TUBULAR HEAT EXCHANGER

(OPEN ENDED)
GROUP 2A

10 MARCH 2020

ABSTRACT:

This experiment was conducted to be familiar with the various components and
working principles of process control system in tubular heat exchanger while observing the
difference between set point changes and the response of the process variable. Based on the
data collected, calculated and plotted, it shows that the heat transfer rate and heat loss by oil
increases as the temperature increases (80°C compared to 65°C at 20 minutes). For overall heat
transfer coefficient, it shows that the value of log mean temperature difference for counter flow
was higher than parallel flow. Hence, the U value for counter current flow is lower than parallel
which is opposite with the theory. The value of U for counter current flow was highest at 65°C
while for parallel at 80°C. Noted that some errors had happened during the experiments.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:

In the experiment Tubular Heat Exchanger, a counterflow heat exchanger was used. At the
beginning of the experiment, medium tank was filled with oil and product tank was filled with
water. The system was switched on. The temperature of the medium was set into 65 using
temperature controller. Both pumps of the medium and the product were switched on. The
experiment has been running for 20 minutes. The reading of medium temperature, the input
product temperature and the output product temperature were taken every 5 minutes. The
flowrate of the product was taken using stopwatch and measuring cylinder. The readings were
recorded in the table. The data obtained were used to calculate heat transfer rate of water and
overall heat transfer coefficient. The same procedures were repeated by using different set
temperatures which is 70 , 75 and 80 . Heat transfer rate of water and overall heat transfer
coefficient for all temperatures can be shown by using graph. The system was switched off
after completing the experiment.

The experiment was carried out to identify the working principles of process control system in
tubular heat exchanger while observing the difference between set point changes and the
response of the process variable. On the other hand, the heat transfer rate of oil and water can
be determined as well as the overall heat transfer coefficient. As the result, the heat transfer
rate at higher temperature was greater compared to lower temperature. While for the overall
heat transfer coefficient, the higher the value of log mean temperature difference, the smaller
the value of U for 65°C. Overall heat transfer coefficient was directly proportional to heat
transfer rate and inversely proportional to log mean temperature difference. The experimental
value of overall heat transfer coefficient for counter current flow should be higher than parallel
flow but, in the experiment the value of overall heat transfer coefficient for parallel flow is
higher than counter flow.
Table of Contents
List of Tables
List of Figures
1 INTRODUCTION
1.1 Purpose of the Experiment
1.2 Background Information
1.3 Theory
2 METHOD AND MATERIALS
3 RESULTS
3.1 Heat transfer rate of water and oil
3.2 The Overall Heat Transfer Coefficient
3.2.1 Counter flow
3.2.2 Parallel flow
3.2.3 The comparison overall heat transfer coefficient between counter flow and parallel
flow
4 DISCUSSION
4.1 The heat transfer rate of water and oil
4.2 The Overall Heat Transfer Coefficient
5 CONCLUSION
REFERENCES
APPENDIXES

List of Tables
Table 1: Input and output temperature of oil and water at each temperature for 20 minutes
Table 2 : Heat transfer rate of water and oil at each temperature for 20 minutes
Table 3 : The overall heat transfer coefficient (counter flow) at each temperature for 20 minutes

Table 4 : The overall heat transfer coefficient (parallel flow) at each temperature for 20 minutes

Table 5 : Calculation for counter flow

Table 6: Calculation for parallel flow
List of Figures
Figure 1: A tubular heat exchanger with parallel flow
Figure 2: The heat transfer rate of water at each temperature for 20 minutes
Figure 3: The heat transfer rate of oil at each temperature for 20 minutes
Figure 4 : U against LMTD, 65°C (counter flow)
Figure 5: U against LMTD, 65°C (parallel flow)
Figure 6: The overall heat transfer coefficient (counter flow) at each temperature for 20 minutes
1 INTRODUCTION

1.1 Purpose of the Experiment

The purpose of the experiment is to be familiar with the various components and
working principles of process control system in tubular heat exchanger while observing the
difference between set point changes and the response of the process variable.

1.2 Background Information

A heat exchanger is a device which can transfer heat between two or more fluids. Heat
exchangers can be used in both cooling and heating processes. These fluids are separated by a
solid thin wall to prevent mixing together or they can be in direct contact. This device currently
be used widely in all industrial process sector. Tubular heat exchanger, also known as double
pipe heat exchanger, consists of a single tube mounted inside another. One fluid flow through
the inner pipe, while a second fluid flows through the outer pipe annuals. In this experiment,
flow arrangement in tubular heat exchanger is counter flow. The hot and cold fluids enter the
heat exchanger at opposite ends and flow in opposite directions. This device is mostly used in
heat treatment process for dairy product. Figure 1 below shows the configuration of a tubular
heat exchanger.

Figure 1: A tubular heat exchanger with parallel flow

1.3 Theory

Heat transfer is the movement of thermal energy from one thing to another thing of
different temperature. In other word, heat transfer is a transfer of heat from higher temperature
to lower temperature. Heat could be transferred between two solids, a solid and a liquid or gas,
or even within a liquid or gas. Heat transferred through direct contact called conduction,
through fluid movement called convection, and through electromagnetic waves called
radiation. Heat transfer occurs when the temperatures of objects are not equal to each other.

Energy can be transferred to by two mechanisms which are heat transfer, Q and work,
W. The transfer of heat into a system is referred as heat addition and the transfer of heat out of
a system referred as heat rejection.

transfer Q during a time interval t can be determined from

(Eq. 1)

The rate of heat transfer per unit area to the direction of heat transfer is called heat flux
and the average heat flux is expressed as

The energy balance for a steady-flow system can be expressed as

Where p is the heat capacity of the fluid and

and outlet temperature. The heat loss to the surrounding can be determined by equation

Heat transfer in a heat exchanger usually involves convection in each fluid and
conduction through the wall separating the two fluids.
 Conduction is the transfer of energy from the more energetic particles of a substance to
the adjacent less energetic ones as a result of interactions between the particles. In a simple
word, heat transferred through direct contact between particles. Rate of heat conduction can be
expressed as

Where k is thermal conductivity of the materi

equation also called

Convection is the mode of energy transfer between a solid surface and the adjacent
liquid or gas that is in motion, and it involves the combined effects of conduction and fluid
motion. In a simple word, heat transferred through fluid movement. the rate of convection heat

Where h is the convection heat transfer coefficient, As is the surface area, Ts is the surface
temperature, and T is the temperature of the fluid sufficiently far from the surface.

Flow in a pipe can be turbulent or laminar. Type of stream flow in a pipe either turbulent
or laminar can be determined by Reynolds Number. For flow in a circular pipe, the Reynolds
number is defined as

W avg is average flow velocity, D is the diameter of the

flow in a tube is
laminar for Re < 2300, fully turbulent for Re > 10,000, and transitional for 2300 <Re < 10,000.
When the type of stream flow has been determined, convective heat transfer can be determined
by Nusselt Number equation. For fully developed flow in smooth circular pipes:
Laminar flow (Re < 2300)
Nu = 3.66
Turbulent flow (Re > 10,000)
Nu = 0.023 Re0.8 Pr0.4 for 0.7 < Pr < 160
From the equation, convective heat transfer can be determined using equation

After convective heat transfer has been determined, the overall heat transfer coefficient
simplifies to

Then, the rate of heat transfer in a heat exchanger can also be expressed in an analogous manner

Where U is the overall heat transfer coefficient, As

temperature difference between the two fluids.
2 METHOD AND MATERIALS

In the experiment of Tubular Heat Exchanger, a counter flow heat exchanger was used.
At the beginning of the experiment, medium tank was filled with oil and product tank was filled
with water. The system was switched on. The temperature of the medium was set into 65
using temperature controller. Both pumps of the medium and the product were switched on.
The experiment has been running for 20 minutes. The reading of medium temperature, the
input product temperature and the output product temperature were taken every 5 minutes. The
flowrate of the product was taken using stopwatch and measuring cylinder. The readings were
recorded in the table. The data obtained were used to calculate heat transfer rate of water and
overall heat transfer coefficient. The same procedures were repeated by using different set
temperatures which is 70 , 75 and 80 . Heat transfer rate of water and overall heat transfer
coefficient for all temperatures can be shown by using graph. The system was switched off
after completing the experiment.
3 RESULTS

3.1 Heat transfer rate of water and oil

Internal diameter: 29 mm = 0.029 m

Outlet diameter: 49 mm = 0.049 m
Length: 100 cm = 1 m

dm= = = 0.038 m

Area: 0.1194

Table 1: Input and output temperature of oil and water at each temperature for 20 minutes
Table 2 : Heat transfer rate of water and oil at each temperature for 20 minutes
Figure 2: The heat transfer rate of water at each temperature for 20 minutes

Figure 3: The heat transfer rate of oil at each temperature for 20 minutes
3.2 The Overall Heat Transfer Coefficient
3.2.1 Counter flow

Table 3 : The overall heat transfer coefficient (counter flow) at each temperature for 20 minutes

Figure 4 : U against LMTD, 65°C (counter flow)

3.2.2 Parallel flow

Table 4 : The overall heat transfer coefficient (parallel flow) at each temperature for 20 minutes

Figure 5: U against LMTD, 65°C (parallel flow)

3.2.3 The comparison overall heat transfer coefficient between counter flow and parallel
flow

Figure 6: The overall heat transfer coefficient (counter flow) at each temperature for 20 minutes
4 DISCUSSION

4.1 The heat transfer rate of water and oil

In table 2, it shows the heat transfer rate of water and oil. In the experiment, water gain heat
from the heating medium which is oil. As the temperature of the oil at the entrance of the heat
exchanger increase, the heat gain by the water increase. To calculate the heat transfer rate, the
equation, used. The heat, Q was transferred from the oil to water that cause the
temperature difference for inlet and outlet water. From the equation also, the mass flow rate
and the heat capacity of the water also was being considered. The greater the temperature
difference between inlet and outlet water, the greater the rate of heat transfer. The mass flow
rate was recorded constant throughout the experiment.
For each of input oil temperature, the heat was flow for 20 minutes and the temperatures was
being recorded at each 5 minutes. It shows that, for each temperature 65°C, 70°C, 75°C and
80°C, the heat transfer rate of water was not quite consistent. This may because of the heat
exchanger system was not yet in steady state before the temperature values being recorded. The
steady state is where the temperature of the system reached the temperature of the heat source.
During steady operation, if there is no heat leakage to the surroundings, the energy change for
the hot stream and cold stream must be balance, = (Rattner. A.S., & Greer C.J.). In
this experiment, for example at 65°C at 20 minutes the heat gain by water was 47.71 W while
heat loss by oil was 39.52W. This is because of there was a leakage by the heat exchanger that
the surrounding temperature affected the system. The bad insulation of the heat exchanger also
could affect the results.

In figure 1, the graph for heat transfer rate of water shows that, at 80°C, the heat transfer rate
was higher compared to other temperature at 20 minutes. It is because 80°C was the highest
temperature and more heat supply by the oil. Therefore, more heat was gained by the water. In
figure 2, at 20 minutes, the heat loss by oil was highest at 80°C because much heat was being
transferred to the water.
4.2 The Overall Heat Transfer Coefficient

In table 3 and table 4, the overall heat transfer coefficient was calculated for each temperature
for 20 minutes. It was calculated both for parallel and counter flow. The overall heat transfer
coefficient is a measure of the overall ability of a series of conductive and convective barriers
to transfer heat (Heat Transfer Coefficient, n.d.). The overall heat transfer coefficient, U were
calculated using . It shows that U was directly proportional to heat transfer rate.
U also inversely proportional to log mean temperature difference.

Figure 3 shows that the higher the value of log mean temperature difference, the smaller the
value of U for 65°C. Based on table 3 and 4, the value of log mean temperature difference for
counter flow was higher than parallel flow. So, the U value for counter current flow is lower
than parallel. The experiment should show that the U value for counter current flow is higher
than parallel flow, but it did not happen. This may be because there was an error during
performed the experiment that effect the results such as the system control was not calibrated
well before doing the experiment or the wrong reading of the temperature during the
experiment. There also might be because of unsteady state of the system before recorded the
temperatures.

In figure 5 and 6, at 20 minutes, the overall heat transfer coefficient for counter flow is the
highest at 65°C while for parallel flow, the overall heat transfer coefficient was highest at 80°C.
5 CONCLUSION
After conducting the experiment, various component such as tube and shell could be identified
and working principle of tubular heat exchanger can be analysed. Heat was transferred from
hot oil to water in the heat exchanger by counter current flow or parallel flow.

Based on the experiment, the heat transfer rate at higher temperature was greater compared to
low temperature. This can be shown on Figure 1 and Figure 2, where at 80°C, heat gain of
water was around 56.59164 J/s to 63.24948 J/s, while heat loss of oil was around 98.22956 J/s
to 72.655 J/s.

Overall heat transfer coefficient was directly proportional to heat transfer rate and inversely
proportional to log mean temperature difference. Besides, overall heat transfer coefficient for
counter current flow higher than parallel flow. Based on the result referring table 3 and table
4, this value show opposite of the theory where overall heat transfer coefficient of parallel flow
was higher than counter current flow which 14.78388 W/m2°C and 14.98605 W/m2°C
respectively. This is due to some error occur during the experiment which the system control
was not calibrated well, and the system also might be because of unsteady state of the system
before recorded the temperatures. This experiment shows the efficiency of the system can be
related to the optimum temperature of substance and the flow of the substance in the tubular
heat exchanger.

Some recommendation is to create a software that can generate result directly from the tubular
heat exchanger where important values such as inlet temperature, outlet temperature and flow
rate in the tubular heat exchanger can be shown in the computer. This can help to reduce human
error and produce better result of the experiment.
REFERENCES
[1] Ahmed T. Al-Sammarraie & Kambiz Vafai (2017) Heat transfer augmentation through
convergence angles in a pipe, Numerical Heat Transfer, Part A: Applications, 72:3,
197-214, https://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10407782.2017.1372670
[2] Cengel, Y. (2014). Heat and Mass Transfer: Fundamentals and Applications. McGraw-
Hill Higher Education.
[3] Heat Transfer Coefficient. (n.d.). In Wikipedia. Retrieved January 30, 2020, from
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heat_transfer_coefficient
[4] Rattner.A.S., & Greer.C.J. (n.d.). Heat Exchanger Analysis. Retrieved from:
https://www.jove.com/science-education/10391/heat-exchanger-analysis
APPENDIXES
Table 5 : Calculation for counter flow

Repeat the same calculation for other temperature,70°C, 75°C, and 80°C.
 Table 6: Calculation for parallel flow

Repeat the same calculation for other temperatures 70°C, 75°C and 80°C.