mixture to as low a temperature as possible and thus obtain
maximum possible condensation [4] .

Figure 2.1.1.4 (a): Type I spiral tube heat exchanger

Figure 2.1.1.4 (b): Type II spiral tube heat exchanger

Figure 2.1.1.4 (c): Type III spiral tube heat exchanger

2.1.2 Plate heat exchanger

A plate heat exchanger has many thin plates that are positioned slightly apart from each
other and have large surface areas and fluid flow passages that are used in industries for
heat transfer. The plate heat exchanger can be a more effective heat exchanger than the
tube or shell heat exchanger due to advances in brazing and gasket technology that have
made this plate exchanger more practical.
2.1.2.1 Gasketed plate heat exchanger
A gasketed plate heat exchanger is made up of a series of thin plates which has a wavy
surface. The wavy surface functions as separating the fluids. The plates are designed so
that the two media between which heat is to be exchanged, flow through interchange
exclaim spaces. With the design of flow passages being quite small, strong eddying gives
high heat transfer coefficients, high pressure drops, and high local shear which minimize
fouling [3]. Gasketed plates are typically used for heat exchange between two liquid
streams. This type can be found in food processing industries because of the
compatibility to be cleaned easily and sterilized as it completely disassembled.

Figure 2.1.2.1: Gasketed plate heat exchanger

2.1.2.2 Spiral plate heat exchanger

Spiral heat exchangers are formed by rolling two long, parallel plates into a spiral using a
mandrel and welding the edges of adjacent plates to form channels. The distance between
the metal surfaces in both channels is maintained by means of distance pins welded to the
metal sheet. The two spiral paths introduce a secondary flow, increasing the heat transfer
and reducing fouling deposits. These heat exchangers are quite compact but are relatively
expensive due to the specialized fabrication. The spiral heat exchanger is particularly
effective in handling sludge, viscous liquids, and liquids with solids in suspension
including slurries [3].

Figure 2.1.2.2: Spiral plate heat exchanger

Source:
http://www.ewp.rpi.edu/hartford/~onarhd/ENGP/Other/COMSOL%20Models,%20Refer
ences/References/spiral%20heat%20exchanger.html

2.1.2.4 Pillow plate heat exchanger

This type of plate incurs pressure after construction to allow the exchanger to billow out
like a pillow. The shape allows for efficient heat transfer across the entire surface of the
plate. These types of exchangers are mostly used in the dairy industry.
2.1.2.5 Plate fin heat exchanger
Corrugated metal fins are placed between flat plates. The structure is joined together by
brazing (see later). The fins have the dual purpose of holding the plates together, thus
containing pressure, and of forming a secondary (fin) surface for heat transfer. At the
edges of the plates are bars, which contain each fluid within the space between adjacent
plates.

The heights of corrugations and bars may vary between plates, as shown. For a liquid
stream we can use a low height corrugation, matching high heat transfer coefficient with
lesser surface area while for a low pressure stream we can use a high corrugation height,
matching low coefficient with higher surface area but also giving larger through area to
achieve lower pressure drop.

References
1. Journal of Engineering Science and Technology Vol. 8, No. 1 (2013) 1 - 15
School of Engineering, Taylors University
2. Shah, R. K. and Sekuli, D. P. (2007) Classification of Heat Exchangers, in
Fundamentals of Heat Exchanger Design, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, NJ,
USA. doi: 10.1002/9780470172605.ch1
3. Kaka, S., & Liu, H. (2002). Heat exchangers : selection, rating, and thermal
design. 2nd ed. Boca Raton: CRC Press.
4. Thermopedia.com. (2014). Spiral heat exchangers. [online] Retrieved from:
http://www.thermopedia.com/content/1144/ [Accessed: 31 Jan 2014].
5. Wang, J. (2011). "Theory of flow distribution in manifolds." Chemical
Engineering Journal 168(3): 1331-1345.
6. Thulukkanam, K. (2013). Heat Exchanger Design Handbook, Second Edition,
Taylor & Francis.
7. Thermopedia.com. (2014). Plate fin heat exchangers. [online] Retrieved from:
http://www.thermopedia.com/content/1036/?tid=110&sn=20 [Accessed: 31 Jan
2014].