Heat Transfer and Heat Exchangers

Module 9002
Heat Transfer and Heat

Exchangers
Heat Exchangers
• Heaters (sensible heat changes)
• Coolers (sensible heat changes)
• Condensers (also change of state, V to L)

• Evaporators (also change of state, L to V)
Types of Heat Exchanger
• Shell and tube
• Double pipe
• Plate
• Finned tubes/gas heaters
• spiral
• Vessel jackets
• Reboilers and vapourisers/evaporators
Etc
• Direct/indirect
Uses in chemical processes
• Chemical reactors (jackets, internal heat exchangers/calandria)
• Preheating feeds
• Distillation column reboilers
• Distillation column condensers
• Air heaters for driers
• Double cone driers
• evaporators
• Crystallisers
• Dissolving solids/solution
• Production support services – HVAC, etc
• Heat transfer fluids
• etc
continued
Important consideration in:
• Scale-up i.e. laboratory scale (‘kilo lab’) to
pilot plant scale (250 litres) to full plant
scale operation (10000 litres)
• Energy usage and energy costs
• Process design and development
Paul Ashall, 2008

Heat transfer fluids
• Steam (available at various temperatures and pressures)
• Cooling water (15oC)
• Chilled water (5oC)
• Brines (calcium chloride/water fp. -18 deg cent. at 20% by
mass; sodium chloride/water fp. -16.5 deg cent. at 20 % by
mass)
• Methanol/water mixtures
• Ethylene glycol/water mixtures
• Propylene glycol/water mixtures (fp. -22 deg cent at a
concentration of 40% by mass)
• Silicone oils (‘syltherm’)
Low temperature heat transfer fluids
Considerations:
• Temperature(s) required
• Freezing point
• Viscosity
• Specific heat
• Density
• Hazardous properties
Mechanisms for heat transfer
• Conduction
• Convection
• Radiation
Driving force for heat transfer is temperature

difference. Heat will only flow from a hotter
to a colder part of a system.
Heat transfer by conduction
Fouriers law
dQ/dt = -kA(dT/dx)
dQ/dt – rate of heat transfer
k – thermal conductivity
A – area perpendicular to direction of heat
transfer, x
dT/dx – temperature gradient in direction x
Heat transfer by conduction
(steady state)
Q = kmA (ΔT/x)
or q = km (ΔT/x)
q – heat flux, J/s m-2

Q - rate of heat transfer, J/s
km – mean thermal conductivity,
A – area perpendicular to the direction of heat transfer, m2
ΔT – temperature change (T1 – T2), K
x – length, m
Thermal conductivity, k
k (300K), Wm-1 K-1
Copper 400
Water 0.6
air 0.03
Conductive heat transfer through
adjacent layers
Example
Conduction of heat through
cylindrical vessels
Q = k2πLΔT/ln(r2/r1)
L – length of tube/cylinder
r2 external radius
r1 internal radius
AL , log mean wall area
Q = kmAL (T1 – T2)
r 2 – r1
where AL= 2πL (r2 – r1)

ln(r2/r1)
Boundary layers and Heat transfer
coefficients
Determination of overall heat
transfer coefficient
Example – calculation of U
‘thin walled tube’approximation
Assumptions:
• Thin wall and therefore xw is small and
since k is large, term xw/kALis negligible
compared to other terms
• Also A terms cancel as they are
approximately equal
1/U = 1/h1 + 1/h2

Fouling factors
Heat transfer surfaces do not remain clean. They
become contaminated with dirt, scale, biofilms
etc. This has the effect of reducing the overall heat
transfer coefficient and reducing the rate of heat
transfer. We take account of this by adding a term
1/Ahd for each deposit to the equation for the
overall heat transfer coefficient, U, where hd is the
fouling factor for the deposit and A is the
corresponding area term. They represent an
additional resistance to heat transfer.This will
have the effect of reducing U and therefore Q.
Heat flow (duty)
Q = hAΔT
or
Q = UAΔT
Sensible heat changes
Q = mcpΔT
m mass flow, kg/s
Cp specific heat J kg-1 K-1
ΔT change in temperature of fluid
Evaporators/condensers
Enthalpy balance
Enthalpy lost by hot fluid = enthalpy gained
by cold fluid
(Assume negligible heat losses to

surroundings)
Simple double tube single pass heat
exchanger
• Co-current operation
• Counter-current operation
• Temperature profiles
• LMTD
Heat exchanger duty
Q = UAθlmtd
Examples
Multi pass shell and tube heat
exchangers
• LMTD correction factor, F
• LMTD value used is that for counter
current flow with same fluid inlet/outlet
temperatures
Q = UAθlmtdF
Example – double pass
T1
t1
t2
T2
T1 = 455K; T2 = 388K; t1 = 283K; t2 = 372K

continued
P = (372 – 283)/(455 – 283) = 0.52
R = (455 – 388)/(372 – 283) = 0.75
Therefore F= 0.87 (from graph)

To obtain maximum heat recovery from the
hot fluid, t2 must be as high as possible.
T2 – t2 is known as the approach temperature.
Dittus-Boelter equation
Used for calculating h values in circular tubes
under turbulent flow conditions.
Nu = 0.023 Re0.8 Pr 0.4

Simple design
Non-steady state processes
Heat transfer by radiation
q = eσ(T14 – T24)
q – heat flux
e – emissivity (0 to 1) – typically 0.9
σ – Stefan-Boltzmann const.(5.67 x 10-8 W m-2 K-4)
T1 – temp. of body (K)
T2 – temp. of surroundings
Example
Types of heat exchanger – shell &
tube
• Passes
• shell
• Multiple tubes
• Baffles
• Co- and counter current operation
Plate
• Individual separated thin corrugated parallel s.s.
plates
• Gaskets separate plates
• Gap approx. 1.4mm
• Plate and frame arrangement
• High h values at relatively low Re values and low
flow rates
• Can operate with small ΔT
• Reduced fouling
• Easy cleaning
Finned tubes
• Radial fins
• Longitudinal fins
• For air/gas heaters where film heat transfer
coefficients on gas side will be very low compared
with condensing steam on the other side of tube.
Rate of heat transfer is increased by increasing
surface area on side of tube with the limiting (low)
heat transfer coefficient (gas side).
•
References
An Introduction to Industrial Chemistry, Ed. C. A. Heaton
• Concepts of Chemical Engineering 4 Chemists, Ed. S. Simons, RSC,
2007
• Unit Operations of Chemical Engineering, W. L. McCabe et al
• Chemical Engineering Vol. 1, Coulson & Richardson
• Heat Transfer, R. Winterton
• Introduction to Heat Transfer, F. P. Incropera & D. P. DeWitt
• Ullmans Encyclopedia of Industrial Chemistry
• Engineering Thermodynamics

Heat Transfer and Heat Exchangers

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Heat Transfer and Heat Exchangers

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Description:

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Heat Transfer and Heat Exchangers

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Module 9002

Heat Transfer and Heat

• Condensers (also change of state, V to L)

Paul Ashall, 2008

Driving force for heat transfer is temperature

q – heat flux, J/s m-2

where AL= 2πL (r2 – r1)

1/U = 1/h1 + 1/h2

(Assume negligible heat losses to

T1 = 455K; T2 = 388K; t1 = 283K; t2 = 372K

Therefore F= 0.87 (from graph)

Nu = 0.023 Re0.8 Pr 0.4

You might also like