UniSim® Crossflow

Exchanger Modeler
(referred to as UniSim® CFE)

Getting Started Guide

Notices and Trademarks
© Honeywell International Sàrl 2020. All Rights Reserved.

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disclaims the implied warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose and
makes no express warranties except as may be stated in its written agreement with and for
its customer.

In no event is Honeywell liable to anyone for any indirect, special or consequential damages.
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Honeywell International Sàrl

Z.A. La Pièce 16
CH - 1180 Rolle, Switzerland
 Table of Contents
1 Getting Started ..................................................... 1-1
1.1 Introduction .................................................... 1-3
1.2 Calculation Modes ............................................ 1-3
1.3 Example 1 ....................................................... 1-5
1.4 Example 2 ..................................................... 1-12
1.5 Example 3 ..................................................... 1-15

2 Testing the Installation ........................................ 2-1

2.1 Introduction .................................................... 2-3
2.2 Creating Output ............................................... 2-3
2.3 Comparing Outputs .......................................... 2-4

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 i

Introducing UniSim® CFE

Introduction .......................................................................................iii
Manuals .........................................................................................iii
Online Help ....................................................................................iii

Technical Support ................................................................................v

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 iii

Introduction
There are two main sources of documentation for UniSim® CFE that
will be discussed in the following sections:
• Manuals
• Online Help

Manuals
This Getting Started Guide forms part of the documentation supplied
with each UniSim® Heat Exchangers program:
• UniSim® Heat Exchangers User Guide
• UniSim® CFE Getting Started
• UniSim® CFE Reference Guide.

The UniSim® Heat Exchangers User Guide is supplied in pdf format

with the installation media. The Documentation media contains the
UniSim® Heat Exchangers User Guide and all the other documents.
The UniSim® Heat Exchangers User Guide is generic to all UniSim®
Heat Exchangers programs. The Getting Started and Reference Guide
are specific to each UniSim® Heat Exchangers program.

The Getting Started Guide assumes you have access to an installed

copy of the UniSim® Heat Exchangers program, and takes you through
some example cases provided with the program, so you can get a feel
for its capabilities. It also describes how you can run a set of QA sample
cases, and compare the output files with sample results, to confirm that
the operation of the program is as it should be.

More detailed examples, showing how you can use the program to
solve typical problems, are provided in Appendices to the program
Reference Guide.

Online Help
To load the Help when you The Online Help is the most extensive documentation available for
are not running UniSim
CFE, navigate to Program UniSim® CFE. It is available whenever you are running the program, or
Files, Honeywell, UniSim can be loaded separately. There are direct links to appropriate Help
Heat Exchangers Rxxx,
UniSim CFE, CFE.CHM.
topics for every input item, and from many other places in the
program.

The Help provides information on data input and defaults, navigating

through the Interface, the Program Output, and on Errors and
Warnings. There is also general information on crossflow heat

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iv

exchangers, and the reasons for choosing particular design features as

shown below.

Figure 1

You will also find information on UniSim® CFE capabilities, new features
in the latest version, and contact points for user support.
DR61 is the Design Report
detailing the technical The technical methods used in UniSim® CFE are proprietary. These
methods used in UniSim
CFE. methods are described in Design Report DR61.

iv
 v

Technical Support
Technical support is available by phone. Refer to the readme file for a
complete listing of telephone contacts. E-mail support is also available
for customers with a current support contract for their product is
available [email protected].

On-line support can be accessed via http://

www.honeywellprocess.com.

When contacting us via email or phone, please include in your

message:
Your full name, company, phone and fax numbers.
The software version you are using (shown in the Help menu, About
UniSim…).
A detailed description of the problem (attach a simulation case if
possible).

v
 Getting Started 1-1

1 Getting Started

1.1 Introduction .................................................................................. 3

1.2 Calculation Modes.......................................................................... 3

1.2.1 Design.................................................................................... 3
1.2.2 Checking ................................................................................ 3
1.2.3 Simulation .............................................................................. 4

1.3 Example 1...................................................................................... 5

1.4 Example 2.....................................................................................12

1.5 Example 3.....................................................................................15

1-1
 Getting Started 1-3

1.1 Introduction
Included with your UniSim® Crossflow Exchanger Modeler
(referred to as UniSim® CFE) software are a number of example input
files that will familiarize you with the program. The cases are fully
defined and ready to run. You can simply open the cases and run
UniSim® CFE to see the type of output that can be calculated. This
Getting Started Guide will step you through one of these example cases
as a brief introduction to the UniSim® CFE architecture, input options,
and available output information.

A complete set of results for the sample input files is provided in a

separate location for quality assurance purposes in Chapter 2 -
Testing the Installation.

A set of tutorials showing you how to set up input files for specific
problems is included in Chapter 7 - Examples of the Reference Guide.

1.2 Calculation Modes

Before examining and running the example input files, it is important to
define the main types of calculations that UniSim® CFE can perform.
These allow you to calculate the performance of air cooled/crossflow
heat exchangers. The examples in the Reference Guide will elaborate
on this, but for now the calculations will be described in the following
sections.

1.2.1 Design
The program offers a range of exchanger widths and tube lengths,
which satisfy the required thermal duty for a given X-side pressure drop
and tube and fin geometry. The designer can select a design subject to
constraints of maximum tubeside pressure drop and maximum and
minimum tubeside velocities.

1.2.2 Checking
UniSim® CFE now offers a checking option which calculates a heat
transfer area ratio (actual/required) to indicate whether a given
exchanger will meet a required duty, calculated from the tubeside
flowrate and inlet and outlet conditions. An area ratio equal to or
greater than unity indicates that the exchanger will meet the required
duty.

1-3
1-4 Calculation Modes

1.2.3 Simulation
UniSim® CFE offers nine simulation options:
• Standard simulation. Calculates the tubeside outlet
temperature from the tubeside inlet temperature and flowrate,
and the X-side inlet temperature and flowrate. Similar to the
tubeside outlet temperature option described below, but uses a
combined forward and backward iteration technique.
• Tubeside outlet temperature. Calculated from the tubeside
inlet temperature and flowrate, and the X-side inlet temperature
and flowrate. Similar to the Standard Simulation described
above, but uses a purely forward iteration technique.
• Tubeside inlet temperature. Calculated from the tubeside
outlet temperature and flowrate, and the X-side inlet
temperature and flowrate.
• Natural convection. Calculates the X-side flowrate during
natural convection. Can be used when all fans in an air-cooled
heat exchanger are switched off.
• Tubeside flowrate. Calculated from the tubeside stream inlet
and outlet temperatures and the X-side inlet temperature and
flowrate.
• X-side flowrate. Calculated from the specified tubeside
conditions and the X-side inlet temperature.
• Tubeside fouling resistance. Calculates a hypothetical
tubeside fouling resistance to give a process duty that matches
the duty calculated from the input tubeside conditions. This
gives an indication of the surplus heat transfer surface area
available.
• X-side face velocity. Calculates the X-side mass flowrate from
a given X-side face velocity (at actual conditions) and the bundle
geometry and then carries out a Standard Simulation (see
above).
• Bundle pressure drop. Calculates the X-side mass flowrate
from a given bundle pressure drop (at actual conditions), inlet X-
side stream density and the bundle geometry.

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 Getting Started 1-5

1.3 Example 1
In this first example we will take a brief look at how an existing dataset
can be reviewed, run and the outputs accessed.
1. Start UniSim® CFE. This can be done several ways and will depend
on how you set up your desktop. However, the two main ways are:
• Click the Start menu, then Programs, Honeywell, UniSim
Heat Exchangers Rxxx and UniSim CFE menu as shown
below.

Figure 1.1

• Use Windows Explorer and navigate to the CFE executable file.

After UniSim® CFE loads, you will see the main UniSim® CFE window
and over this is the Welcome view. From this view you can either
create a New file or open an Existing file. (If you have used UniSim®
CFE previously, the project file you have worked with will appear in the
Recently Used Project File list, making it easy to get back to files
you were recently working on.)
2. Click the Existing button, to select an Existing file as shown below.

Figure 1.2

1-5
1-6 Example 1

3. The Open Case view appears as shown.

Figure 1.3

4. Navigate to the following directory:

C:\Program Files\Honeywell\UniSim Heat Exchangers Rxxx\UniSim
CFE\Samples.

(This is the default directory, the exact location may be different if you
changed the UniSim® CFE destination directory during installation.)
5. Select the file QCFE01.CFEI. When the file has loaded, the Process
Diagram view appears within the UniSim® CFE window as shown
below.

Figure 1.4

If you cannot remember where a file is located, there is a

Find File utility to help you. Select Find File from the File
Menu or use the keyboard shortcut by pressing CTRL F.

To open other files, select Open from the File menu.

1-6
 Getting Started 1-7

To use the Welcome view again, select Start Project from the View
menu. (Note however, that you can only have one project active at a
time.)
1. Click on Input in the menu bar.
Open icon
For most common Figure 1.5
activities there are
shortcuts. To open a file,
you can either click on the
Open icon, or use the
keyboard shortcut by
pressing CTRL O.

The Input menu gives access to all of the input data. The menu itself is
divided into the different types of data you need to describe the heat
exchanger and the operating conditions. These include different aspects
of geometry, process conditions and physical properties.
2. Select Bundle Geometry from the Input menu. The Bundle
Geometry view appears as shown below.

Figure 1.6

You should see values which give the basic bundle details such as
nozzle and header data. This view is typical in that the data is entered
Bundle Geometry icon in either a text box or via a drop-down list. The drop-down list shows

1-7
1-8 Example 1

the list of possible values that you can enter.

If at any point you are not sure what input you want or
something is not clear, you can press F1 and get context
sensitive help. (i.e., if you select the Type of Header and
press F1, you can see a list of the Header Types.)

3. Look at the process data by selecting Process Data from the Input
menu, by clicking on the Process Data button or by clicking on the
navigation tree. The Process Data view appears as shown in the
following figure.
Process Data icon
Figure 1.7

4. This shows another view where the input items are arranged in the
form of a spreadsheet. If the data do not fit on the view, a scroll bar
allows you to access the other input items. The spreadsheet view is
used when data are required several times (in this case, for the two
streams in the exchanger).

The left column is for the Tubeside Stream, and the right
column is for the X-side Stream.

5. Finally, look briefly at the physical properties input by selecting

Physical Properties.

The top level information about each stream is shown in the following

1-8
 Getting Started 1-9

figure.

Figure 1.8

Depending on the type of physical property data you are working with,
you can either enter the property data for the stream directly or enter
data for components and allow UniSim® CFE to perform vapour liquid
equilibrium and mixture calculations. All of the physical property data
are managed through these views.

Since this is an existing case, all the necessary data has already been
entered.
6. Run UniSim® CFE by doing one of the following:
• Click on the Run icon in the tool bar;
• Open the Run menu and select Calculate All;
• Press F4.
Run icon
UniSim® CFE now displays a status window that reports the progress
of the run.

When the run is complete, there are three possible outcomes and
corresponding outputs appear.
• Successful run with no fatal errors and no warnings. A view
showing the Results Summary appears.
• Successful run with no fatal errors but with one or more
warnings. The Results Summary appears with the Error/
Message Log which contains a description of the warnings that
occurred.
• Failed run due to fatal errors. The Error/Message Log is shown
with a description of the errors that occurred.

1-9
1-10 Example 1

For this case, you will see the Results Summary which shows important
results as shown below.

Figure 1.9

There are many different outputs that can be viewed from the Output
menu as shown below.

Figure 1.10

Now you will look at the different types of output available.

1-10
 Getting Started 1-11

The first group of outputs are all special “Windows” outputs (views of
the data that are in the form of graphs or tables):
1. Open the Output menu.
2. Select Graphical Results.
3. Select either Pressure Drops or Detailed Results views of the
exchanger components.
4. Select Tubeside Pressure Drop.
5. Select Chart.

This produces a graph of pressure drop through the tubeside

components as shown below. This will alert you to any unusual
behaviour such as a high nozzle pressure drop.

Figure 1.11

Next there are outputs in the form of an API Specification Sheet. The
first of these requires that you have Word for Windows available (this
must be setup via Preferences from the File menu). The second is a
view of the built in API sheet. (You will look at this further in the second
example.)

If you want to know how your exchanger may appear, the Setting Plan

1-11
1-12 Example 2

can give you various views such as that shown below.

Figure 1.12

You can also get a budget estimate of a capital cost of a complete air-
cooled heat exchanger unit by selecting Budget Cost from the output
menu.

The next group of outputs offers the facility to view the physical
properties of each stream in tabulated format and perform various
plots. It also offers tabulated information on temperature-enthalpy-
quality (THX) data and stream composition.

The final group of files are outputs generated directly by the calculation
engine. They are all text files and contain different aspects of results
generated. Of these, the one that you are most likely to use is the
Lineprinter Output which contains all of the important information for
your run.

1.4 Example 2
In the first example, you saw that there is a lot of data that can be
entered for UniSim® CFE which demonstrates its full power. It is
possible to reduce the amount of input you must consider in two ways:
• Basic mode
• Interactive API Input Sheet

To demonstrate data input through Basic Mode:

1. Open the Window menu and select Close All to close all the open

1-12
 Getting Started 1-13

views.
2. Open the File menu and select New. The Start up view appears as
shown below.

Figure 1.13

All the main input views have keyboard shortcuts; for

instance, the Start up view is SHIFT F1; and Physical
Properties Data is SHIFT F12.

The Start up view (shown in Figure 1.13), also appears when you
create a new file. It is here that you must make a decision about what
type of calculation will be performed. You will see that Calculation Mode
is currently set to Simulation; the Simulation Option is set to Standard
Simulation, and the X-side Option is set to Dry Air.
3. Check the Basic Mode checkbox and click OK.

In this input mode you will see the information needed to model the
heat exchanger, but many of the special features, options and
capabilities are hidden. To demonstrate this, click on the Input menu
(as shown below) and you will see some of the input items are now

1-13
1-14 Example 2

hidden in comparison with Figure 1.5.

Figure 1.14

4. Now select API Input from the Input menu. The API Input view
appears as shown below.

Figure 1.15

1-14
 Getting Started 1-15

Many of the fields are blue. These are input fields and are directly
connected to the main input forms. You can make changes here and
they will be reflected in the main inputs. If you are creating a new case
and you have data available in the form of an API Sheet, this method
may speed up your data input.

Additional fields in grey allow the addition of comments or items that

are not actually required for UniSim® CFE to run but may be useful in
completing an API Sheet that can be printed.

1.5 Example 3
The main objective of this example is to demonstrate the UniSim® CFE
Design Option capability.
1. Use Close All from the Window menu to close all the current
views.
2. Select Open from the File menu to open the design example file
QCFE07.CFEI from the default directory \Program
Files\Honeywell\UniSim Heat Exchangers Rxxx\UniSim
CFE\Samples. The Process Diagram view appears as shown below.

Figure 1.16

Design Mode is indicated

on the Process Diagram.

By choosing the design option, the number of input items required for
your exchanger are reduced (i.e., the input for Bundle Geometry). For
example, in this case the Nozzles and Header details will disappear
and other items will need less input data.

The most important input data required for the Design Option are
Design Parameters for ACHE Geometry and Process Data where
minimum and maximum values for these Design Parameters are
defined to produce a range of exchanger designs.

1-15
1-16 Example 3

3. Open the Run menu. Select Calculate All.

4. Click on the Run button, or press F4 to run the design. The
UniSim® CFE Design Envelope appears as shown in the following
figure.
Run icon

Figure 1.17

The details of the design are shown under the The Possible Designs tab will show you
Selected Design tab and are calculated from the other designs for the total exchanger width
information given under the Design Data tab. and tube length selected. The selected
When a design has been selected, it can be design has the lowest total number of fans
refined by running a simulation. and bundles.

When the mouse cursor

is within the design
envelope, the overall
exchanger width and
tube length are shown
for the current location
at the bottom left of the
screen.

Select a design by clicking in the Feasible Design Area. When the

cursor is within this area, the text “Feasible Design Area” appears in
the status bar at the bottom of the graph, and the cursor shape
changes to a cross-hair.

The Design Envelope consists of four lines:

• Thermal duty line which shows all of the heat exchanger sizes
(overall exchanger width and tube length) that will satisfy the
thermal duty;
• Maximum tubeside pressure drop line which shows the locus
of all points where the tubeside pressure drop is equal to the
maximum specified;
• Maximum & minimum tubeside velocity lines which show
the relationship between the overall exchanger width and the
tube length for given maximum and minimum tubeside
velocities.

1-16
 Testing the Installation 2-1

2 Testing the Installation

2.1 Introduction .................................................................................. 3

2.2 Creating Output ............................................................................. 3

2.3 Comparing Outputs........................................................................ 4

2-1
 Testing the Installation 2-3

2.1 Introduction
A set of twelve sample UniSim® CFE cases, including both input and
output files are provided with UniSim® CFE for Quality Assurance (QA)
purposes. As a check that you have installed UniSim® CFE correctly,
you should run the input files and compare your results files with those
provided.

UniSim® CFE files have a file extension .CFEx (where x is an indicator

of the type of file (input or one of the various outputs). A full listing is
given in the Online Help.

When you installed the software, the QA files are stored in a

subdirectory (QADATA) of the directory containing the main UniSim®
CFE folder. The twelve sample cases have file names QCFE01 to
QCFE12, and file extensions are .QAx instead of .CFEx. The different
extensions are used to ensure that you do not accidentally overwrite
the QA files when running UniSim® CFE.

UniSim Heat Exchanger Copies of the twelve QA input files, with the standard input file
programs are now installed
to \Program
extension .CFEI are installed in the ....\UniSim Heat Exchangers
Files\Honeywell\UniSim Rxxx\UniSim CFE\Samples directory by the installation procedure.
Heat Exchangers Rxxx.

2.2 Creating Output

The first test on the installation is with QCFE1:
1. Copy the QCFE01.QAI file from the ....\UniSim Heat
Exchangers Rxxx\UniSim CFE\QADATA directory to another
directory (e.g., ....\My Documents\My UniSim Heat Exchanger
Cases).
2. Rename the file, and give it the extension .CFEI (for example
MYTEST1.CFEI.
3. Start UniSim® CFE. On the view that appears, click on Existing.
Navigate to
My Documents\My UniSim Heat Exchanger Cases\MYTEST1.CFEI.
4. UniSim® CFE loads the case.
5. Run UniSim® CFE with this case.
6. Compare the results files from your run with the results files
supplied with UniSim® CFE.
7. Checks may be repeated with the other QA files supplied.

2-3
2-4 Comparing Outputs

2.3 Comparing Outputs

Your calculated results are files named MYTEST1.CFEx, in directory
\My Documents\My UniSim Heat Exchanger Cases and these
need to be compared with the supplied results files QCFE01.CFEx in
directory ....\UniSim Heat Exchangers Rxxx\UniSim
CFE\QADATA.

The most important comparisons are the .CFEV and .CFEL files but
Remember, the QADATA
files supplied with other files can be compared as well. The .CFEV file is the Results
UniSim® CFE have the Summary and is a relatively short file. You can do the comparison
extension .QAx.
using a file difference utility, or by printing off the two files and looking
for differences.

If the files are identical, (except for the run time and input file name
recorded in the output), the QA check is successful. If the files differ
slightly, but only in the fourth or fifth significant figure of one or two
variables, the QA check on this example is also successful. If there are
more significant differences, consult Honeywell.

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