Republic of the Philippines

BATANGAS STATE UNIVERSITY

Pablo Borbon Main II, Alangilan Batangas City
College of Engineering, Architecture & Fine Arts
www.batstate-u.edu.ph Tel. No. (043) 425-0139 loc. 118

Heat Exchangers
Written Report

Delos Reyes, King Jhonzon A.

Gapas, Christopher D.
Gonzales, Alfonso Manuel
Jeciel, Juan Miguel E.
ICE – 4201

Engr. Nico John R. Abratique

Instructor
INTRODUCTION
A heat exchanger is a device used to transfer heat between two or more fluids. The fluids
can be single or two phase and, depending on the exchanger type, may be separated or in direct
contact. Devices involving energy sources such as nuclear fuel pins or fired heaters are not
normally regarded as heat exchangers although many of the Principles involved in their design are
the same.
A heat exchanger is a device designed to efficiently transfer or "exchange" heat from one
matter to another. When a fluid is used to transfer heat, the fluid could be a liquid, such as water
or oil, or could be moving air. The most well-known type of heat exchanger is a car radiator. In a
radiator, a solution of water and ethylene glycol, also known as antifreeze, transfers heat from the
engine to the radiator and then from the radiator to the ambient air flowing through it. This process
helps to keep a car's engine from overheating.

REASONS FOR HEAT TRANSFER

 To heat a cooler by means of a hotter fluid.
 To reduce the temperature of a hot fluid by means of a hot a cooler fluid.
 To boil a liquid by means of a hotter fluid.
 To condense a gaseous fluid b means of a cooler fluid.
 To boil a liquid while condensing a hotter gaseous fluid.

TYPES OF HEAT EXCHANGER

1. Tube and Shell type
2. Plate type
3. Regenerative type
4. Recuperator type
Tube and Shell type
A shell and tube heat exchanger is a class of heat exchanger designs. It is the most
common type of heat exchanger in oil refineries and other large chemical processes, and is suited
for higher-pressure applications. As its name implies, this type of heat exchanger consists of a shell
(a large pressure vessel) with a bundle of tubes inside it. One fluid runs through the tubes, and
another fluid flows over the tubes (through the shell) to transfer heat between the two fluids. The
set of tubes is called a tube bundle, and may be composed of several types of tubes: plain,
longitudinally finned, etc.
There can be many variations on the shell and tube design. Typically, the ends of each tube
are connected to plenums (sometimes called water boxes) through holes in tube sheets. The tubes
may be straight or bent in the shape of a U, called U-tubes.

In nuclear power plants called pressurized water reactors, large heat exchangers called
steam generators are two-phase, shell-and-tube heat exchangers which typically have U-tubes.
They are used to boil water recycled from a surface condenser into steam to drive a turbine to
produce power. Most shell-and-tube heat exchangers are either 1, 2, or 4 pass designs on the tube
side. This refers to the number of times the fluid in the tubes passes through the fluid in the shell.
In a single pass heat exchanger, the fluid goes in one end of each tube and out the other.
Plate Type
A plate heat exchanger is a type of heat exchanger that uses metal plates to transfer heat
between two fluids. This has a major advantage over a conventional heat exchanger in that the
fluids are exposed to a much larger surface area because the fluids are spread out over the plates.
This facilitates the transfer of heat, and greatly increases the speed of the temperature change.
The plate heat exchanger (PHE) is a specialized design well suited to transferring heat
between medium- and low-pressure fluids. Welded, semi-welded and brazed heat exchangers are
used for heat exchange between high-pressure fluids or where a more compact product is required.
In place of a pipe passing through a chamber, there are instead two alternating chambers, usually
thin in depth, separated at their largest surface by a corrugated metal plate. The plates used in a
plate and frame heat exchanger are obtained by one piece pressing of metal plates. Stainless steel
is a commonly used metal for the plates because of its ability to withstand high temperatures, its
strength, and its corrosion resistance.
The plates are often spaced by rubber sealing gaskets which are cemented into a section
around the edge of the plates. The plates are pressed to form troughs at right angles to the direction
of flow of the liquid which runs through the channels in the heat exchanger. These troughs are
arranged so that they interlink with the other plates which forms the channel with gaps of 1.3–1.5
mm between the plates. The plates are compressed together in a rigid frame to form an arrangement
of parallel flow channels with alternating hot and cold fluids. The plates produce an extremely
large surface area, which allows for the fastest possible transfer. Making each chamber thin ensures
that the majority of the volume of the liquid contacts the plate, again aiding exchange. The troughs
also create and maintain a turbulent flow in the liquid to maximize heat transfer in the exchanger.
A high degree of turbulence can be obtained at low flow rates and high heat transfer coefficient
can then be achieved.

As compared to shell and tube heat exchangers, the temperature approach in a plate heat
exchangers may be as low as 1 °C whereas shell and tube heat exchangers require an approach of
5 °C or more. For the same amount of heat exchanged, the size of the plate heat exchanger is
smaller, because of the large heat transfer area afforded by the plates (the large area through which
heat can travel). Increase and reduction of the heat transfer area is simple in a plate heat-exchanger,
through the addition or removal of plates from the stack.

Regenerative Type
A regenerative heat exchanger, or more commonly a regenerator, is a type of heat
exchanger where heat from the hot fluid is intermittently stored in a thermal storage medium before
it is transferred to the cold fluid. To accomplish this the hot fluid is brought into contact with the
heat storage medium, then the fluid is displaced with the cold fluid, which absorbs the heat.
In regenerative heat exchangers, the fluid on either side of the heat exchanger can be the same
fluid. The fluid may go through an external processing step, and then it is flowed back through the
heat exchanger in the opposite direction for further processing. Usually the application will use
this process cyclically or repetitively.

Recuperator Type
A recuperator is a special purpose counter-flow energy recovery heat
exchanger positioned within the supply and exhaust air streams of an air handling system, or in
the exhaust gases of an industrial process, in order to recover the waste heat. Generally, they are
used to extract heat from the exhaust and use it to preheat air entering the combustion system. In
this way they use waste energy to heat the air, offsetting some of the fuel, and thereby improves
the energy efficiency of the system as a whole.

FLOW OF ARRANGEMENT
1. Parallel Flow
2. Counter Flow
3. Cross Flow
Parallel Flow
a shell and tube heat exchanger can be operated in approximately parallel flow by having
both fluids enter at one end and exit at the other end. With parallel flow the temperature difference
between the two fluids is large at the entrance end, but it becomes small at the exit end as the two
fluid temperatures approach each other. The overall measure of heat transfer driving force, the log
mean temperature difference is greater for counter flow, so the heat exchanger surface area
requirement will be larger than for a counter flow heat exchanger with the same inlet and outlet
temperatures for the hot and the cold fluid.
Counter Flow
A counter flow heat exchanger has the hot fluid entering at one end of the heat exchanger
flow path and the double pipe heat exchanger cold fluid entering at the other end of the flow path.
Counter flow is the most common type of liquid-liquid heat exchanger, because it is the most
efficient.

Cross Flow
A car radiator and an air conditioner evaporator coil are examples of crossflow heat
exchangers. In both cases evaporator coil heat transfer is taking place between a liquid flowing
inside a tube or tubes and air flowing past the tubes. With a car radiator, the hot water in the tubes
is being cooled by air flowing through the radiator between the tubes. With an air conditioner
evaporator coil, air flowing past the evaporator coils is cooled by the cold refrigerant flowing
inside the tube(s) of the coil.

LMTD
Log Mean Temperature Difference – it is a logarithmic average of the temperature between the
hot and cold streams at each end of the exchanger.
FOR COUNTER FLOW
(T1 − t2) − (T2 − t1)
𝐿𝑀T𝐷 =
(T1 − t2)
ln⁡( )
(T2 − t1)
FOR PARALLEL FLOW

(T1 − t1) − (T2 − t2)

𝐿𝑀T𝐷 =
(T1 − t1)
ln⁡( )
(T2 − t2)
Whereas,
T1 = Hot stream inlet temperature
T2 = Hot stream outlet temperature
t1 = Cold stream inlet temperature
t2 = Cold stream outlet temperature
NTU
Number of transfer unit – used to calculate the rate of heat transfer in heat exchanger when there
is no insufficient information to calculate LMTD.

𝑞𝑚𝑎𝑥 = 𝐶𝑚𝑖𝑛(Thi- Tci)

𝑈𝐴
𝑁T𝑈 =
𝐶𝑚𝑖𝑛
EFFECTIVENESS
𝑞
𝐸𝑚𝑎𝑥 =
𝑞𝑚𝑎𝑥
𝐶𝑚𝑖𝑛
𝐶𝑟 =
𝐶𝑚𝑎𝑥
PERFORMANCE TESTING
 To determine the overall heat transfer function coefficient for assessing the performance
of the heat exchanger.
 An deviation from the design heat transfer coefficient will indicate occurrence of fouling.
APPLICATION
• Food Beverage and Dairy
• Marine/Navy
• Air Processing
• Compressor cooling
• Chemical and petrochemical
• Pharmaceuticals
• Metals and mining
• Pulp and paper
• Electric generation
• Radiator

REFERENCES
https://www.lytron.com/Tools-and-Technical-Reference/Application-Notes/What-is-a-Heat-
Exchanger
https://www.engineersedge.com/heat_transfer/parallel_counter_flow_designs.html
https://www.brighthubengineering.com/hvac/62410-heat-exchanger-flow-patterns