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Summers, C.
DOI: 10.1615/AtoZ.a.air_cooled_heat_exchangers
Introduction
Water shortage and increasing costs, together with more recent concerns about water pollution
and cooling tower plumes, have greatly reduced industry's use of water cooled heat
exchangers. Consequently, when further heat integration within the plant is not possible, it is
now usual to reject heat directly to the atmosphere, and a large proportion of the process
cooling in refineries and chemical plants takes place in Air Cooled Heat Exchangers (ACHEs).
There is also increasing use of Air Cooled Condensers for power stations. The basic principles
are the same but these are specialized items and are normally configured as an A-frame or
"roof type". These condensers may be very largethe condensers for a 4000 MW power station
in South Africa have over 2300 tube bundles, 288 fans each 9.1 m in diameter and a total plot
area 500 m 70 m.
ACHEs for process plants are normally just called Aircoolers, but should not be confused with
devices for cooling air (best described as Air Chillers).
The design of an ACHE is more complex than for a Shell and Tube Heat Exchanger, as there
are many more components and variables.
Construction
The principle component of an ACHE is the tube bundle, of which there may be many, normally
comprising finned tubes terminating in header boxes. The fins are most commonly spirally
wound aluminum strips 12.7 103 m or 15.9 103 m high and with 275 to 433 fins/m. There
are two main types of wound fin which are usually known as L-fin and G-fin. There are several
variations of the former typesingle, overlapped, and knurled, but all suffer a high contact
resistance, which increases with temperature due to differential expansion between the fin and
the core tube. Embedded fins (G-fins) are wound into a groove in the core tube which is then
peened back providing a mechanical bond. This gives better heat transfer but requires a thicker
core tube. Integral fins extruded from an aluminum sheath are often used for more severe
environments, and instead of embedded fins with expensive core tubes. When an exceptionally
long life is required in aggressive environments galvanized steel fins can be the best choice,
and these frequently use elliptical tubes, which also have improved airflow characteristics. Core
tubes may be carbon steel, stainless steel or various alloys and are usually of 25.4 103 m
outside diameter. For low pressure or highly viscous applications the tubes can be up to 50.8
103 m diameter. Tube lengths vary to suit the installation, which will often be over a piperack,
but generally do not exceed 15 m. (See also Extended Surfaces Heat Transfer).
Unlike most other pressure vessels an ACHE header box is normally rectangular in cross-
section, and the most widely used type has threaded plugs opposite each tube for access.
Various coverplate types may be used for low pressures, and for high pressures (up to 500 bar)
manifold headers made from thick walled pipe or forged billets are needed. When there could
be a large temperature drop across a multipass tube bundle, split headers may be necessary to
accommodate differential expansion between passes.
The air is moved over the tubes in a single crossflow pass by axial flow fans, which may be
arranged for forced or induced draught. Forced draught is suitable for most applications, has
easier maintenance and is by far the more common. Induced draught gives a more even air
distribution across the tubes, but requires more power as the fans are in the hot air stream. This
latter point also means that induced draught is not suitable for high process temperatures, but is
advisable for a close temperature approach as exit velocities are higher and hot air recirculation
less likely. For induced draught installations with fan diameters greater than 2.4 m the motor and
speed reducer will normally be mounted below the tube bundles, with an extended drive shaft,
as shown in Figure 2 There are normally at least two fans in each exchanger bay so that
significant cooling is maintained in the event of a partial failure, and it is preferable for fans to
cover at least 40% of the total bundle face area.