Lesson 10 Design Rules of Thumb

Heat Transfer Equipment

Fall 2020

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Design Rules of Thumb
Heat Transfer Equipment
What you will learn Resources
• Design heuristics used to estimate • See Canvas Module Design Rules of
and validate design parameters for Thumb Heat Transfer
heat transfer equipment • Recommended Reading: Turton, et
• Key relationships for designing and al. 5th, chapter 11, Tables 11.2 a
analyzing heat exchangers and b, 11.3 Process heaters and
• Common correlations for heat Heat exchangers sections, 11.11
transfer coefficients • Review Turton 5th Chapter 20
• Methods to design new heat Process Heat Transfer; McCabe,
exchangers Smith and Harriot, Unit Operations
of Chemical Engineering
• See References slide for more

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Heat Transfer Equipment & Media
Media
Equipment
• Heat Exchangers
• Double Pipe or Concentric Tube
• Shell and Tube
• Plate
• Air Cooled/Finned
• Spiral
• Helical coil
• Vessel Heating
• Steam/cooling water jackets
• Helical coils (internal and external)

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Double Pipe Exchanger

Double Pipe heat

exchangers have
limited surface area
for heat transfer but
are low cost and easy
to maintain.

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 Shell and Tube Exchangers – most common
Multi-Pass
Single Pass

1. Shell 14. Support bracket

6. Fixed-tube sheet (tube plate) 18. Tube
7. Channel (end-box or header) 20. Pass partition
9. Branch (nozzle) 25. Test connection
10. Tie rod and spacer 26. Expansion bellows
11. Cross baffle or tube-support plate
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Shell and Tube
Exchangers
Floating Head
Tubular Exchanger
Manufacturers
Association
(TEMA)Type S
Accommodates
thermal expansion
of tubes
From Standards of Tubular
Exchanger Manufactures
Association

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Shell and Tube Exchangers

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 Common Heat Exchanger Configurations
Vapor Feed
Process flow to Column OVHD's
tower (vapor)
Cooling Water
Steam Outlet

Bottoms
Steam Product Cooling Water
Condensate Process flow from Inlet
Uncondensed
tower (liquid) OVHD's
Baffle
Kettle Reboiler Vapor Feed Uncondensed
Column OVHD's OVHD's Condensed
OVHD's

Cooling Water Cooling Wate

Inlet Outlet

Condensed
OVHD's
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Shell and Tube Exchangers
For systems with NO PHASE CHANGE, allocation of the fluid streams to the shell or tubes is
determined by:
• Corrosion – flow more corrosive fluids in the tubes. Reduces the cost of expensive alloys or clad
components for the shell.
• Fouling – fluids with a greater tendency to foul should flow in the tubes. The higher allowable velocity in the
tubes will reduce fouling, and the tubes are easier to clean.
• Fluid temperatures – If temperatures are high enough (> 400 °C) to require the use of special alloys place
the higher temperature fluid in the tubes. At moderate temperatures (100 – 400 °C), placing the hotter fluid
in the tubes will reduce the shell surface temperature, lessen heat loss to the surroundings, and enhance
safety.
• Operating pressures – the higher pressure stream should be on the tube-side. High-pressure tubes will be
cheaper than a high-pressure shell.
• Pressure drop – the fluid with the lowest allowable pressure drop should be on the tube-side. For the same
pressure drop, higher heat-transfer coefficients will be obtained on the tube-side than the shell-side.
• Viscosity – flow more viscous materials on the shell-side
• Stream flow-rates – allocate fluids with the lowest flow-rate to the shell-side. The critical Reynolds
number for turbulent flow in the shell is in the region of 200.
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Shell and Tube Exchangers

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Cleaning Fouled Tubes
• Chemical and physical cleaning are common. Several devices can be
used to clean fouled tubes.

rotating shaft

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conco.com (left) and goodway.com (right)
Cleaning Fouled Tubes
• When chemical treatments are ineffective, large vessels must be
cleaned by manual hydro blasting or automatic hydro blasting
machines.

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precidose.com
Plate Heat Exchanger

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 Large Plate Exchangers
• The Alfa-Laval Packinox design is the largest plate heat
exchanger available
• Welded plate pack inserted into an even larger pressure
vessel.
• Combines the exceptional thermal and hydraulic
efficiency of modern plate heat exchangers with the
traditional advantages of shell-and-tube units under high
temperatures and high pressures.

Packinox® high efficiency

heat exchanger, being
delivered to the Total Refinery
in Normandy
(18 m high, 15 tons)

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 Large Plate Exchangers
• Most large plate heat exchangers
include explosion-formed metal plates
that are welded into a plate pack that
is then inserted into an even larger
pressure vessel.
• Figure – Packinox exchanger from
Alfa-Laval under construction.

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Air Cooled Exchangers
– Finned Exchangers
• Air Cooled
• Natural and forced convection
• Longitudinal Finned Exchangers
• Radial Finned Exchangers

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 Forced Air Finned Heat Exchanger
Commonly used in petroleum
refineries and chemical plants

Chevron Pascagoula Refinery, Crude

Unit via Google Maps, condense light
hydrocarbon streams from
Atmospheric and lights end stabilizer
towers (2 of 3 distillation columns in
the plant).

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Brazed Aluminum Plate Finned Heat Exchangers

Common for LNG facilities

18 Process-cooling.com
Spiral Heat Exchangers
• Made by rolling two long metal plates around a
center core to form two concentric spiral passages,
one for each fluid.
• Plate edges are welded shut so that each fluid stays
within its own passage and there is no flow
bypassing or intermixing. Spacing within the
passages is maintained by welded spacer studs
although some designs do not require them.
– High Thermal Efficiency (50-100% greater
than shell & tubes).
– Self-Cleaning Passages (ideal for slurries,
sludge, and media with suspended solids or
fibers)
– Countercurrent or Co-current
– Small Footprint & Easy Access (Removable
covers provide easy access to interior heat
transfer surfaces)

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Helical Coil Exchanger

•Made by bending a tube around a rigid

cylinder

•Moderate Thermal Efficiency

(comparable to shell & tubes).
•Self-Cleaning Passages (slurries
acceptable)
•Often used within reactors,
crystallizers or other process vessels to
provide heating/cooling.
•Low Cost, easy to manufacture

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Heat Transfer Coils in Tanks

Lal Das and Mukherjee, Chem. Eng., May 2017

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Co-Current vs Counter-Current
• Temperature Distribution in a double-pipe heat exchanger.

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Heat Exchanger Temperature Profiles
(single pass exchangers)

Temperature Temperature
Approach Cross

Kuppan T., Heat Exchanger Design Handbook, 2nd Ed.

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 Heat Exchanger Temperature Cross
(multi-pass exchanger)

Temperature cross is
possible in a multi-pass
shell & tube exchanger
but is undesirable
because of poor tube
surface area utilization.

Temperature Cross!
Kuppan T., Heat Exchanger Design Handbook, 2nd Ed.
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 Heat Exchanger Sizing
Heat Transfer Rate (Q): Q = U o A o ∆Tlm = m
 tsf ∆H tsf = m
 tsf C p,tsf (t 2 − t1 )

• Q = heat transferred per unit time, W

• Uo = overall heat transfer coefficient based on outside tube area, W/m2·K
• Ao = heat-transfer area based on outside tube area, m2
• ∆Tlm = the log mean temperature difference, K (or °C).

∆Tlm =
( ∆T1 − ∆T2 )
∆T1
ln  
 ∆T2 

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Heat Exchanger Sizing
Overall Heat Transfer Coefficients (U):
d
d o ln  o 
1 1 1  di  do  1 1 
= + + +  + 
U o h o h of 2k w d i  h i h if 

• Uo = overall heat transfer coefficient based on outside tube area, W/m2·K

• ho = outside fluid film coefficient, W/m2·K
• hi = inside fluid film coefficient, W/m2·K
• hof = outside fouling coefficient, (fouling factor)-1, W/m2·K
• hif = inside fouling coefficient, W/m2·K
• kw = thermal conductivity of the tube wall material, W/m2·K
• di = tube inside diameter, m
• do = tube outside diameter, m

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 Fouling coefficients = 1/(fouling factors)

Fouling
Coefficients
and Factors

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Overall Heat Transfer Coefficients – SI Units
Tube Side

Shell Side
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Overall Heat
Transfer Tube Side

Coefficients –
Imperial Units
Using Otto Frank Plot

Shell Side

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 Example using Otto Frank Plots
• A stainless steel (304 SS) shell-and-tube heat exchanger is needed to further heat steam using a
hot molten salt heating fluid generated from a solar power system. Steam, with an average heat
capacity of 1.9 kJ/kgꞏ°C, enters the exchanger at a flow rate of 8,000 kg/h and must be heated from
130 °C to 250 °C using a mixture of molten salts (Cp = 1.53 kJ/kgꞏ°C), which enter the exchanger at
400 °C. Assume the molten salt mixture leaves the exchanger at 300 °C.
• a) Is the approach of the fluid exit temperatures within normally acceptable limits?
• b) Calculate the required molten salt flow (ignore heat loss to the surroundings).
• c) Estimate the required heat exchanger surface area using the included Otto Frank plot. Assume
counter current flow.

d
d o ln  o 
1 1 1  di  do  1 1 
= + + +  + 
U o h o h of 2k w d i  h i h if 
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Example using Otto Frank Plots

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Example using Otto Frank Plots

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Rules of Thumb
• Properties of Materials
• Organics:
• Cp = 0.5 BTU/lb·°F
• k = 0.08 BTU/ft·h·°F
• Heat Transfer
1. ∆T on Cooling Water: 10 to 15 °C (in at ~30 °C, out ~40-45 °C)
2. Minimum Temperature Approach:
• 10 °C for liquids
• 15 °C for gases
3. Liquid-Liquid Exchangers
• Tube Side Velocity: 3 to 6 ft/sec
• Shell Side Cross Flow Velocity: 120 - 150 lb/sec·ft2
• Shell Side Long Flow Velocity: 170 - 210 lb/sec·ft2

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Shell and Tube Exchangers
Calculating Shell Diameter:
• Nt = number of tubes
• Db = bundle diameter, m
• do = tube outside diameter, m

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Shell and Tube Exchangers
Guidelines for allowable pressure drop:

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Steam Jacketed Vessels
• Types of jacketing:
• simple, no baffles (10 bar)
• agitation nozzles (10 bar)
• spiral baffle (10 bar)
• dimple jacket (20 bar, see
figure)
• half-pipe jacket (70 bar)

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Agitated Tanks with Heat Transfer Jackets

For heat transfer between the jacket of a baffled tank and a process fluid, the following equation for
the Nusselt number applies:

where hj is the individual heat-transfer coefficient between the jacket surface and the process fluid,
Dt is the inside tank diameter, Da is the impeller diameter, N is impeller revolutions per minute, ρ is
fluid density, μ is bulk fluid viscosity, μw is fluid viscosity near the wall (at higher T) , and Cp is
average fluid heat capacity.
Constant/Ratio Common Value
α 0.76
β 0.66
γ 0.24
Da/Dt 1/3
Ht/Dt 1
Hi/Dt 1/3 Ht = tank height, Hi = height of the impeller
above the vessel bottom
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Heat Exchanger Selection
Shell & Tube Heat Exchangers
Advantages Disadvantages
Widely known and understood -most common Less thermally efficient than other types of
type heat transfer equipment
Subject to flow induced vibration, leading to
Most versatile in terms of types of service
equipment failure
Not well suited for temperature cross
Widest range of allowable design pressures
conditions (multiple units in series must be
and temperatures
used)
Rugged mechanical construction - can
Stagnant (dead) zones on shell side lead to
withstand more abuse (physical and
corrosion problems
process)
Subject to flow mal-distribution especially
with two phase inlet streams
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Heat Exchanger Selection
Compact Heat Exchangers (plate, spiral, etc.)
Advantages Disadvantages
Narrower rage of allowable pressures and
Low initial purchase cost (plate type)
temperatures
Subject to plugging/fouling due to very
Many different configurations are available
narrow flow path (especially with plate ex.,
(gasketed, semi-welded, welded, spiral)
not so with spiral)
High heat transfer coefficients (3 or more
times greater than for shell & tube heat Gasketed units require specialized opening
exchangers, due to much higher wall shear and closing procedures
stress)
Material of construction selection is critical,
Reduced fouling due to the high turbulence
wall thickness very thin (often less than 10
within the exchanger
mm)
Cost varies significantly between different
Require small footprint for installation and
design types.
have small volume hold-up
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Heat Exchanger Selection
Air-Cooled Heat Exchangers
Advantages Disadvantages

Attractive option for locations where cooling

High initial purchase cost
water is scarce or expensive to treat

Well suited for cooling high temperature

process streams (above 80 °C when cooling Require relatively large footprint
water should be avoided)

Low maintenance and operating costs Higher process outlet temperature (5-10 °C
(typically 30-50% less than cooling water) above the ambient dry bulb temperature)

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References
• Chapter 20, Turton, et al., Analysis, Synthesis, and Design of Chemical
Processes, 5th ed., Prentice Hall, 2018
• Chapter 19, Towler, G., Sinnott, R. K., Chemical Engineering Design
Principles, Practice, and Economics of Plant and Process Design, 2nd
Edition; Butterworth-Heinemann, 2013
• Chapter 12, Hall, S., Rules of Thumb for Chemical Engineers, 6th
Edition; Elsevier, 2018
• McCabe, W.L.; Smith, J.C.; Harriott, P., Unit Operations of Chemical
Engineering, 7th ed.; McGraw-Hill, 2005.
• Section 11, Green, D. and Perry, R., Perry’s Chemical Engineers’
Handbook, 8th Edition, McGraw-Hill Professional, 2008.

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