Department of Mechanical Engineering

INDIAN INSTITUTE OF ENGINEERING SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY,

SHIBPUR

Howrah – 711103

A REPORT ON

Design and Analysis of Heat Exchangers

Submitted By

Suraj Kumar (Exam Roll No. -511017067)

[5th semester, B.Tech. in Mechanical Engineering]

Under the Guidance of

Prof. Bijan Kumar Mandal

 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

The success and final outcome of this project required a lot of guidance and assistance from many
people and I am extremely privileged to have got this all along the completion of my project. All that
I have done is only due to such supervision and assistance and I would not forget to thank them.

I respect and thank Prof. Bijan Kumar Mandal for providing me an opportunity to do the project
work on Nuclear Power Plant and giving us all support and guidance which made me complete the
project duly. I am extremely thankful to him for providing such a nice support and guidance, although
he had busy schedule.

Nevertheless, I express our gratitude toward our families and colleagues for their kind co-operation
and encouragement which help us in completion of this project.

Dated:
IIEST Shibpur, Howrah-711103

Suraj Kumar
Enrolment no. – 511017067
HEAT EXCHANGERS
A heat exchanger is a device used to transfer heat between two or more fluids. The fluids can
be single or two phase and, depending on the exchanger type, may be separated or in direct
contact. Devices involving energy sources such as nuclear fuel pins or fired heaters are not
normally regarded as heat exchangers although many of the principles involved in their
design are the same.
In order to discuss heat exchangers it is necessary to provide some form of categorization.
There are two approaches that are normally taken. The first considers the flow configuration
within the heat exchanger, while the second is based on the classification of equipment type
primarily by construction. Both are considered here.

Classification of Heat Exchangers by Flow Configuration

There are four basic flow configurations:
 Counter Flow
 Concurrent Flow
 Crossflow
 Hybrids such as Cross Counterflow and Multi Pass Flow
Figure 1 illustrates an idealized counterflow exchanger in which the two fluids flow parallel
to each other but in opposite directions. This type of flow arrangement allows the largest
change in temperature of both fluids and is therefore most efficient (where efficiency is the
amount of actual heat transferred compared with the theoretical maximum amount of heat
that can be transferred).

Figure 1. Countercurrent flow.
In concurrent flow heat exchangers, the streams flow parallel to each other and in the same
direction as shown in Figure 2, this is less efficient than countercurrent flow but does provide
more uniform wall temperatures.
 Figure 2. Concurrent flow.
Crossflow heat exchangers are intermediate in efficiency between countercurrent flow and
parallel flow exchangers. In these units, the streams flow at right angles to each other as
shown in Figure 3.

Figure 3. Crossflow.
In industrial heat exchangers, hybrids of the above flow types are often found. Examples of
these are combined crossflow/counterflow heat exchangers and multi pass flow heat
exchangers. (See for example Figure 4.)

Figure 4. Cross/counter flow.
Classification of Heat Exchangers by Construction
In this section heat exchangers are classified mainly by their construction, Garland (1990),
(see Figure 5). The first level of classification is to divide heat exchanger types into
recuperative or regenerative. A Recuperative Heat Exchanger has separate flow paths for
each fluid and fluids flow simultaneously through the exchanger exchanging heat across the
wall separating the flow paths. A Regenerative Heat Exchanger has a single flow path,
which the hot and cold fluids alternately pass through.

Figure 5. Heat exchanger classifications.

Regenerative heat exchangers

In a regenerative heat exchanger, the flow path normally consists of a matrix, which is heated
when the hot fluid passes through it (this is known as the "hot blow"). This heat is then
released to the cold fluid when this flows through the matrix (the "cold blow"). Regenerative
Heat Exchangers are sometimes known as Capacitive Heat Exchangers. A good overview of
regenerators is provided by Walker (1982).
Regenerators are mainly used in gas/gas heat recovery applications in power stations and
other energy intensive industries. The two main types of regenerator are Static and Dynamic.
Both types of regenerator are transient in operation and unless great care is taken in their
design there is normally cross contamination of the hot and cold streams. However, the use of
regenerators is likely to increase in the future as attempts are made to improve energy
efficiency and recover lower grade heat. However, because regenerative heat exchangers tend
to be used for specialist applications recuperative heat exchangers are more common.
Recuperative heat exchangers
There are many types of recuperative exchangers, which can broadly be grouped into indirect
contact, direct contact and specials. Indirect contact heat exchangers keep the fluids
exchanging heat separate by the use of tubes or plates etc... Direct contact exchangers do not
separate the fluids exchanging heat and in fact rely on the fluids being in close contact.
Heat Exchanger Types
This section briefly describes some of the more common types of heat exchanger and is
arranged according to the classification given in Figure 5.
Indirect heat exchangers
In this type, the steams are separated by a wall, usually metal. Examples of these are tubular
exchangers, see Figure 6, and plate exchangers, see Figure 7.
Tubular heat exchangers are very popular due to the flexibility the designer has to allow for a
wide range of pressures and temperatures. Tubular heat exchangers can be subdivided into a
number of categories, of which the shell and tube exchanger is the most common.

A Shell and Tube Exchanger consists of a number of tubes mounted inside a cylindrical

shell. Figure 8 illustrates a typical unit that may be found in a petrochemical plant. Two
fluids can exchange heat, one fluid flows over the outside of the tubes while the second fluid
flows through the tubes. The fluids can be single or two phase and can flow in a parallel or a
cross/counter flow arrangement. The shell and tube exchanger consists of four major parts:
 Front end–this is where the fluid enters the tubeside of the exchanger.
 Rear end–this is where the tubeside fluid leaves the exchanger or where it is returned
to the front header in exchangers with multiple tubeside passes.
 Tube bundle–this comprises of the tubes, tube sheets, baffles and tie rods etc. to hold
the bundle together.
 Shell—this contains the tube bundle.
The popularity of shell and tube exchangers has resulted in a standard being developed for
their designation and use. This is the Tubular Exchanger Manufactures
Association (TEMA) Standard. In general shell and tube exchangers are made of metal but
for specialist applications (e.g., involving strong acids of pharmaceuticals) other materials
such as graphite, plastic and glass may be used. It is also normal for the tubes to be straight
but in some cryogenic applications helical or Hampson coils are used. A simple form of the
shell and tube exchanger is the Double Pipe Exchanger. This exchanger consists of a one or
more tubes contained within a larger pipe. In its most complex form there is little difference
between a multi tube double pipe and a shell and tube exchanger. However, double pipe
exchangers tend to be modular in construction and so several units can be bolted together to
achieve the required duty. The book by E.A.D. Saunders [Saunders (1988)] provides a good
overview of tubular exchangers.
Other types of tubular exchanger include:
 Furnaces—the process fluid passes through the furnace in straight or helically wound
tubes and the heating is either by burners or electric heaters.
 Tubes in plate—these are mainly found in heat recovery and air conditioning
applications. The tubes are normally mounted in some form of duct and the plates act as
supports and provide extra surface area in the form of fins.
 Electrically heated–in this case the fluid normally flows over the outside of
electrically heated tubes.
 Air Cooled Heat Exchangers consist of bundle of tubes, a fan system and supporting
structure. The tubes can have various type of fins in order to provide additional surface
area on the air side. Air is either sucked up through the tubes by a fan mounted above the
bundle (induced draught) or blown through the tubes by a fan mounted under the bundle
(forced draught). They tend to be used in locations where there are problems in obtaining
an adequate supply of cooling water.
 Heat Pipes, Agitated Vessels and Graphite Block Exchangers can be regarded as
tubular or could be placed under Recuperative "Specials". A heat pipe consists of a pipe, a
wick material and a working fluid. The working fluid absorbs heat, evaporates and passes
to the other end of the heat pipe were it condenses and releases heat. The fluid then returns
by capillary action to the hot end of the heat pipe to re-evaporate. Agitated vessels are
mainly used to heat viscous fluids. They consist of a vessel with tubes on the inside and an
agitator such as a propeller or a helical ribbon impeller. The tubes carry the hot fluid and
the agitator is introduced to ensure uniform heating of the cold fluid. Carbon block
exchangers are normally used when corrosive fluids need to be heated or cooled. They
consist of solid blocks of carbon which have holes drilled in them for the fluids to pass
through. The blocks are then bolted together with headers to form the heat exchanger.
Plate heat exchangers separate the fluids exchanging heat by the means of plates. These
normally have enhanced surfaces such as fins or embossing and are either bolted together,
brazed or welded. Plate heat exchangers are mainly found in the cryogenic and food
processing industries. However, because of their high surface area to volume ratio, low
inventory of fluids and their ability to handle more than two steams, they are also starting to
be used in the chemical industry.

Plate and Frame Heat Exchangers consist of two rectangular end members which hold
together a number of embossed rectangular plates with holes on the corner for the fluids to
pass through. Each of the plates is separated by a gasket which seals the plates and arranges
the flow of fluids between the plates, see Figure 9. This type of exchanger is widely used in
the food industry because it can easily be taken apart to clean. If leakage to the environment
is a concern it is possible to weld two plate together to ensure that the fluid flowing between
the welded plates cannot leak. However, as there are still some gaskets present it is still
possible for leakage to occur. Brazed plate heat exchangers avoid the possibility of leakage
by brazing all the plates together and then welding on the inlet and outlet ports.

Figure 6. Tubular exchanger classification.

Figure 7.  Plate exchanger classification.

 Figure 8. Shell and tube exchanger.

Figure 9. Plate and frame exchanger.

Plate Fin Exchangers consist of fins or spacers sandwiched between parallel plates. The fins
can be arranged so as to allow any combination of crossflow or parallel flow between
adjacent plates. It is also possible to pass up to 12 fluid streams through a single exchanger by
careful arrangement of headers. They are normally made of aluminum or stainless steel and
brazed together. Their main use is in gas liquefaction due to their ability to operate with close
temperature approaches.
Lamella heat exchangers are similar in some respects to a shell and tube. Rectangular tubes
with rounded corners are stacked close together to form a bundle, which is placed inside a
shell. One fluid passes through the tubes while the fluid flows in parallel through the gaps
between the tubes. They tend to be used in the pulp and paper industry where larger flow
passages are required.
Spiral plate exchangers are formed by winding two flat parallel plates together to form a
coil. The ends are then sealed with gaskets or are welded. They are mainly used with viscous,
heavily fouling fluids or fluids containing particles or fibres.
Direct contact
This category of heat exchanger does not use a heat transfer surface, because of this, it is
often cheaper than indirect heat exchangers. However, to use a direct contact heat exchanger
with two fluids they must be immiscible or if a single fluid is to be used it must undergo a
phase change.
The most easily recognizable form of direct contact heat exchanger is the natural
draught Cooling Tower found at many power stations. These units comprise of a large
approximately cylindrical shell (usually over 100 m in height) and packing at the bottom to
increase surface area. The water to be cooled is sprayed onto the packing from above while
air flows in through the bottom of the packing and up through the tower by natural buoyancy.
The main problem with this and other types of direct contact cooling tower is the continuous
need to make up the cooling water supply due to evaporation.
Direct contact condensers are sometimes used instead of tubular condensers because of their
low capital and maintenance costs. There are many variations of direct contact condenser. In
its simplest form a coolant is sprayed from the top of a vessel over vapor entering at the side
of the vessel. The condensate and coolant are then collected at the bottom. The high surface
area achieved by the spray ensures they are quite efficient heat exchangers.
Steam injection is used for heating fluids in tanks or in pipelines. The steam promotes heat
transfer by the turbulence created by injection and transfers heat by condensing. Normally no
attempt is made to collect the condensate.
Direct heating is mainly used in dryers where a wet solid is dried by passing it through a hot
air stream. Another form of direct heating is Submerged Combustion. This was developed
mainly for the concentration and crystallization of corrosive solutions. The fluid is
evaporated by the flame and exhaust gases being aimed down into the fluid which is held in
some form of tank.
Specials
The wet surface air cooler is similar in some respects to an air cooled heat exchanger.
However, in this type of unit water is sprayed over the tubes and a fan sucks air and the water
down over the tube bundle. The whole system is enclosed and the warm damp air is normally
vented to atmosphere.
Scraped Surface Exchangers consist of a jacketed vessel which the fluid passes through and
a rotating scraper which continuously removes deposit from the inside walls of the vessel.
These units are used in the food and pharmaceutical industry in process where deposits form
on the heated walls of the jacketed vessel.

Static Regenerators
Static regenerators or fixed bed regenerators have no moving parts except for valves. In this
case the hot gas passes through the matrix for a fixed time period at the end of which a
reversal occurs, the hot gas is shut off and the cold gas passes through the matrix. The main
problem with this type of unit is that both the hot and cold flow are intermittent. To overcome
this and have continuous operation at least two static regenerators are required or a rotary
regenerator could be used.

Rotary regenerator
In a rotary regenerator cylindrical shaped packing rotates about the axis of a cylinder between
a pair of gas seals. Hot and cold gas flows simultaneously through ducting on either side of
the gas seals and through the rotating packing.

Thermal Analysis
The thermal analysis of any heat exchanger involves the solution of the basic heat transfer
equation.
(1)

This equation calculates the amount of heat   transferred through the area dA, where Th and
Tc are the local temperatures of the hot and cold fluids, α is the local heat transfer coefficient
and dA is the local incremental area on which α is based. For a flat wall
(2)

where δw is the wall thickness and λw its thermal conductivity.

For single phase flow past the wall α for each of the streams is a function of Re and Pr. When
condensing or boiling is taking place α may also be a function of the temperature difference.
Once the heat transfer coefficient for each stream and the wall are known the overall heat
transfer coefficient U is then given by
(3)

where the wall resistance rw is given by 1/αw. The total rate of heat transfer between the hot
and cold fluids is then given by
(4)

This equation is for constant temperatures and heat transfer coefficients. In most heat
exchangers this is not the case and so a different form of the equation is used
(5)

where   is the total heat load, U is the mean overall heat transfer coefficient and ΔT M the
mean temperature difference. The calculation of ΔTM and the removal of the constant heat
transfer coefficient assumption is described in Mean Temperature Difference.
Calculation of U and ΔTM requires information on the exchanger type, the geometry (e.g., the
size of the passages in a plate or the diameter of a tube), flow orientation, pure countercurrent

flow or crossflow, etc. The total duty   can then be calculated using an assumed value of
AT and compared with the required duty. Changes to the assumed geometry can then be

made and U, ΔTM and   recalculated to eventually iterate to a solution where   is equal to
the required duty. However, in performing the thermal analysis a check should also be made
at each iteration that the allowable pressure drop is not exceeded. Computer programs such as
TASC from HTFS (Heat Transfer and Fluid Flow Service) perform these calculations
automatically and optimize the design.

Mechanical Considerations
All heat exchangers types have to undergo some form of mechanical design. Any exchanger
that operates at above atmospheric pressure should be designed according to the locally
specified pressure vessel design code such as ASME VIII (American Society of Mechanical
Engineers) or BS 5500 (British Standard). These codes specify the requirements for a
pressure vessel, but they do not deal with any specific features of a particular heat exchanger
type. In some cases specialist standards exist for certain types of heat exchanger. Two of
these are listed below, but in general individual manufacturers define their own standards.

Heat Transfer Analysis & Heat Exchanger Analysis

Heat transfer is a typical application for engineering analysis and is routinely requested as
part of CAE Associates’ CFD consulting services.  For example, heat exchangers, turbine
blades, combustors, furnaces, and electronic package cooling devices all require heat transfer
analysis as part of the overall system engineering analysis. Very often, the heat transfer
analysis includes both fluid and solid components to constitute a conjugate heat transfer
analysis (CHT). For this specialized type of heat transfer analysis, the solid and fluid domains
are solved simultaneously, where the solid/fluid interface serves as a mechanism to allow the
heat transfer. The temperature of the interface is determined by the energy balance of the
convective fluid and the conductive solid.

Figure 9 A typical shell tube conjugate heat exchanger analysis

The figure above represents a typical shell tube conjugate heat exchanger analysis. The
incoming high temperature fluid passes through an array of tubes, which carry cooling fluid.
The energy balance on the tube surface, which eventually determines the surface temperature
and heat flux, indicates the effectiveness of the tube location, size, cooling flow rate, and the
overall cooling scheme. The resultant wall heat transfer characteristic can easily provide an
engineering assessment of the overall success of the heat exchanger.
 Figure 10 Conjugate Heat Transfer for Heat Exchanger Designs

For example, the conjugate heat transfer analysis shown above is used to assess the overall
cooling efficiency of the heat exchanger design. In this case, the cooling tubes are aligned in
a straight line from bottom to top. The incoming high temperature fluid enters from the
bottom of the domain. The flowfield solution for the heat exchanger analysis shows that the
wake of the first cooling tube spreads over the remaining tube regions, resulting in greatly
diminished cooling efficiency for the downstream tubes. A redesign can be achieved based on
the information provided by the conjugate heat transfer analysis.
References

 Garland, W. J. (1990) Private Communication.

 Walker,G. (1982) Industrial Heat Exchangers-A Basic Guide, Hemisphere Publishing
Corporation. DOI: 10.1002/aic.690290228
 Rohsenow, W. M. and Hartnett, J. P. (1973) Handbook of Heat Transfer, New York:
McGraw-Hill Book Company. DOI: 10.1016/0017-9310(75)90148-9
 Saunders, E. A. D. (1988) Heat Exchangers–Selection, Design and
Construction, Longman Scientific and Technical. DOI: 10.1016/0378-
3820(89)90046-5
 Tubular Exchanger Manufacturers, Association, (1988) (TEMA) Seventh
Edition. Shell and Tube Exchangers.
 American Petroleum Institute (API) 661: Air Cooled Heat Exchangers for the
Petroleum Industry.
 https://caeai.com/resources/heat-transfer-analysis-heat-exchanger-analysis