education for chemical engineers 9 ( 2 0 1 4 ) e77–e84

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Education for Chemical Engineers

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ece

Transient analysis of shell-and-tube heat

exchangers using an educational software

Samuel J.M. Cartaxo, Pedro F.G. Silvino, Fabiano A.N. Fernandes ∗

Universidade Federal do Ceara, Departamento de Engenharia Química, Campus do Pici, Bloco 709, 60455-760
Fortaleza, CE, Brazil

a b s t r a c t

Computer-aided design has become extremely popular and its use in classroom can be very helpful, adding more
analysis capabilities to all engineering areas. A free piece of educational software to teach transient analyses of
shell-and-tube heat exchanger equipment to undergraduate students is presented. The software was developed to
provide unit operation courses with realistic exercises involving dynamic simulation of chemical processes. The use
of the program improves the efficiency of the course since it let students practice heat exchanger analysis while
relieving them of tedious repetitive calculations.
© 2014 The Institution of Chemical Engineers. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Heat exchanger; Unit operations; Education; Software; Simulation

1. Introduction the tubes and the shell. They can operate at high pressures,
and their construction facilitates disassembly for periodic
Computer-aided design and analysis has leveraged a major maintenance and cleaning (Selbaş et al., 2006; Butterworth,
shift in the way chemical engineering has been taught 1987; Cartaxo and Fernandes, 2009; Castier and Amer, 2011).
in recent years. Any modern and competitive engineering Although the concept is simple, there are a large number
curricula cannot afford the absence of computer/software of phenomena associated with flow and heat transfer that
related courses, just because their students and future engi- results in a system that is difficult to master without making
neers would have difficulties to adapt or to match the current in numerous calculations (Dı az et al., 2001).
professional market demands. Shell-and-tube heat exchangers requires the knowledge
The benefits of using computer-aided tools to improve and calculation of complicated heat and fluid flow geometries,
the learning process of engineering students are broadly turbulence in the flow, existence of hydrodynamic and ther-
recognized. Although the market for process engineering sim- mal entrance regions, non-uniform local heat transfer rates
ulators is supplied by a number of vendors, such as Hysys, and fluid temperatures, secondary flow in the tube bends,
Pro/II, CHEMCAD, COMSOL, ASPEN Plus, HTRI, HTFS, THERM vortices in the neighborhood of the tube-fin junctions, heat
and CCTherm (Selbaş et al., 2006); such packages are meant conduction along tube walls, natural convection within the
for the professional with full understanding of process equip- tubes, and temperature dependence of fluid properties. Even
ment and are not well suited for didactical purposes when the steady-state predictions are not easily made from a first prin-
understanding of the phenomena influencing an equipment ciple analysis, therefore dynamic predictions are, of course,
functionality is intended. harder.
Shell-and-tube is the most used type of heat exchangers in A number of education professionals have found their
chemical industries. It consists of a bundle of pipes or tubes own pedagogical solutions for teaching heat exchanger design
enclosed within a cylindrical shell. One fluid flows through as an analysis. To fill the gap left by third-party packages
the tubes and a second fluid flows within the space between and commercial vendors, instructors around the world have

∗
Corresponding author. Tel.: +55 85 33669611; fax: +55 8533669610.
E-mail addresses: fabiano@ufc.br, efftech@gmail.com (F.A.N. Fernandes).
Received 2 August 2013; Received in revised form 27 March 2014; Accepted 6 May 2014
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ece.2014.05.001
1749-7728/© 2014 The Institution of Chemical Engineers. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
e78 education for chemical engineers 9 ( 2 0 1 4 ) e77–e84

developed customized computational applications to fulfill Specifically for the case of teaching heat exchangers, the
their educational needs (Lona et al., 2000; Ali Kara and Güraras, example applications are to be carefully planned. Although, in
2004; Fernandes and Rodrigues, 2004; Cartaxo and Fernandes, practical terms, the operation and control of these equipments
2009; Fernandes and Cartaxo, 2010; Martín and Mato, 2008). are relatively simple, their analysis and design is complex
Most available software were developed aiming mechanical due to the large amount of equations that needs to be solved
and thermal engineering after the steady-state operation was and due to the iterative nature of the solving technique
reached. Additionally, few software aims toward chemical (Cartaxo and Fernandes, 2009). The design of shell-and-tube
engineering problems. heat exchangers including thermodynamic and fluid dynamic
Dynamic studies are important to study control strategies, design, cost estimation and optimization represents a rather
study cooling performance and also to program changes in complex engineering task involving a variety of design rules,
temperature that may be required by chemical reactors. Many judgment considerations, calculating methods and empirical
studies depicting several scenarios are reported in the lit- knowledge of various fields.
erature showing the importance of dynamic studies in the Some industrial cases were reviewed and common exam-
engineer’s life. Control problems and scenarios have been ples were transformed into exercises to be used with the
reported by Yan et al. (2014). Shen et al. (2014) and Beier software (Shreve and Austin, 1984; Kirk et al., 1992). The
(2014) have studied the cooling performance of heat exchang- exercises present the problem that should be solved, where
ers using dynamic changes. Dynamic studies can also be used the equipment is placed inside the process and asks for the
to develop control strategies for reducing the energy con- student to find a solution for that particular problem. The
sumption (Diaz-Mendez et al., 2014; Ibrahim et al., 2014). The exercises bring several concepts into the student’s attention,
importance of developing heat exchange programming for such as: industrial applications of the heat exchangers, influ-
reactors was presented by Fu and Xu (2013) and Henini et al. ence of major design parameters, influence of the operating
(2013). conditions and environmental concerns. The student can feel
This work presents a non-commercial educational soft- themselves as an engineer making the course more interest-
ware developed to introduce the transient study of heat ing than the ones in which the student only solves exercises
exchanger equipments (shell and tube heat exchangers, from without having an idea about the process they are working
1–1 to 1–4 flows configurations) to undergraduate students. with.
Special care was taken in the design of the software interface The DHXA software was built to be a pathway to under-
to allow the students to concentrate their efforts in learn- stand the heat exchanger dynamic behavior. We have focused
ing how to analyze the transient behavior of shell-and-tube on the overall comprehension of the cause–effect relation
heat exchangers and not in learning how to use the pro- governing the equipment operation. Details about the design
gram. Several exercises and also stand alone simulations can method, the numerical solution scheme and other important
be performed with the software, so the students can have a concepts are considered a prerequisite at this time, and in our
permanent tool to be used when needed. university it is ministered in the unit operations course.
The development of the program started in 2009 and since
then the program has been tested in undergrad courses on 3. Software
heat exchangers and simulation of our university. The pro-
gram has also been available through the Internet during most The software code was implemented in Delphi v7 and is
of this time. The information gathered from this experience available for PC’s running Windows system (XP or higher).
has been used to optimize the capabilities and interface of The use of Delphi v7 allowed the software to be fully visual
the program. DHXA is distributed without charges on the web and avoided any kind of link with external DLLs that could
page www.deq.ufc.br and it can be installed by the students require installing third party software. A set-up was built
on their personal computers. for easy installation of the software that can be run in any
PC.
The software was divided into modules comprising the typ-
2. Learn through doing concept ical workflow of analyzing a heat exchanger, i.e., input the
project parameters, equipment specification, equipment oper-
The philosophy used to develop the software is the “learn- ation and the transient analysis.
ing through doing”, where the exercises are presented in a The simulator built in the software implements a solver
way to involve the student in the assignment. The software for the numerical solution of the mathematical model. The
was developed to be complementary to the teaching of the mathematical model is comprised essentially by a set of par-
fundamentals and mathematical methods of the technical tial differential equations, combined with some constitutive
phenomena. The software is used to stress the engineering relations for estimation of physical properties, heat transfer
practice, not only the textbook design procedure, so that stu- coefficients, among others model parameters. Several design
dents do not have the wrong idea that an isolated analysis is options can be assessed and modified by the user, such as
complete. They need a perspective that the practice is much the number of passes in the tubes, number of tubes, internal
more than the fundamentals. and external tube diameter, shell diameter, tube length, tube
Showing some applications examples, the graduate will pitch, pitch type (squared or triangular), baffle spacing, and
enter engineering with an awareness of how fundamentals allocation of the cold and hot fluids (shell or tube side).
can be connected to practice, and there will be less of a ten- While the software allows the student to quickly run sev-
dency to resort to pure empiricism. Furthermore, this will eral test cases to gain insight about sensitive parameters in
build an awareness of the complexity and scope of engineer- the design process, it does not do the entire job. The student
ing practice, and will combat any impression that the isolated should learn how to read standard tables like IPS or BWG pipe
and simplified school day’s design is sufficient (Rhinehart, specifications to input the required pipe dimensions into the
1991). software (Kern, 2001). This approach enhances the learning
 education for chemical engineers 9 ( 2 0 1 4 ) e77–e84 e79

Fig. 1 – Input screen for physical–chemical properties of the shell-side and tube-side fluids.

process, because the students will not use the software like a “open source” resources cannot be practically prevented and,
“black box” and become aware of the procedures performed for that reason, cannot be ignored and the students should be
underneath the thermal design or analysis of heat exchanger advised accordingly. Especially for the professionals certified
equipment. from the last decade on, those engineers who spent their aca-
Fig. 1 presents the main screen for setting the physical demic times using Google, Wikipedia and so forth, they believe
properties of shell and tubes fluid streams. Students are able for sure that much of the information from these sources is
to learn the practical importance of the physical properties by dependable for preliminary engineering calculations, however
experimenting with this module. In general terms, physical some confirmation is needed, just because a non insignificant
properties of the substances have a direct significance on the part of that information is potentially misleading.
behavior of the physical system. This assertion is invariably Viscosity and specific heat are more sensible to tem-
true for heat exchanger devices. It is desirable that the stu- perature changes and require proper evaluation. Depending
dents develop a “feeling” about this impact on the operating on the temperature range of the fluid streams, the calcu-
conditions of a certain piece of equipment. They should rec- lation of viscosity and calorific capacities may introduce a
ognize which are the more relevant variables, the ones that significant variation during the solution of the differential
have greater sensitivity in the model calculations. equations. Thus, students should learn that these properties
The student is compelled to look for the fluid properties are correlated through temperature functions in the simula-
(density, heat capacity, thermal conductivity, and viscosity) to tion algorithm, and what mathematical relation is appropriate
use the software. The option not to have a built in physical for each property. For example, the specific heat is well repre-
properties data bank was purely didactical so the student has sented by a fourth degree polynomial for a large temperature
to search the literature before using the software. In the pro- range. On the other hand, because of its greater sensitivity, vis-
cess, the student will be learning where to find the needed cosity is more adequately correlated by a logarithmic-inverse
data when necessary. The students are enforced to search or logarithmic-polynomial function of absolute temperature.
through tables, treat the physical data and obtain the phys- With this background, the students are encouraged to fit their
ical properties equation parameters that fit the data at the own numerical coefficients for the properties correlations.
temperature range they will be working with. Consequently, Through experimenting with these values, they are able to
a marginal didactic benefit to the learning process is that the develop engineering insight about physical properties sensi-
student faces the fact that sometimes the available data are tivity and relative relevance.
not presented in the form they need and some adaptations Several equations have been proposed in the literature
should be made. (books and articles) for the changes in viscosity as a function
Nowadays, the availability of physical properties sources is of temperature and pressure; and sometimes we have limited
huge. Aside of the traditional sources like classical text books, amount of equation parameters for a given fluid. During the
there are a number of online ones, some of them for free and development of the project we decided that the student should
other for a subscription price. Additionally, a conscious edu- look for some physical and chemical properties of the fluids
cator cannot close their eyes to the so-called “non-scientific” (also to learn how to look for these information). Thus, a lin-
sources, just because they already are in widespread use by our ear behavior for viscosity was implemented in the software.
students; a remarkable example is Wikipedia. The use of such Although the results will not be too accurate, it is possible
e80 education for chemical engineers 9 ( 2 0 1 4 ) e77–e84

Fig. 2 – Module for definition of heat exchanger geometric design and other parameters for the mathematical model solver.

to get good simulation results using this formula, especially fluid goes through the shell or tube bundle side. Usually, the
because the temperature changes during simulations will not recommended allocation is the one that evens the pressure
be too large. drop as most as possible on both sides. However, when corro-
After setting up the proper fluids and their properties, the sion effects are critical issue, they are to be taken into account
student needs to specify the geometric and design features also with the proper priority.
of the studied heat exchanger. The students interact with the Generally, aside the pressure drop issue, the fluid alloca-
software through the dialogs presented in Fig. 2, where they tion may have a direct impact on the exchanger heat transfer
define the length and internal diameter of the exchanger shell, area, which relates proportionally to the equipment cost. This
the internal and external diameters of tubes in the bundle and is especially true if there is a controlling fluid involved. Since
fouling factor for hot and cold sides. the heat transfer coefficient of the controlling fluid is going to
The heat exchanger design module allows exploring dictate the overall coefficient, the allocation favoring a greater
creatively the dynamic operation of three types of heat heat transfer coefficient for this fluid corresponds most prob-
exchanger: 1–1, 1–2 and 1–4 fluid passages, where the first fig- ably to a more efficient design.
ure refers to the number of fluid passes on the shell-side, while With DHXA software, fluid allocation analysis is simple
the last one regards the passes count on the tube-side of the and fast, thus the assigned exercises encourage the students
bundle. Increasing the tube passes requires the specification to think critically about which fluid allocation gives a bet-
of the quantity of tubes contained in each one. This setting ter design. They may effortlessly experiment with different
is directly related to the bundle internal cross section, to the design options and evaluate the impact of their decisions on
fluid velocity and, consequently, to the tube-side heat trans- key equipment characteristics like heat transfer coefficients,
fer coefficient. Such design–parameter–performance relations heat transfer area, or effective fouling coefficient.
are strongly reinforced through the exercises in this software The operation module screen is presented in Fig. 3. In this
module. module, the student has to deal with both input and out-
The selection of the fluid tube passes automatically recon- put data regarding the actual operation of the equipment. For
figures the software screen for the proper tube-count input. No example, the flow rates and entrance temperatures for the
provision is made for defining this specification, so the student cold and hot fluids should be assigned. As in a real process
is expected to be able to gather the information from reference situation, when an exchanger goes online, the process engi-
sources. The same is true for the internal/external diameters neer does not know for sure what output temperatures it will
for heat transfer tubes in the bundle. They should go through perform, he/she just take a seat and observes. This is essen-
codes and standards, e.g. TEMA, API, ASME, among others, as tially what the students are supposed to do in this module,
a preview of their engineering practice. For example, the num- i.e., they discover the outcome of their design decisions.
ber o tubes that can be practically put inside a shell of certain Several thermal variables are available for monitoring
internal diameter, with defined tube pitch, was standardized the ongoing simulation. While the exchanger transient dif-
by TEMA and is available in most text books. ferential equations are solved, the software allows direct
One of the most important design decisions the student monitoring of the exit temperature of both fluids and their
should learn how to make is the allocation of the fluid in the temperature range between inlet and outlet nozzles. Addition-
heat exchanger. At this time, the engineer has to specify which ally, the current heat load can be seen in “real-time”. These are
 education for chemical engineers 9 ( 2 0 1 4 ) e77–e84 e81

Fig. 3 – Operational module of the heat exchanger simulator.

important information, because they empower the students differential equation is being solved. Additionally, this mod-
to make decisions during the equipment startup time, what ule also interfaces current values in each time-step for the exit
mimics a real-life process situation that may require critical temperatures and temperature ranges of both fluids. With this
and quick decisions, such as opening or closing valves in order global and local exit temperature information in their hands,
to adjust flow rates, shutdown the exchanger to do ventilation students are pointed to analyze critically the concept of tran-
or other corrective procedures. sient and steady-state operation in the specific context of a
Most heat exchanger design software (commercial or aca- heat exchanger.
demic) focuses on providing the final results, which, when In synthesis, this exercise module encourages the students
dealing with heat exchanger, usually means to calculate to take advantage of the full access allowed to several inter-
the required area and consequent pressure drop. Differently, mediate variables values, such as heat transfer coefficients
DHXA was designed to take a heat exchanger configuration on both sides, global heat transfer coefficients at any posi-
and its operating conditions as input and evaluate its behav- tion and on both terminals, and internal temperature profiles,
ior along the service time. When solving a problem with the varying both in position and time. If the student knows what
software, the student is going to find the final steady-state happens with such important values (e.g., a heat transfer
temperature conditions for the equipment; however also it coefficient) after changing an input parameter, they acquire
is possible to access all the intermediary local temperature insight about the design method and the equipment oper-
profiles developed inside the heat exchanger. ation, which are invaluable knowledge resources at field
The ability to know the internal temperature profile over practice. This is expected to enhance their ability of mentally
time is critical for the students’ absorption of an important predict cause–effect relations regarding the heat exchanger
concept regarding a heat exchanger operation: steady out- operation.
put variables (i.e. temperatures) do not assure the equipment
reached steady-state as a whole. Usually, in the industry, the 4. Transient analysis module
process engineer assesses the exchanger closeness to steady-
state by measuring some output process variable, such as a The transient analysis module is presented in the screen of
fluid temperature. Fig. 4. At this module, the students have access to how the heat
Since solely the variation of output fluid temperatures exchanger system responds dynamically throughout the time
in time does hold as a fully reliable criterion, it is neces- of operation. The equipment dynamics during startup may be
sary to devise a more general measure that indicates when observed from the initial condition until the steady-state is
the exchanger reaches their steady operating conditions and reached or the student is instructed to create hypothetical pro-
the simulation can be stopped. While there are many pos- cess perturbations, such as variations on the inlet flow rates
sible ways to define a stop condition, the DHXA software and temperatures.
presents continually the summation of the absolute values The exercises in this module are designed to explore the
of the time derivative of temperature at every point the output data available through several charts. Furthermore
e82 education for chemical engineers 9 ( 2 0 1 4 ) e77–e84

Fig. 4 – Time transient analysis module of the simulator.

a selection of input variables, such as inlet flow rates and subject matter regularly dealt with in subsequent courses of a
temperatures for both fluid streams, is presented with the chemical engineering undergraduate program.
purpose to facilitate the operation analysis and promote the Most of the exercises that can be formulated and that
students’ engineering insight. Showing input and output vari- would use the software are open-ended. There is not a sin-
ables aligned second by second, the students are able to gle possible answer, however there are wrong answers for the
compare directly the equipments’ response to changes made exercises. Usually a final objective should be reached. How the
in the process variables affecting the exchanger performance, student will meet this objective is up to the student, since
for example, by modifying the input temperature for, say, the there are many options in the software that can be changed
hot fluid, they can observe how long it takes for the cold for the student to choose. The professor must point out which
fluid to sense this input perturbation. Important concepts like kind of possibilities exists and how these possibilities will
“response time” or “time lag” are explored with these software influence the process, but it should be left for the student
features, which would be hard to convey by using conventional to decide which solution they will want to implement. The
educational tools and methods (Lachi et al., 1997; Huang et al., student will learn more trying several options to solve the
2007; Guellal and Abdesselam, 2009). problem using the software as a learning tool and learning
Another type of exercises using the functionality herein the with his/her successes and errors.
transient analyses module aims the compensation of a tem- The assessment of the students work is not an easy task
perature change in a process stream by modifying a service when an open-ended problem is given. Of course the professor
stream property. In a typical case-study, the students are can give grades based simply on if the objective of the prob-
asked to consider a process situation where a product of a lem has been met, or the professor can give grades based on
crude oil distillation column is cooled using regular cooling how the student has met the objective that was proposed. A
water before being pumped to the storage park. Assume the suggestion is to divide the class in groups and make a com-
exchanger is initially running in steady-state and suddenly petition of which group can come up with the best plan to
the crude cut increases its temperature by, say, 10 ◦ C in a step solve the objective, considering the time that takes to reach
change. Since the maximum storage temperature limit still the goal (faster or slower pathway towards the objective) and
holds, playing the process engineer, the student has the job of safety concerns that should be taken.
deciding what process property of the cooling water should be
modified to offset the perturbation from the distillation col-
5. Student feedback
umn. The most plausible options are the flow rate and inlet
temperature of the cooling water, however running a number
The software was used with 8th semester chemical engineer-
of trials conditions for the cooling water stream, the students
ing students during two semesters (in 2012 and 2013) on a
may find that the flow rate or temperature adjustment pro-
“Modeling and Simulation” course at Universidade Federal do
vides a more immediate correction. Such “change-response”
Ceará (Fortaleza – Brazil). All students had previous knowl-
sensibility analysis of the heat exchanger might turn to
edge on heat exchangers, but not on the transient behavior
be the preparation basis for designing a controller strategy,
of heat exchangers. The pedagogical effectiveness of the
 education for chemical engineers 9 ( 2 0 1 4 ) e77–e84 e83

Table 1 – Survey results for assessing the pedagogical methodology and use of the software.
Questions Negative Neutral Positive

1 I acquired significant new knowledge from the extra activities developed in the 4% 12% 84%
course.
2 The practical activity has increased my interest in the disciplines involved. 6% 16% 78%
3 I could use my previous knowledge acquired in undergraduate studies. 3% 7% 90%
4 I believe that this activity fits into the scope of the professional profile of a chemical 1% 6% 93%
engineer.
5 The activity was more interesting and motivating than the usual assessment 3% 15% 82%
methods (exams) used in the course.
6 I consider very interesting the use of active learning problems in the course. 1% 9% 90%
7 Group work influenced the development of the activities. 6% 25% 69%
8 The activity allowed the discovery of tools (software, content, etc.) that would not be 10% 19% 70%
done by other means.

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