July 1996 POWER PLANT OPERATORS COURSE NOTES HEAT EXCHANGERS‘OF POWER TECHS 7.0 HEAT EXCHANGERS 7.1 PRINCIPLE OF HEAT TRANSFER [IN HEAT EXCHANGERS, {ma steam plant it is often necessary to heat up or cool down a substance. This involves the transfer of heat from one fluid to another in a Heat Exchanger. Fluid in this case means water, steam, gas or air and is not confined to a liquid. Apart from a few exceptions, these heaters are of the non-contact type in which the two fluids are separated by a heat conducting material of metals, such as brass, copper, cupro-nickel and aluminium-brass. The basic principle on which all heat exchangers work is as follows:- (a) There must be a difference in temperature between the hot and the cold fluid. (>) The heat transfer will always take place from the hot to the cold fluid. (c) The quantity of heat transferred depends on the temperature difference between the fluids. (4) The quantity of heat transferred for a given temperature difference depends upon the thermal resistance to heat of the conducting material separating the two fluids. Ti (°C) T2("C) HIGH TEMPERATURE LOW TEMPERATURE FLUD FLUD —— oe HEAT FLOWPOWER TECHNOLOGY _ Let TI be the higher temperature and T2 be the lower temperature. Then the temperature difference is Tl - T2. Suppose that R represents the thermal resistance of the conducting material between the qvo fluids. Then if TE = Tas divided by R, the result represents the quantity Q of heat transferred. This is given by the equation 0 T-12 R Q To take a practical application, consider a condenser when the load on the turbine is increased. The steam entering the condenser is increased and so the quantity of heat Q to be transferred is also increased. Since R is mainly dependant upon the material of the tube and its cleanliness, it may be taken as a constant value for the period the load is increased. Also over this period the inlet temperature of the cooling water is constant and so for more heat to be transferred, the value of Tl must be increased. This means that in the condenser, the difference between the cooling water temperature and the turbine exhaust, steam temperature will increase to obtain a similar cooling water outlet temperature. FEED WATER HEATERS The water extracted from the condenser is at far too low a temperature to feed direct to the boilers and is passed through various stages of feed heating, In the turbine plant there are many drains containing hot water and steam. [f this heat can be recovered, then the efficiency of the turbine cycle will be increased. Many of the drains are passed to a drains cooler, where the heat is transferred to the condensate from the condenser. Further increase in the feed water temperature is obtained by passing it through several feed water heaters in series Bled steam trom the tuebine t supplied to the feed heaters alter Wt has done some