Introduction to Heat Exchangers

Course objectives
What are exchangers for?
Exchanger types
How are they specified?
The design task

© Hyprotech 2002
 Objectives
By the end of the course you will
• be familiar with the main exchanger types
• know which is likely to be the best type for a given
application
• understand what are the key factors in exchanger
design
• be able to estimate the size and cost of key exchanger
types
• have the background necessary to start using
commercial exchanger design software
• be an informed purchaser of heat exchangers

© Hyprotech 2002
 Lecture series
• Introduction to heat
exchangers Q = U A T
• Selection of the best
type for a given
application
• Selection of right
shell and tube
• Design of shell and
tube
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 Contents
• Why we need heat exchangers
• The basics of their design
• Some general features of exchangers
• Different types of exchanger
• The design process

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 Example of an exchanger

Bundle for shell-and-tube exchanger

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 What are heat exchangers for?
• To get fluid streams to the right temperature
for the next process
– reactions often require feeds at high temp.
• To condense vapours
• To evaporate liquids
• To recover heat to use elsewhere
• To reject low-grade heat
• To drive a power cycle

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 Feed-effluent exchanger

Feed-effluent
Exothermic reaction
exchanger

Heat recovery

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 Distillation

Reflux condenser

Top product
Feed Column

Reboiler

Bottom product
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 Naphtha
Typical crude oil distillation and gases

Top pump
Kerosene
around
E2

Distillation tower
Desalter
Light
Top pump gas oil
around Heavy gas oil Bottom
pump
around
E2 E3 Heavy
E5 gas oil
Light gas oil
Kerosene
E4
E1 Bottom pump
Furnace
around
Reduced
E5 E6 crude

Storage Reduced crude

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 Power cycle

Steam turbine

Boiler Condenser
Feedwater
heater
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 Q = U A T
yw

Thot

Tcold

We have thermal resistances in series

1 1 yw 1
  rcold   rhot 
U  cold w  hot
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 Heat utilities
• Hot utilities
– Boiler generating service steam (maybe a
combined heat and power plant)
– Direct fired heaters (furnace)
– Electric heaters
• Cold utilities
– Cooling tower (wet or dry) providing service
cooling water
– Direct air-cooled heat exchanger

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 Thermal integration
or process integration

• Reducing the hot and cold utility needs by

interchanging heat between process
streams
• If the plant needs are primarily heat,
thermal integration is usually by “pinch
technology” - Software HX-Net
• If the plant is concerned with heat and
work, pinch technology is supplemented
with “exergy analysis”

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 Local and mean values
• “Overall” means from the hot side to the
cold side including all resistances
• However it is still at a particular point in the
exchanger: i.e. it is local
• Hence you can have a local, overall
coefficient
LOCALLY q  UT

FOR WHOLE EXCHANGER

© Hyprotech 2002
Q T  U m AT Tm
 Integrating over the exchanger area
Local equation
dQ
q   UT
dA dQ
Rearranging
dQ
 UdA dA
T
and integrating
dQ
Q T   UdA
AT
Total area AT
T

© Hyprotech 2002
 Definitions of mean values
From previous slides
Q T
 U m AT
Tm

dQ
Q T  A UdA
Comparing the two sides T T

1 1 dQ

Tm Q T Q T Um 
1
 UdA
AT AT

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Special case where Ts are linear with Q
• Eqn. integrates to
give log. mean
temperature

Temperature
difference - LMTD Ta

Ta  Tb Q
Tm  TLM  Tb
ln( Ta / Tb )

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 Multipass exchangers
T1
• For single-phase duties, T2

Temp.
theoretical correction t2
factors, FT, have been t1
derived
• FT values are less than 1 Q

• Do not design for FT less

than 0.8

Tm  FT TLM
© Hyprotech 2002
 Typical FT correction factor curves
For shell and tube with 2 or more tube-side passes

Curves are for different values of R

t2  t1 T1  T2 T, t = Shell / tube side
P ;R 
T1  t1 t2  t1 1, 2 = inlet / outlet
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 Thermal effectiveness
Stream temperature rise divided by the
theoretically maximum possible
temperature rise
T1,in  T1,out

T1,in  T2 ,in

T1,in T1,out

T2,out T2,in
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 Compactness
• Can be measured by the heat-transfer area
per unit volume or by channel size
• Conventional exchangers (shell and tube)
have channel size of 10 to 30 mm giving
about 100m2/m3
• Plate-type exchangers have typically 5mm
channel size with more than 200m2/m3
• More compact types available

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 Compactness
Hydraulic diameter, mm
60 10 1 0.1
Human lungs

Special
Car radiator
Plate fin
Plate
Shell-&-tube

100 1000 10 000

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 Main categories of exchanger
Heat exchangers

Recuperators Regenerators

Wall separating streams Direct contact

Most heat exchangers have two streams, hot

and cold, but some have more than two
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 Recuperators/regenerators

Recuperative
Has separate flow paths for each
fluid which flow simultaneously
through the exchanger
Rotating wheel
transferring heat between the
streams
Regenerative
Has a single flow path which the hot
and cold fluids alternately pass
through.

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 Double Pipe
Simplest type has one tube inside another - inner
tube may have longitudinal fins on the outside

However, most have a

number of tubes in the outer
tube - can have very many tubes
thus becoming a shell-and-tube

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 Shell and Tube
Typical shell and tube exchanger as used in the
process industry

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 Shell-side flow

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 Complete shell-and-tube

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 Plate and frame
• Plates hung vertically and
clamped in a press or frame.
• Gaskets direct the streams
between alternate plates and
prevent external leakage
• Plates made of stainless steel or
higher quality material
• Plates corrugated to give points
of support and increase heat
transfer
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 Plate types

Corrugations on plate
improve heart transfer
give rigidity

Many points of
contact and a
tortuous flow path

Chevron Washboard
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General view of
plate exchanger

“Plate exchanger”
normally refers to
a gasketted plate-
and-frame
exchanger

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 Flow Arrangement within a PHE
Gaskets
arranged for
each stream to
flow between
alternate plates

Alternate plates (often same plate types inverted)

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 Air-cooled exchanger
• Air blown across finned tubes (forced
draught type)
• Can suck air across (induced draught)

Finned tubes
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 ACHE bundle

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 Plate-fin exchanger

• Made up of flat plates (parting sheets) and

corrugated sheets which form fins
• Brazed by heating in vacuum furnace
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 Can have many streams
7 or more streams are typical

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 Typical plate-fin

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 Spiral (plate)

Good for streams with large solids

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 Cooling Towers
• Large shell with packing at the bottom over
which water is sprayed
• Cooling by air flow and evaporation
• Air flow driven by forced or natural
convection
• Need to continuously make up the cooling
water lost by evaporation

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 • Used for batch Agitated Vessel
heating or cooling
of fluids
• An agitator and
baffles promote
mixing
• A range of agitators
are used
• Often used for
batch chemical
reaction
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 Proprietary types
• Types described so far are generic types
• These can be made by any company with
necessary skills (no real patent protection)
• There are now many special, proprietary
exchangers made by one company or a
small number of companies under licence
• One example is the “printed circuit
exchanger” by Heatric

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 Printed circuit heat exchanger
• Plates are etched to
give flow channels
• Stacked to form
exchanger block
• Block diffusion welded
under high pressure
and temperature
• Bond formed is as
strong as the metal
itself
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 Printed circuit exchanger

Note that “compact” does not

mean small but means large
© Hyprotech 2002 surface area per unit volume
 Distribution of types
in terms of market value in Europe

Waste Heat
Boilers Other Heat
Cooling Towers Recovery
5%
9% 10%
Air Coolers
10%
Other Proprietary
2%

Other Plate
4%

Plate & Frame Shell & Tube

13% 42%

Other Tubular
5%

© Hyprotech 2002
 Preliminary points on selection
• Tubes and cylinders can withstand higher
pressures than plates
• If exchangers can be built with a variety of
materials, then it is more likely that you can
find a metal which will cope with extreme
temperatures or corrosive fluids
• More specialist exchangers have fewer
suppliers, longer delivery times and must be
repaired by experts
• S&Ts cannot normally give high thermal
effectiveness, 
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 Design sequence
• Design the process flow flow-sheet
• Specify the heat exchanger requirements
• Select the best exchanger type for the job
• Thermal design of exchanger
• Mechanical design of exchanger
Looping back may be necessary at any
stage but can be difficult because of the
project timetable

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 Who does what?
• Design the process flow flow- Processor/
sheet end user
• Specify the heat exchanger
requirements
• Select the best exchanger type Contractor
for the job
• Thermal design of exchanger
• Mechanical design of exchanger
Manufacturer
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 Exchanger specification
• Heat load (duty) along with the terminal
temperatures of the streams
• Maximum pressure drop each streams
– liquids - 0.5 bar
– gases/vapours below 2bar - 10% of inlet pressure
• Design pressures and temperatures
• Size/weight constraints
• Standards to apply
– General standards like ISO, TEMA, ASME etc
– Companies own standards
• Other requirements

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 The designer must supply an
exchanger which
• Meets the stated specification
• Has reasonable initial costs and operating
costs (most exchangers are bought on the
basis of the cheapest tender)
• Has a reasonable lifetime
– no damaging vibration
– no thermal fatigue
– no unexpected fouling or corrosion

© Hyprotech 2002