Experimental analysis of coil finned tube type Heat Exchanger

for Helium Liquefaction plant

Patel Jay Mahendrakumar1, Prof. S.M Mehta2
1,2
L.D. College of Engineering, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Ahmedabad-15
Over view

Introduction
Literature Survey
Problem Formulation
Design Methodology
Drawings and Specifications
Certificates and images
Proposed Experimental Set up
References

Introduction
Gas liquefaction system :Very crucial part as it is used to liquefy
various gases like N2 , O2 ,He, etc.., Various types of it like lindehampson, preooled linde-hampson, linde dual pressure, cascade,
Claude, kapitza, heylandt etc., Components of any liquefaction
systems are compressor, Heat exchanger, expander device etc.
Heat Exchanger: It is a heart-as it exchanging the heat between two
fluids, Basically there are two types of Heat exchangerRECUPETORS and REGENERATORS.
TUBE FIN HET EXCHANGER: It consists- Tube of Different shape
like Rectangular, Round, Elliptical , Fins are generally used on the
outside, but they may be used on the inside of the tubes in some
applications.
Application: Cooler/Heater, Liquefier, Vaporiser, Isothermal reactor

Design Methodology

Geometry for thermal and pressure drop design:

[1]The total shell side free flow area Asc, is given by
Asc= Dc(df + c) De[(df do)nt + do]
[2]Free flow area offered by the fins cross-section, Afc
Afc= De[(df do)(1 nt)]
[3]Free flow area offered by the clearance cross-section,
Acc
Acc= Dec
[4]The surface area offered by the outer finned surface in
one coil; As
=-)+(1-nt)+nt]
[5[The perimeter of outer finned surface (surface area per
unit axial length), so
=
[6]The perimeter of inner tube surface (surface area per
unit axial length), si
=
Design fundamentals:
[7]Bypass area factor k is given by,
k=
[8]So, the actual mass flow rate passing through the fins
is
mmf =
[9]The hydraulic diameter is
Dh =
[10]The Reynolds number based on the total crosssection area available for shell side flow when there is no
clearance and can be calculated as follows
ReWOC =
[11]The Reynolds number will be calculated based on the
actual flow passes through the fins and can be given by
Ref =
[12]The mass flow rate per unit free-flow area G is
calculated from following Equation
G=
Thermal Design
[13]The total heat duty Q of the hot fluid which has to be
removed by exchanging the energy with the cold fluid is
expressed as follows
Q = Ch(Th,in Th,out)= UL TLMTD
[14]TLMTD is the log mean temperature difference,
given by
TLMTD =
[15] The value of heat transfer co efficient of inner and
outer stream and is given by
hi = 0.033
= 0.027
[16] The overall heat transfer coefficient U (W/m K) based
on per unit axial length of heat exchanger can be given by
U=

Problem Formulation
The coil finned tube Heat exchanger is the first type of
medium capacity heat exchanger. In this dissertation the
fabrication and experimental analysis of this heat
exchanger will be carried out for helium liquefaction plant

[17]Now we can find the require tube length for heat

transfer from equation as follow

Q = U L TLMTD
Pressure Drop
[18]Now the Pressure drop is calculated from following
equation for both side
P =
Ln2 bath Design:
[a]Decide the type of boiling occurs in the LN2 Dewar From
Following equation and LN2 boiling chart
T = Tw Tsat
[b]In my case nucleate boiling is occurs so I can calculate
the out side heat transfer by Rohsenow Correlation as
follow
[c]Outside Heat transfer coefficient is calculated ho from
following equation
[d]Now inside heat transfer coefficient is calculated by
following equation
[e]Over all heat transfer coefficient U is calculated from
following Equation
[f]Heat transfer Q is given by
Q = mh ch (Tin Tout )
[g]Heat transfer area is calculated as follow
Q=UA
[h]Length of the tube required is calculated from following
equation

Literature Survey
Design side:
Croft and Tebby : In 1970 croft and tebby presented
the expression for thermal design and they have
suggested the correlations for calculation of heat
transfer coefficient for shell and tube side flow.
Although this paper did not throw light on any pressure
drop relation
Croft and Cosier: In the same year croft and cosier
were designed a new form of finned tube heat
exchanger by the method described by croft tebby.
M.D. Atrey : In 1998 M.D. Atrey did the thermodynamic
analysis of Collins helium liquefaction cycle. In his
analysis he were used the two reciprocating expander
with Collins helium liquefier.
Prabhat Kumar Gupta: In 2007 Prabhat kumar gupta,
P.k. Kush, Ashesh Tiwari presented the design and
optimization of coil finned tube heat exchanger for
cryogenics application. In their study, geometry of heat
exchanger has been derived taking into consideration
the clearance provided for manufacturing of the heat
exchangers
and
an
optimized
geometrical
configurations have been find out.
Prabhat kumar Guptas second law analysis: The
special focus of his analysis is the study of effect of
these irreversibilities on the performance of heat
exchangers through second law analysis. It is
observed that the effect of ambient heat-in-leak is
different for the balanced and imbalanced counter flow
high NTU heat exchangers.
Experimental Side:
Collins : The coil finned tube heat exchangers were
first used by Collins in his helium liquefier in 1947.A
unique extended surface heat exchanger design
involving flow in concentric tubes.
Giest and Lashmet: In 1960 giest and lashmet were
used these heat exchanger in their experiment of
miniature joule Thomson refrigeration system.
Prabhat kumar Guptas Experimental research on
overall heat transfer coefficient : The experiments were
conducted in the range of effective Reynolds number
5001900. The effect of diametrical clearance on the
prediction of overall heat transfer coefficient is also
investigated experimentally.
Prabhat kumar Guptas Experiments on Pressure
drop : All experiments were performed at room
temperature in the Reynolds number range of 3000
30,000 for tube side and 25155 for shell side. To
evaluate pressure drop within heat exchangers at room
temperature, a separate test set-up was planned.

Proposed Experimental set up

[1]R.K.Shah
Referencesand D.P Sekulic,
Heat Exchanger, University of
Kentucky.:17.19-20.
[2] Croft AJ, Tebby PB. The
design of nned-tube cryogenic
heat exchangers. Cryogenics
1970(June):2368.

[3]Croft AJ, Cosier J. A new form of nned-tube heat exchanger. Cryogenics 1970(June):23940.
[4] Atrey MD. Thermodynamic analysis of Collins helium liquefaction cycle. Cryogenics 1998; 38: 1199206.
[5] Gupta, P.K., Kush, P.K., Tiwari, A., 2007b. Design and optimization of coil nned-tube heat exchangers for cryogenic .