SHELL and TUBE

HEAT EXCHANGERS

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Shell-and-Tube Heat Exchangers

1-1 Fixed Head

Segmental baffles

Holes drilled
to tube size
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Shell-and-Tube Heat Exchangers

1-1 Fixed Head

Segmental baffles

Holes drilled
to tube size
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Shell-and-Tube Heat Exchangers

1-1 Fixed Head

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Shell-and-Tube Heat Exchangers
1-2 Fixed Head

1-2 Floating Head

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Shell-and-Tube Heat Exchangers

1-2 U-tube

2-4 Floating Head

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 Shell-and-Tube Heat Exchangers
The tube side is for : The shell side is for :
corrosive, more viscous,
fouling, cleaner,
scaling, lower flow-rate,
hazardous,
evaporating and
high temperature,
condensing fluids.
high-pressure, and
more expensive fluids.

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• Heuristic 55:
• The tube side is for corrosive, fouling, scaling, hazardous,
high temperature, high-pressure, and more expensive
fluids.
• The shell side is for more viscous, cleaner, lower flow-
rate, evaporating and condensing fluids.

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 Fin-fan Heat Exchangers
In fin-fan heat
exchangers, air is
forced in cross-flow
across tubes carrying
process fluid.

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 Fin-fan Heat Exchangers

Design issues:
(a) Use Heuristic 56 for initial design;
(b) Design the tube-banks similarly to a shell-and-tube
heat exchanger.

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 Fin-fan Heat Exchangers
Heuristic 56:
• For an air-cooled exchanger, the tubes are typically ¾- 1” in
outside diameter.
• The ratio of fin surface area to tube outside bare area is 15-20.
• Fan power requirement is the range 2-5 HP per 106 Btu/hr, or
20 HP per 1,000 ft2 of tube outside surface (fin-free) area.
• Minimum approach temperature is about 50 oF (much higher
than water-cooled exchangers).
• Without the fins, the overall heat transfer coefficients would be
about 10 Btu/hr ft2 oF.
• With the fins, U = 80-100 Btu/hr ft2 oF, based on tube outside,
bare surface area.

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 Furnaces -Typical Applications
• Example of uses of process
furnaces:
– Steam boilers
– Distillation column reboiler
– Heating distillation column
feed stream
– Heating reactor feed stream
– Heating a heating stream
– Reactor (reaction inside
furnace coil)
• Operation principles:
Process stream flows through a
coil heated by combustion of fuel
in the furnace chamber.

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 Furnaces – Getting Started
• Heuristic 57:
• Typical fluxes in fired
heaters are 12,000
Btu/hr-ft2 in the
radiation section and
4,000 Btu/hr-ft2 in the
convection section, with
approximately equal
duties in the two sections.
• Typical process liquid
velocity in the tubes is 6
ft/s.
• Thermal efficiencies for
modern fired furnaces is
13
80-90%. Prajitno©
Shell-and-Tube Heat Exchangers

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 Temperature-Driving Forces
• The rate of heat transfer in an shell-and-tube exchanger
is computed as:

Assuming (1) steady-state; (2) counter- or cocurrent

flow; (3) constant overall heat transfer coefficient; (4) no
phase changes on either side; and (5) negligible heat losses:

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• For multiple-pass shell-and-tube exchangers, the flow
directions of the two fluids are combinations of
countercurrent and co-current flow, reducing the effective
value of ∆Tlm. For a 1-2 exchanger, with assumptions 1, 3, 4
and 5:

It is desirable to have a value of FT of 0.85 or higher.

Values below 0.75 are unacceptable.
FT = 1 for phase change in duty fluid
When FT < 0.75 increase the shell passes.

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Temperature-Driving Forces
FT for 1-2 shell-and-tube exchanger.

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 Example
• A hot stream is cooled from 200 to 140 oF by a cold
stream entering at 100 oF and exiting at 190 oF.
• Determine the true ∆TLM and select the appropriate
shell-and-tube configuration.

Solution:
For counter-current flow:
For multiple-pass exchangers:
200 oF
10 oF
140 oF
190 oF
40 oF

100 oF

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Temperature-Driving Forces
FT for 1-2 shell-and-tube exchanger.

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 Example (Cont’d)

R = 0.67

FT = 0.85

Thus, 4 shells need to be

installed, in a 4-8
configuration. In this
case, FT = 0.85, and:
S = 0.9

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Example (Cont’d)

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 Heat Transfer Coefficients
• Sieder-Tate (1936) equations:
• (a) for tube-side, dimensionless heat transfer coefficient:

• (b) for shell-side, dimensionless heat transfer coefficient:

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Shell-side Equivalent Diameter

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Heat Transfer Coefficients

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 Tube Pressure Drop
• The total pressure drop is: [psi]

f = friction factor [ft2/in2], GT = tube mass velocity [lb/ft2 hr],

L = tube length [ft], NT = total number of tube passes,
S = specific gravity, DI = tube I.D. [ft].
In addition, the repeated changes in direction caused by the
numerous passes in the tubes adds additional pressure loss,
called the “return loss”:

The total pressure drop is: [psi]

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 Shell Pressure Drop
• Pressure drop of the fluid flowing on the shell side of a heat
exchanger is given by the Darcy formula:

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 Main Steps Involved
Objective: To design a shell-and-tube exchanger to perform
heat transfer from a hot stream to a cold stream.
Specifications: Given stream physical properties, mass flow
rate, process stream source and target temperatures,
and the mass flow rate and source temperature of the
duty stream.
The mechanical design of a shell-and-tube heat exchanger
involves two main steps:
– Computation of the heat duty
– Shell and tube configuration

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 Iterative Design Procedure
• It is of interest to reduce the heat transfer surface
area to a minimum, since this will lead to the cheapest
design.
• Must satisfy the pressure drop specification (usually pre-
defined), which affects the overall heat transfer
coefficient.
• An iterative design is called for since fluid velocity,
pressure drop and heat transfer coefficient are all
related:
Fluid
velocity
Heat
Pressure
transfer
drop
coefficient

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 Iterative Design Procedure
Computation of shell-and-tube exchangers involves iteration,
since the heat transfer coefficients, pressure drops and heat
transfer area all depend on the design’s geometric
configuration, which needs to be determined.
The geometric configuration (to be determined) includes the
following:
– Shell diameter
– Tube diameter
– Tube length
– Tube packing configuration (pitch) and spacing
– Number of tube and shell passes

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 Class Exercise 2
• Design a shell-and-tube heat exchanger to preheat a stream
of 30 T/hr containing ethylbenzene and styrene from 10 to
97 oC.
• Additional data:
– Density – 856 kg·m-3, Viscosity – 0.4765 cP,
– Specific heat – 0.428 kcal·kg-1·oC-1,
– Thermal conductivity – 0.133 kcal·hr-1·m-1·oC-1
– Heat supply medium – Saturated steam at 10 barg.
• Notes:
(a) For this application, the process fluid is fed to the
tubes.
(b) Maximum ∆P in the process side is 0.8 bar.
(c) Fouling - process: 0.0002, steam: 0.0001 hr m2/kcal

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Class Exercise 2 - Solution

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Class Exercise 2 - Solution

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Class Exercise 2 - Solution

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 Class Exercise 2 - Solution

Note that the available heat transfer area, 51 m2, is

larger than the value estimated previously, 23-46 m2, so
can be reduced!
We shall now compute the heat transfer coefficient and
the pressure drops in the tube and shell, and compare
with our targets.

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Class Exercise 2 - Solution

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Class Exercise 2 - Solution

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Note that the shell ΔP is usually much lower than the
tube value.
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 Class Exercise 2 - Solution

The heat transfer surface is larger than necessary. In

contrast, the pressure drop is much lower than its
permitted value. Possible next steps include:
1. Increase/decrease the shell diameter
2. Increase/decrease the number of tubes
3. Increase/decrease the number of passes
4. Increase/decrease tube diameter

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 Summary
After reviewing the materials in this lecture, you should:
– Be familiar with the major types of available heat-
exchange equipment, with particular emphasis on shell-
and-tube heat exchangers.
– Know how to estimate overall heat transfer
coefficients, including the effect of fouling.
– Be able to perform mechanical design of the most
appropriate shell-and-tube heat exchanger to meet
desired duty and pressure drops.

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Standard Tube-sheet Layouts

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Item 10. Tube-side Heat Transfer

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Item 11. Tube-side Friction Factor

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Item 12. Shell-side Heat Transfer

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Item 13. Shell-side Friction Factor

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• Design a horizontal condenser for the condensation of 45,000 lb/h
of almost pure normal propyl alcohol available at 15 psig. At this
pressure, the boiling point of n-propyl alcohol is 244°F. Water
available in the temperature range of 95 to 120°F can be as the
coolant. The maximum pressure drop of 2 psi and 10 psi is
permissible for the vapor phase and water respectively.

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