scholarly journals Physical Dimensions as a Design Objective in Heat Transfer Equipment: The Case of Plate and Fin Heat Exchangers

Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (8) ◽  
pp. 2318
Author(s):  
Jorge García-Castillo ◽  
Martín Picón-Núñez

To incorporate exchanger dimensions as a design objective in plate and fin heat exchangers, a variable that must be taken into consideration is the geometry of the finned surfaces to be used. In this work, a methodology to find the surface geometry that will produce the required heat transfer coefficient and pressure drop to achieve the design targets was developed. The geometry of secondary surfaces can be specified by the fin density, which represents the number of fins per unit length. All other geometrical features, as well as the thermo-hydraulic performance, can be derived from this parameter. This work showed the way finned surfaces are engineered employing generalised thermo-hydraulic correlations as a part of a design methodology. It also showed that there was a volume space referred to as volume design region (VDR) where heat duty, pressure drop, and dimensions could simultaneously be met. Such a volume design region was problem- and surface-specific; therefore, its limits were determined by the heat duty, the pressure drop, and the type of finned surface chosen in the design. The application of this methodology to a case study showed that a shell and tube heat exchanger of 227.4 m2, with the appropriate fin density using offset strip-fins, could be replaced by a plate and fin exchanger with any combination of height, width, and length in the ranges of 0–0.58 m, 0–0.58 m, and 0–3.59 m. The approach presented in this work indicated that heat exchanger dimensions could be fixed as a design objective, and they could effectively be achieved through surface design.

Author(s):  
Rong Yu ◽  
Andrew D. Sommers ◽  
Nicole C. Okamoto ◽  
Koushik Upadhyayula

In this study, we have explored the effectiveness of heat exchangers constructed using anisotropic, micro-patterned aluminum fins to more completely drain the condensate that forms on the heat transfer surface during normal operation with the aim of improving the thermal-hydraulic performance of the heat exchanger. This study presents and critically evaluates the efficacy of full-scale heat exchangers constructed from these micro-grooved surfaces by measuring dry/wet air-side pressure drop and dry/wet air-side heat transfer data. The new fin surface design was shown to decrease the core pressure drop of the heat exchanger during wet operation from 9.3% to 52.7%. Furthermore, these prototype fin surfaces were shown to have a negligible effect on the heat transfer coefficient under both dry and wet conditions while at the same time reducing the wet airside pressure drop thereby decreasing fan power consumption. That is to say, this novel fin surface design has shown the ability, through improved condensate management, to enhance the thermal-hydraulic performance of plain-fin-and-tube heat exchangers used in air-conditioning applications. This paper also presents data pertaining to the durability of the alkyl silane coating.


2012 ◽  
Vol 560-561 ◽  
pp. 156-160
Author(s):  
Lin Ping Lu ◽  
Liang Ying

The experiments on heat transfer coefficient, pressure drop and thermal stress were done to heat exchangers with corrugated tubes and staight tubes. By analyising and comparing the heat transfer coeffient, pressure drop in tube side and shell side and axial force and stress, some conclusions can be conducted that the corrugated tube heat exchanger has better heat transfer coeffient, higher pressure drop and much lower stress caused by temperatur difference, also, it has obvious advantages under the circumstance of low Reynolds number and high temperature difference.


Author(s):  
G. N. Xie ◽  
Q. Y. Chen ◽  
M. Zeng ◽  
Q. W. Wang

Compact heat exchangers such as tube-fin types and plate-fin types are widely used for gas-liquid or gas-gas applications. Some examples are air-coolers, fan coils, regenerators and recuperators in micro-turbines. In this study, thermal design of fin-and-tube (tube-fin) heat exchanger performance with fins being employed outside and inside tubes was presented, with which designed plate-fin heat exchanger was compared. These designs were performed under identical mass flow rate, inlet temperature and operating pressure on each side for recuperator in 100kW microturbine as well as specified allowable fractions of total pressure drop by means of Log-Mean Temperature Difference (LMTD) method. Heat transfer areas, volumes and weights of designed heat exchangers were evaluated. It is shown that, under identical heat duty, fin-and-tube heat exchanger requires 1.8 times larger heat transfer area outside tubes and volume, 0.6 times smaller heat transfer area inside tubes than plate-fin heat exchanger. Under identical total pressure drop, fin-and-tube heat exchanger requires about 5 times larger volume and heat transfer area in gas-side, 1.6 times larger heat transfer area in air-side than plate-fin heat exchanger. Total weight of fin-and-tube heat exchanger is about 2.7 times higher than plate-fin heat exchanger, however, the heat transfer rate of fin-and-tube heat exchanger is about 1.4 times larger than that of plate-fin heat exchanger. It is indicated that, both-sides finned tube heat exchanger may be used in engineering application where the total pressure drop is severe to a small fraction and the operating pressure is high, and may be adopted for recuperator in microturbine.


Author(s):  
Jonathan Cox ◽  
Anoop Kanjirakat ◽  
Reza Sadr

Innovations in the field of nanotechnology have potential to improve industrial productivity and performance. One promising applications of this emerging technology is using nanofluids with enhanced thermal properties. Nanofluids, engineered colloidal suspensions consisting of nano-sized particles (less than 100nm) dispersed in a basefluid, have shown potential as industrial cooling fluids due to the enhanced heat transfer characteristics. Experiments are conducted to compare the overall heat transfer coefficient and pressure drop of water vs. nanofluids in a laboratory scale industrial type shell and tube heat exchanger. Three mass particle concentrations, 2%, 4% and 6%, of SiO2-water nanofluids are formulated by dispersing 20 nm diameter nano particles in desalinated water. Nanofluid and tap water are then circulated in the cold and hot loops, respectively, of the heat exchanger to avoid direct particle deposition on heater surfaces. Interestingly, experimental result show both augmentation and deterioration of heat transfer coefficient for nanofluids depending on the flow rate through the heat exchangers. This trend is consistent with an earlier reported observation for heat transfer in micro channels. This trend may be explained by the counter effect of the changes in thermo-physical properties of fluids together with the fouling on the heat exchanger surfaces. The measured pressure drop in the nanofluids flow shows an increase when compared to that of basefluid that could limit the use of nanofluids in heat exchangers for industrial application.


Author(s):  
M. Karuppasamy ◽  
R. Saravanan ◽  
M. Chandrasekaran ◽  
V. Muthuraman

The heat transfer enhancement is primary objective in the heat exchangers. The heat exchangers are employed for cooling, heating and evaporation purposes in the industries. Many of the heat exchangers designed as the heat transfer fluid flow inside the tube. So, in this research, the double tube heat exchanger is considered with unit length. The passive method is one in which the flow resistance is to be introduced to enhance the heat transfer rate without affecting the pumping force. So, the tube inserts with twist ratio of 3 is considered. The water and water-copper oxide nano fluid and water-silicon dioxide nano fluid were considered for investigation. The flow properties such as pressure, temperature, velocity and turbulence kinetic energy were varied and discussed. The thermal performance, friction factor and enhancement factors are compared and discussed. The SiO2-water nano fluid has outperformed than the other fluids studied.


2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (8 (109)) ◽  
pp. 25-35
Author(s):  
Krisdiyanto Krisdiyanto ◽  
Rahmad Kuncoro Adi ◽  
Sudarisman Sudarisman ◽  
Sinin Bin Hamdan

Heat exchangers are important equipment for the process of placing heat. The most widely used type of heat exchanger is shell and tube. This type is widely used because of its simple and easy design. Design of shell and tube heat exchangers is done by the side or shell variations to get the desired performance. Therefore, research is conducted to study the effect of tube thickness on heat transfer, pressure drop, and stress that occurs in the shell and tube heat exchanger so that the optimal tube thickness is obtained. In this research, the activities carried out are the design of heat exchangers for the production of oxygen with a capacity of 30 tons/day. The standard used in this study is the 9th edition heat exchanger design guidance document compiled by the Tubular Exchanger Manufacturer Association (TEMA). Analysis of the tube thickness effect on heat transfer, pressure drop, and stress was carried out using the SimScale platform. The effect of variations in tube thickness on heat transfer is that the thicker the tube, the lower the heat transfer effectiveness. The highest value of the heat exchanger effectiveness is 0.969 at the tube thickness variation of 0.5 mm. The lowest value of the heat exchanger effectiveness is 0.931 at the tube thickness variation of 1.5 mm. The effect of variations in tube thickness on pressure drop is that the thicker the tube, the higher the pressure drop. The highest value of pressure drop is in the variation in tube thickness of 1.5 mm, 321 Pa. The lowest value of drop pressure is in the variation of 0.5 mm tube thickness, which is 203 Pa. The thickness of the tube also increases the maximum stress on the components of the shell, head, tubesheet, baffle, and saddle, but the value is fluctuating


1982 ◽  
Vol 104 (4) ◽  
pp. 683-690 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. P. Hedderich ◽  
M. D. Kelleher ◽  
G. N. Vanderplaats

A computer code has been developed for analysis of air-cooled heat exchangers and was coupled with a numerical optimization program to produce an automated air-cooled, heat-exchanger design and optimization procedure. A general iteration free approximation method was used for the analysis which calculates the mean overall heat-transfer coefficient and the overall pressure drop for many flow arrangements. The analysis takes into account the variation of the heat-transfer coefficients and the pressure drop with temperature and/or length of flow path. The code is not limited to surfaces found in the literature, but will accommodate any triangular pitch bank of finned tubes in multiple-pass configurations. The numerical optimization code is a general purpose program based on the Method of Feasible Directions and the Augmented Lagrange Multiplier Method. The capability is demonstrated by the design of an air-to-water finned-tube heat exchanger and is shown to be a useful tool for heat exchanger design.


2001 ◽  
Author(s):  
H. Coetzee ◽  
L. Liebenberg ◽  
J. P. Meyer

Abstract The purpose of this paper was to determine the single phase heat transfer and pressure drop characteristics of an angled spiralling tape inserted into the annulus of a tube-in-tube heat exchanger. Experimental measurements were taken on four setups: a normal tube-in-tube heat exchanger used as a reference and three heat exchangers with different angled spiralling tape inserts. From the results correlations were developed that can be used to predict the heat transfer and pressure drop characteristics. It was concluded that the angled spiralling tape inserts resulted in an increase in the heat transfer and pressure drop characteristics as can be expected.


2020 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Swanand Gaikwad ◽  
Ashish Parmar

AbstractHeat exchangers possess a significant role in energy transmission and energy generation in most industries. In this work, a three-dimensional simulation has been carried out of a shell and tube heat exchanger (STHX) consisting of segmental baffles. The investigation involves using the commercial code of ANSYS CFX, which incorporates the modeling, meshing, and usage of the Finite Element Method to yield numerical results. Much work is available in the literature regarding the effect of baffle cut and baffle spacing as two different entities, but some uncertainty pertains when we discuss the combination of these two parameters. This study aims to find an appropriate mix of baffle cut and baffle spacing for the efficient functioning of a shell and tube heat exchanger. Two parameters are tested: the baffle cuts at 30, 35, 40% of the shell-inside diameter, and the baffle spacing’s to fit 6,8,10 baffles within the heat exchanger. The numerical results showed the role of the studied parameters on the shell side heat transfer coefficient and the pressure drop in the shell and tube heat exchanger. The investigation shows an increase in the shell side heat transfer coefficient of 13.13% when going from 6 to 8 baffle configuration and a 23.10% acclivity for the change of six baffles to 10, for a specific baffle cut. Evidence also shows a rise in the pressure drop with an increase in the baffle spacing from the ranges of 44–46.79%, which can be controlled by managing the baffle cut provided.


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