AspenTech Support Center Solution 134606

11/26/2014

Temperature Crosses: Possible and Impossible scenarios

Solution ID:

134606

Product(s):

Aspen Air Cooled Exchanger, Aspen Fired Heater, Aspen Plate Exchanger, Aspen Plate Fin
Exchanger, Aspen Shell & Tube Exchanger

Version(s):

V7.3, V7.3.2, V8.0, V8.1, V8.2, V8.4, V8.6

Primary subject: Results, Heat Transfer

Last Modified:

21-Aug-2012

Problem Statement
Temperature Crosses: Possible and Impossible scenarios

Solution
Theterm TemperatureCross canhaveanumberofdifferentmeanings.Sometimesitrelatesto
something that is physically impossible in a heat exchanger, sometimes it does not. Sometimes it simply
imposes restrictions on the type of exchanger configuration that can be used.
To begin with it is useful to consider various types of heat load curve, that is graphs of temperature T
against heat load Q, for two streams in an exchanger. An example is shown in Figure A. In this particular
example, the temperature range of the hot stream (the upper, red line) is entirely above the temperature
range of the cold stream (lower, blue line). The graph is drawn with the streams in counter-current flow.
Because the temperature ranges of the hot and cold streams do not overlap, ap, any configuration of
exchanger can be used, counter-current, co-current, cross-flow, or any more complex configuration, for
example where one of the streams flows in two or more passes.

Next consider the heat load curve in Figure B. This is similar to Figure A, except that the temperature
ranges of the hot and cold streams overlap. This is often called a "temperature cross application", but the
term "temperature range overlap" is a clearer description. The overlap mean that a purely co-current
exchanger is impossible, while other exchanger configurations, such as cross-flow or multi-pass
exchangers may be possible if the range overlap is small.

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The next type of curve, Figure C, shows the most basic type of temperature cross. The exit (lowest)
temperature of the hot stream is below the inlet (lowest) temperature of the cold stream. This type of
temperature cross cannot occur in any heat exchanger, whatever its configuration. There is no way in
which the hot stream can be cooled below the lowest temperature of the cold stream.

There is a variant on this simple temperature cross, which is shown in Figure D. If only the stream inlet
and outlet temperatures are considered, there does not appear to be a problem. However, at a point
between the ends, the cold stream is at a higher temperature than the hot stream. This is referred to as
an "internal temperature cross". It too is not physically possible. No exchanger configuration could
deliver the duty show in Figure D.

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FiguresA Dallshowtwostreamcurves,inastandardcountercurrentflow,wheretemperatureis
plotted against heat load. It is also useful to consider temperature profiles, that is graphs of stream
temperature against distance along the exchanger. Heat load curves often approximate to straight lines,
particularly for single phase streams, but temperature profiles are more complicated, since they depend
on the variation of heat transfer coefficient and temperature difference along the exchanger. Temperature
profiles depend on the exchanger configuration, and can be drawn for exchangers with multiple passes.

An example of temperature profiles for a two-pass shell and tube exchanger is shown in Figure E. The hot
shellside stream enters at the same end of of the exchanger as the cold tubeside stream. For simplicity,
the streams are single-phas, with constant specific heat and constant heat transfer coefficients. There is
a small temperature range overlap. Stream to stream temperature differences are largest near the front
head (tubeside inlet end), so temperature changes are largest there. The cold stream temperatures are
everywhere below the hot stream temperatures.

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If in this exchanger, the shellside fluid entered near the rear head, the temperature profiles would be as
shown in Figure F. Inlet and outlet conditions and all stream parameters are the same. The temperature
rise in the first tubeside pass is now much more uniform along the exchanger. The more interesting
feature is the second tubeside pass, which shows a local temperature cross. Here the temperature rises
until it reaches the temperature of the shellside stream. At that point there is no temperature, difference,
and no heat transfer, so the temperature of the tubeside stream does not change. Further along the
exchanger, nearer the front head, the shellside stream temperature is falling, due to cooling by the first
tubeside pass. In the second tubeside pass, the temperature is above that of the shellside stream, so the
tubeside temperature falls slightly, below the maximum reached at the point where it crosses the
shellside stream.

A "local temperature cross" like that in Figure F can happen when one stream pass is exchanging heat
simultaneously with two or more other stream passes. All the basic thermodynamic and heat transfer
equations are obeyed.
The modeling assumption that the tubeside passes exchange heat simultaneously with the shellside pass
is used for all exchangers with axial flow. Baffled shellside flow is clearly complicated, but if there are a
large number of baffles, it can be treated as overall axial flow. Since it flows over each tubeside pass in
each baffle space, the approximation that the shellside fluid is exchanging heat simultaneously with all
tubeside passes is also generally a good one. Even if the heat transfer with two or more passes is locally
sequential rather than simultaneous, the possibility remains that a hot shellside fluid is cooled so much
by one tubeside pass that it finds itself below the temperaperature of the other tubeside pass, causing it
locally to cool, rather than heat this second pass.
Local temperature crosses are thus a physically real phenomenon, not an artifice of the modeling. They
do however only occur near the limits of normal exchanger operation, and only for multipass exchangers,
and in most E-shell cases, only when the shellside fluid exits near the front head.

Keywords
temperature cross, exchanger, phase change

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