CB-307

Phase Change Heat Exchangers

by
Dr. Anoop Kr. Gupta

Department of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering

Indian Institute of Technology Patna
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 Condensers

• Liquid to vapor phase change: Vaporization (Evaporation +

Boiling).
• Vapor to liquid phase change: Condensation
• For a pure substance and at a given pressure, phase change
occurs at a constant temperature called saturation temperature
or equilibrium temperature.
• Two mechanisms: film-wise condensation (condensate wets the
solid surface and flows on the surface in the form of a continuous
film) and drop-wise condensation (condensate does not wet the
surface and accumulates in the form of droplets and then falls).
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 Condensers (contd.)

• Dropwise condensation mainly occurs on a clean and polished

surface (hydrophobic).
• Heat transfer coefficient for drop-wise condensation is usually
4-8 times higher than that for the film condensation due to the
deterioration by liquid film resistance.
• In most of the industrial applications, film condensation occurs.
• The design of a condenser is same as other shell-and-tube heat
exchangers but with a wider baffle spacing, typically (lB = Ds).
• Two types of condensers: horizontal and vertical
• Condensation can happen both in tube-side or shell-side.
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 Condensers (contd.)

• Condensation normally takes place on the shell-side of

horizontal exchangers and tube-side of vertical exchangers.
• The main disadvantage of horizontal condensers is that the
liquid tends to build up in the tubes which significantly reduces
the effective heat transfer coefficient.
• Two modes of flow in vertical condensers: downflow and
upflow depending upon the direction of vapor flow.
• Downflow vertical condenser: The vapor enters at the top of
condenser and flows down inside tubes. The condensate drains
from the tubes by gravity.
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 Condensers (contd.)

• Upflow vertical condenser: The vapor enters at the bottom

and flows upwards inside the tubes. The condensate drains
down the tubes by gravity.

Fig. Horizontal condenser

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Condensers (contd.)

Fig. Vertical condenser

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 Basic Assumptions
• The basic equations for the film-wise condensation were developed
by Nusselt (1916).

• Simplifying assumptions:
o Liquid film is in laminar flow and moves steadily by gravity.
o No non-condensable gases are present in vapor phase.
o No vapor shear force acts at the vapor-liquid interface.
o Momentum terms are negligible.
o Temperature distribution in film is linear.
o Constant physical properties of the liquid film.
o Applicable for low liquid and vapor flow rates.
o Only mode of heat transfer in liquid film is conduction.
o Thermodynamic equilibrium between vapor and condensate.
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 Heat transfer Coefficient

1) (a) Condensation outside horizontal tubes:

1
 k  H vap g 
3 2 4
L  condensate properties
h  0.725  L L
 (T  T )  d  V  vapor properties
 V W L o
OR
1
  L (  L  V ) PNT g  3
h  0.954 k L  
 m 
L L 
mL  mass flow rate of condensate (kg/s)
P = tube perimeter
NT  number of tubes in the bundle

Note: No correction factor for multiple pass condensers is required (FT

= 1) as it is an isothermal process for pure condensing fluid.

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 Heat transfer Coefficient (contd.)

Condensation outside a bank of

tubes:
Dripping of condensate over successive
rows acts to decrease the condensing
heat transfer coefficient. To account for
this, an empirical correction is used by
Kern (1950).
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  L (  L  V ) PNT g  3
h  0.954 k L   N R1/6
 m 
L L 
Fig: Condensate flow over tube banks.
NR = avg. number of tubes in a vertical
row
= 2/3rd of number of tubes in central
row (=0.66 x Db/Pt)
= 0.78 Ds/Pt
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 Heat transfer Coefficient (contd.)
1) (b) Condensation inside horizontal tubes (air coolers):
1 Heat transfer coefficient depends
  (   V ) PNT g  3
h  0.763 k L  L L  on the flow pattern at any point
 m 
L L  along the tube.

2) Condensation inside and outside the vertical tubes:

1
  L (  L  V ) NT  (di or d o ) g  3
h  0.926 k L   For Rec < 2000
 m 
L L 
Reynolds number for the condensate film (Rec) can be defined as:

4mL
Rec 
 L Nt (di or d o ) 10
 Heat transfer Coefficient (contd.)

For Rec > 2000, the condensate film becomes turbulent (Colburn,
1934) which is largely affected by vapor shear.

4mL
V 
Fig. Condensation coefficient for vertical tubes.  L Nt (di or d o )

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 Flooding inside vertical tubes

When the vapor flows up in side the tube, proper attention must
be paid to avoid flooding in the tube because of accumulation of
condensate. The following critical condition must be satisfied for
no flooding condition:

u  u   0.6  gdi (  L  V )
1/2 1/4 1/2 1/4 1/4
V V L L

Note: Vapor and liquid velocity should be evaluated at

the bottom of the vertical tube and based on each
phase flowing in the tube alone.

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 Problem 1

Estimate the heat transfer coefficient for steam condensing on

the outside, and on the inside of a 25 mm o.d., 21 mm i.d.
vertical tube of 3.66 m long. The steam condensate rate is 0.015
kg/s per tube and condensation takes place at 3 bar. Physical
properties at the saturation temperature 133.5oC (ρL= 931 kg/m3,
ρv = 1.65 kg/m3, kL = 0.688 W/moC, µL = 0.21 mNs/m2, CpL= 4160
J/kgoC)

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Mean Temperature Difference
• No correction factor for multiple passes if saturated vapor is pure.

(t2  t1 )
TLMTD  Tsat = saturation temperature of the vapor
 Tsat  t1  t1, t2 = inlet and outlet temperature of coolant
ln  
T 
 sat 2 t

• Correction factor is required for multiple passes if saturated vapor is a

multicomponent mixture.

Condenser duty:

Q  mH vap  UATLMTD

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 De-superheating and Sub-cooling

• If the vapor entering the condenser is super-heated and/or

the condensate leaving the condenser is cooled below its
B.P. (sub-cooled).
• The sensible heat should be removed first to de-superheat
the vapor to obtain the saturated vapor temperature.
• The saturated liquid is to be further cooled down (sub-
cooled) by extracting sensible heat below the boiling point.
• Divide the temperature profile in sections.
• If the tube-wall temperature is below the dew point of
vapor, vapor will condense directly onto the tubes and heat
transfer coefficient is same as for condensation.

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De-superheating and Sub-cooling

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 De-superheating and Sub-cooling (contd.)

• LMTD and heat transfer coefficient should be calculated individually for

each section if the degree of superheat/sub-cool is large.

• The weighted mean temperature difference and overall transfer

coefficient can be used to design the condensers if heat load due to
sensible heat transfer in each unit about 25% of latent heat transfer.

• Otherwise, it is convenient to design separate de-superheater and sub-

cooling exchangers.

Total heat transfer area A  ADS  ACond .  ASC

QDS QCond . QSC
  
U DS TLMTD , DS U Cond .TLMTD , Cond . U SC TLMTD , SC

• To calculate the condensing heat transfer coefficient, condensing length L

must be specified.
A
LCond .  Cond .  Tube length ( L)
A
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 Problem 2

It is proposed to use an existing distillation column which is

fitted with reflux condenser having 200 vertical (50 mm i.d.)
tubes for separating benzene from the mixture of
chlorobenzenes. The top product is benzene at a mass flow rate
of 2500 kg/h. Reflux ratio = 3. Check if the tubes are likely to
flood.

Given: Density at benzene boiling point: ρL = 840 kg/m3, ρV = 2.7

kg/m3

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