ENERGETIC ANALYSIS OF HEAT EXCHANGERS __ .

ENERGETIC ANALYSIS OF PLATE AND SHELL AND TUBE HEAT

EXCHANGERS

Laboratory practice for the course Termodinámica I - IQU700

Departamento de Ingeniería Química
Universidad de Antioquia

Prepared by: Mauricio Sánchez 2014-2

OBJECTIVES
 Understand heat exchangers’ performance
 Verify the accomplishment of the first law of thermodynamics
 Calculate energy transfer by every mechanism present

 Heat exchangers: The term heat exchanger is a generic name

for a group of equipments that are used for achieving energy
transfer processes by heat transfer, generally between two
substances that flow confined and separately, in order to fit
process streams out or to recover chimney’s heat. In this
energetic exchange one of the streams loses heat and gets
colder (the stream with the highest temperature) while the
other stream gains heat and gets warmer (the stream with the
lowest temperature), for which an energetic imbalance must
exist showed on a temperature difference (Which is the
direction of heat flow?).

Heat exchangers classification according to their function:

 The Condensers are equipments where one of the streams is a

vapor that is condensed and the other can be a gas or liquid
that is heated; the condenser can be either total or partial,
in the first case, the whole vapor is condensed and can be
stored, in the second case, part of the vapor is condensed
for pre-heating process streams.
 In the coolers a liquid or gas is cooled with a utility
stream, usually water or refrigerant (Where does the removed
heat in condensation and cooling go?)
 The heaters are useful for heating process streams with a hot
gas or steam.
 The boilers are used for boiling a liquid, generally in the
bottom or low part of distillation or fractionating towers
and they can make the liquid circulation forced or natural.

PREPARED BY: MAURICIO SÁNCHEZ ___________________________________________________ 1

ENERGETIC ANALYSIS OF HEAT EXCHANGERS __ .

 The vaporizers just vaporize the liquid partially.

 The super-heater generally uses a combustion gas or process
stream to increase the temperature of the steam more than the
saturation temperature the process pressure.
 The heat generators are used for producing steam at
relatively low pressures, generally taking advantage of the
waste heat of some process streams; they are equipments of
heat recovery nature.
 The waste steam boiler takes advantage of the heat of a
reaction for generating steam.

Heat exchangers have physically a wide variety of

configurations and characteristics which make each of them
suitable for a particular application. Some examples are tube
and shell, concentric tubes, plates, coils, spiral, bayonet,
and so on. The most used are clearly the tube and shell,
because of their wide applications, variety of configurations,
versatility of applications, huge rank of pressures and
temperatures, knowledge and development of materials and
technology for their construction; they occupy almost the 80%
of the total of the costs of the sold heat exchangers in Europe
and they are considered the “fighting horse” of the heat
transfer equipments.

The most used flow configuration is countercurrent, which means

that fluids flow in opposite directions. (Why is it the most
used configuration?).

Figures 1 and 2 shown the main components of shell and tube

heat exchangers.

 Technical data of the tube and shell exchangers used at the

laboratory:

Heat Exchanger N° 1. Condenser (steam - water):

Internal diameter of the shell = 4”

Wall thickness of the shell = 0.083”
2 pass tube side.
21 copper tubes, 3’ pass long.
External diameter of tubes = 0.375”
Internal diameter of tubes = 0.315”
Condenser is isolated with glass wool.
Steam through shell and water through tubes.

PREPARED BY: MAURICIO SÁNCHEZ ___________________________________________________ 2

ENERGETIC ANALYSIS OF HEAT EXCHANGERS __ .

Figure 1. Main parts of a heat exchanger.

Figure 2. Tube and shell exchanger, single pass tube side and single
pass Shell side in counter-current.

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ENERGETIC ANALYSIS OF HEAT EXCHANGERS __ .

Heat Exchanger N° 2. Cooler (water – water):

Internal diameter of the shell = 4”
Wall thickness of the shell = 0.083”
2 pass tube side, 31 baffles.
44 copper tubes, 4’ pass long.
Tubes OD = 0.375”, ID= 0.315”
Gtubo (Lb/hr ft2) = 6240 x (Lb/min) collected
Gcamisa (Lb/hr ft2) = 4800 x (Lb/min) collected

Separation bafles cut at 3” letting 9 free tubes

Cut section area 0.0125 ft2
Heat Exchanger 2: 11 separations at 2.75” between centers

Heat Exchanger N° 3. Cooler (water – water):

Internal diameter of the shell = 4”
Wall thickness of the shell = 0.083”
2 pass tube side, 15 baffles.
44 copper tubes by pass, 4’ pass long.
Tubes OD = 0.375”, ID= 0.59”
Gtubo (Lb/hr ft2) = 6240 x (Lb/min) collected
Gcamisa (Lb/hr ft2) = 4800 x (Lb/min) collected

Separation bafles cut at 3” letting 9 free tubes

Cut section area 0.0125 ft2
Heat Exchanger 2: 11 separations at 2.75” between centers

 Technical data of the plate exchanger used as cooler at the

laboratory:

Plate material= Stainless Steel AISI 304

Plate number= 99
Plate length= 18.1102”
Plate weight= 2.1260”
Plate thickness= 0.0276”
Space between plates= 0.0858”
Separation between fluids= 0.1181”
Shrinkage depth= 0.0827”

Figures 3 and 4 show the main components of plate heat

exchanger. Figures 5 and 6 show images of the real heat
exchangers located at the laboratory and its assemblies.

PREPARED BY: MAURICIO SÁNCHEZ ___________________________________________________ 4

ENERGETIC ANALYSIS OF HEAT EXCHANGERS __ .

Figure 3. Main parts of a plate heat exchanger.

Figure 4. Plate heat exchanger operation.

PREPARED BY: MAURICIO SÁNCHEZ ___________________________________________________ 5

ENERGETIC ANALYSIS OF HEAT EXCHANGERS __ .

Figure 5. Shell and tube heat exchangers assembly.

Figure 6. Plate exchanger assembly.

PREPARED BY: MAURICIO SÁNCHEZ ___________________________________________________ 6

ENERGETIC ANALYSIS OF HEAT EXCHANGERS __ .

 Aspects for safe operation

 Identify the direction and path of fluids in the heat
exchanger assembly.
 Identify each one of the valves in the heat exchanger
assembly.
 Make connections between the heat exchangers by flexible
hoses and make sure they are properly connected.
 To operate the equipment, first purge condensate, then water
supply valve must be opened and water flowing, then the steam
supply valve can be opened. At the end of the practice, close
the steam supply valve first and later the water supply
valve.
 The steam supply pressure of the condenser must not exceed 5
psig, because higher values can produce leakage problems of
the working fluids.
 It is important to take into account that all pipes either
cold or hot look the same. For that reason, before having
contact with any of these devices, verify which fluid is
flowing through them.
 It would be appropriate to use gloves to manipulate the
valves, because the temperature of some of them could get
considerably high.

 Calculations:
 Calculate the potential and kinetic energy changes in each
tube and in the shell
 Energy transferred in each device and heat losses
 Efficiencies
 Operation costs analysis
 Answer to the questions formulated in the document
 ¿Could you simulate the process and compare with the
experimental results?

 Results analysis and conclusions.

- Prepare an analytical and critical analysis of the results
based on the thermodynamics laws and your engineering
knowledge.

* A lot of thanks to: Nicolás Ferreira for the valuable help in

the translation of the original version of this document;
Cristian González for his valuable help in the edition of the
plate heat exchangers part.

PREPARED BY: MAURICIO SÁNCHEZ ___________________________________________________ 7