Experiment No.

9
PERFORMANCE TESTS OF A PARALLEL AND COUNTER FLOW HEAT
EXCHANGER
Aim: To determine and compare LMTD, overall heat transfer coefficient and
effectiveness of a heat exchanger in parallel flow and counter flow mode
Apparatus required: A tube-in-tube heat exchanger, Hot water bath, Cold (ambient) water
source, valves, pipe connection to provide parallel or counter flow configuration, Stop watch,
thermometers to measure inlet and outlet cold and hot water temperatures. measuring flask.
Introduction:
Heat exchanger is a device in which heat is transferred from hot fluid to cold fluid. An indirect
contact or transfer type heat exchanger is one in which hot and cold fluids do not make direct
contact, but they are separated by a partition wall. Examples: shell and tube type heat
exchanger. Tube-in-tube heat exchanger (concentric tubes). In the latter type one fluid flows
inside the centre tube and another fluid flows in annular space formed between inner and
outer tube. The heat transfer takes place across the wall of the inner tube. Although both the
fluids flow through the exchanger simultaneously, there is no mixing of the two fluids, there
are no moving parts.
Fig. P!r!""#" !nd count#r $"o% HX %it& t#'(#r!tur# di)tri*ution
The transfer type heat exchangers are further classified as:
Parallel flow: Both fluids flow in same direction.
Counter flow: Both fluids flow in opposite direction.
Cross flow: Fluids flow at right angle to each other.
In Fig. 1 T
hi
and T
ho
are the inlet and exit temperatures of the hot fluid and T
ci
and T
co
are the inlet and exit temperatures of the cold fluid. It is obvious from the temperature
distribution shown that for parallel flow arrangement T
co
cannot exceed T
ho
in order to
satisfy the second law of thermodynamics and in practice it is necessary that there
shall be a finite temperature difference between the two fluids in order to have a finite
amount of heat transfer. ence T
co
is always less than T
ho
for a parallel

flow heat
Hot fluid out at T
ho
Hot fluid at T
hi
T
ci
T
co
A
T
hi

T
ci
T
ho
T
co


A
T
ho


T
ci


T
hi

T
co
A B
T
C,i
T
C,O
T
C,i
exchanger. The temperature difference between the two fluids is !uite large at one
end of the exchanger and decreases considerably as we proceed towards the other
end.
In the counter flow type of exchanger both the fluids flow parallel to" but opposite to
each other. It can be seen from Fig.1#b$ that T
co
has to be less than T
hi
to satisfy the
second law. owever it is possible to have T
co
% T
ho
in a counter flow arrangement.
Figure & shows the heat exchanger set up.

Fig. + Tu*#,in,tu*# &#!t #-c&!ng#r
Heat exchanger dimensions
Cold water pipe inner diameter = 12.7 mm
Hot water pipe inner diameter = 18 mm
Hot water pipe outer diameter = 25.4 mm
Length of heat exchanger = 1000 mm
Theory
The heat in a heat exchanger is first transferred from hot fluid to wall by convection, through
the wall by conduction, and from the wall to cold fluid by convection again. Figure 3 shows the
heat flow path and thermal resistances involved.
Fig.+ T&#r'!" r#)i)t!nc# n#t%or.
The total thermal resistances associated with this heat transfer process involves two
convection and one conduction resistances as shown in Fig. 2. Here the subscripts i and o
pertain to inside and outside surfaces of the inner tube of the heat exchanger. For double pipe
heat exchanger, A
i
= 'd
i
L, and A
o
= 'd
o
L, and the thermal resistance of the tube wall is given
by
#1$
where k is thermal conductivity of tube material and L is the length of the tube. Therefore, the
total resistance for a double pipe heat exchanger with clean surfaces can be expressed as
#&$
where A
i
is the area of the inner surface of the tube wall that separates the two fluids and A
o
is
area of its outer surface. In the analysis of heat exchanger, it is convenient to combine all the
thermal resistances in the path of heat flow from hot fluid to cold fluid as
#($
where U is overall heat transfer coefficient. It is measured in W/m
2
.K. After cancelling T
from eqn. (14.3), the overall heat transfer coefficient can be expressed as
#)$
The overall heat transfer coefficient based on outside tube surface can be expressed as:
U
O
=
1
A
O

R
th
=
1
A
O
A
i
h
i
+
A
O
2 L k
ln(
d
O
d
i
)+
1
h
O
=
1
d
O
d
i
h
i
+
d
O
2 k
ln(
d
O
d
i
)+
1
h
O
#*$
The overall heat transfer coefficient based on inside tube surface can be expressed as:
U
O
=
1
A
i

R
th
=
1
1
h
i
+
A
i
2 L k
ln(
d
O
d
i
)+
A
i
A
O
h
O
=
1
1
h
i
+
d
i
2 k
ln(
d
O
d
i
)+
d
i
d
O
h
O
#+$
When wall thickness of the tube is small and its thermal conductivity is high, then thermal
resistance of the tube can be neglected (R
wall
= 0) and then inner and outer surfaces of the tube
are identical (A
i
= A
o
). The eqn. for overall heat transfer coefficient simplifies to
U=
1
1
h
i
+
1
h
O
=
h
i
h
O
h
i
+h
O
" W/m
2
K #,$
The overall heat transfer coefficient U is dominated by the smaller heat transfer coefficient,
since the inverse of the small value is large. If one of the convection coefficient is much smaller
than the other, the value of overall heat transfer coefficient is almost equal to smaller
convection coefficient.
Evaluation of U using heat transfer correlations
Mean hot fluid temperature = T
hot
=
T
h,O
+T
h,i
2
Mean cold fluid temperature = T
cold
=
T
c,O
+T
c,i
2
Find time(s) to collect 500CC of hot/cold fluid
Mass flow rate = m
hot
=
0. 5 x 10
3
x
hot
t
hot
, kg/s
m
cold
=
0.5 x 10
3
x
cold
t
cold
, kg/s
Heat capacities of fluid = C =
m c
p

C
hot
= m
hot
c
p,h

C
cold
= m
cold
c
p,c
Selection of
C
min
If
C
hot
>
C
cold
then
C
min
=
C
cold
otherwise
C
min
=
C
hot
If
C
cold
>
C
hot
then
C
min
=
C
hot
otherwise
C
min
=
C
cold
Heat transfer by the fluid =

Q = m c
p
T
, W

Q
hot
= m
hot
c
p,h
(T
h,i
T
h,O
) = C
hot
(T
h,i
T
h,O
)

Q
cold
= m
cold
c
p,c
(T
c,O
T
c,i
) = C
cold
(T
c,O
T
c,i
)
Evaluation of inside (hot fluid) heat transfer coefficient:
Area of inner tube = A
i
=
d
i
2
4
, m
2

Velocity of inside fluid =
v
i
=
m
hot
A
i
x
hot
Reynolds number of flow =
Re
i
=

hot
v
i
d
i

hot
and Prandtl number =
Pr
i
=

hot
c
p,hot
k
hot
Depending on the value of Re and Pr select appropriate Nu correlation.
Ex: For turbulent flow Nu= 0. 023 Re
0. 8
Pr
13
.
Inside heat transfer coefficient = h
i
=
Nu x k
hot
d
Evaluation of outside (cold fluid) heat transfer coefficient:
Note that the cold fluid flows in the annulus space.
Area of annulus = A
O
=
( D
O
2
D
i
2
)
4
, m
2
Velocity of annulus fluid =
v
O
=
m
cold
A
O
x
cold
Reynolds number of flow =
Re
O
=

cold
v
O
( D
O
D
i
)

cold
and Prandtl number =
Pr
i
=

cold
c
p,cold
k
cold
Depending on the value of Re and Pr select appropriate Nu correlation.
Ex: For turbulent flow Nu= 0. 023 Re
0. 8
Pr
13
.
Outside heat transfer coefficient =
h
O
=
Nu x k
cold
( D
O
D
i
)
Neglecting the tube wall material thermal resistance the overall heat transfer coefficient is
evaluated using Eqn (7) as
U=
h
i
h
O
h
i
+h
O
, W/m
2
K
The total heat transfer rate between the hot and cold fluids can also be calculated by using
overall heat transfer coefficient and surface area as:

Q= U
O
A
O
T
LM
= U
i
A
i
T
LM (8)
Where U= overall heat transfer coefficient (based on outer or inner surface), W/m
2
K, A = area
(outer or inner), m
2
, T
LM
= Log mean temperature difference, K
The temperature difference T between hot and cold fluids is large at the inlet of heat
exchanger and it decreases exponentially towards the outlet in parallel flow. Therefore a log
mean temperature difference is used and is defined as
T
LM
=
T
i
T
O
ln
[
T
i
T
O
]
(9)
Where
Parallel
flow
Counter
flow
T
i
T
h,i
- T
c,i
T
h,i
- T
c,o
T
O
T
h,o
- T
c,o
T
h,o
-T
c,i
D
O
D
i
Direct comparison of LMTD equations for parallel and counterflow heat exchanger indicates
that, for the same set of inlet and exit temperatures,
[
T
LM
]
p!ll"l #lo$ "xch%&"!
<
[
T
LM
]
cou%t"!#lo$ "xch%&"!
Hence, for the same values of U in both exchangers, the parallel flow exchanger requires a
greater heat transfer surface area A than does the pure counterflow exchanger.
Comparison of effectiveness of heat exchanger in both arrangements:
Effectiveness of heat exchanger =
'=
Actul h"t t!%(#"! !t"
Mximum po((i)l" h"t t!%(#"! !t"
Actual heat transfer rate for hot fluid =
m
h
c
p,h
(T
h,i
T
h,O
)

= Actual heat transfer rate for cold fluid
=
m
c
c
p,c
(T
c,O
T
c,i
)
Maximum possible heat transfer rate = (
m c
p
)
min
( T
h,i
T
c,i
)
Number of Transfer Units (NTU) for a heat exchanger is defined as:
NTU=
U A
C
min
NTU is a dimensionless quantity and is a direct measure of the size, the heat transfer area.
Capacity Ratio (R) is defined as:
R =
C
min
C
max
Effectiveness of a heat exchaner can !e ex"resse# in terms of $%& an# R.
'or "arallel flo( heat exchaner)
'=
1"
NTU (1 +R)
(1+R)
Similarly for counter flow heat exchanger the effectiveness is given as follows:
'=
1"
NTU (1 +R)
1R "
NTU (1R)
Procedure
With help of valve arrangement on the apparatus, it is made to act as parallel flow
heat exchanger.
The heater in the geyzer is switched on and water flow rate for hot and cold streams
are kept constant with the controlled opening of valves.
The flow rate for both the fluids is measured by measuring flask and stop watch.
At steady state condition the inlet and outlet temperatures of both fluids are
measured by thermometers.
Experiment is repeated
The above procedure is repeated for counter flow arrangement.
Tabular column
Flow configuration: Parallel flow / Counter flow
Sl.
No.
Temperature,
0
C
Time for
collecting 500 cc,
s
L
M
T
D
U
N
T
U
-
T
C,i
T
C,O
T
H,i
T
H,O
Hot Cold