Chapter 7

Heat Exchangers
 Heat exchangers are devices that facilitate the
exchange of heat between two fluids that are at
different temperatures while keeping them from mixing
with each other.
 Heat exchangers are commonly used in practice in a
wide range of applications, from heating and air-
conditioning systems in a household, to chemical
processing and power production in large plants.
 Heat exchangers differ from mixing chambers in that
they do not allow the two fluids involved to mix. In a car
radiator, for example, heat is transferred from the hot
water flowing through the radiator tubes to the air
flowing through the closely spaced thin plates outside
attached to the tubes.
 Heat transfer in a heat exchanger usually involves
convection in each fluid and conduction through the
wall separating the two fluids.
Types of Heat Exchangers
Heat exchangers are typically classified according to flow
arrangement and type of construction. Generally, three types
of heat exchangers are in common use:
1) Double pipe heat exchangers
2) Shell and tube heat exchangers
3) Cross flow heat exchangers (compact type)
4) Plate and frame (plate type) heat exchanger
Double Pipe Heat Exchanger
This is the simplest type of heat exchanger which consists
of two concentric pipes of different diameters, as shown in
Figure 1. One fluid flows through the smaller pipe while the
other fluid flows through the annular space between the two
pipes.
Two types of flow arrangement are possible in a double-pipe
heat exchanger: in parallel flow, both the hot and cold fluids
enter the heat exchanger at the same end and move in the
same direction. In counter flow, the hot and cold fluids enter
the heat exchanger at opposite ends and flow in opposite
 a) Parallel Flow b) Counter Flow
Fig 1 ) Different flow regimes and associated temperature profiles in a
double pipe heat exchanger
Shell and Tube heat exchanger
 The most common type of heat exchanger in industrial
applications is the shell-and-tube heat exchanger, shown in
Figure 2. Shell-and-tube heat exchangers contain a large
number of tubes (sometimes several hundred) packed in a
shell with their axes parallel to that of the shell.
 Heat transfer takes place as one fluid flows inside the tubes
while the other fluid flows outside the tubes through the
shell.

Fig 2 ) Schematic of shell and tube heat exchanger (one-shell pass and one
tube pass)
 Baffles are commonly placed in the shell to force the
shell-side fluid to flow across the shell to enhance heat
transfer and to maintain uniform spacing between the
tubes.
 Despite their widespread use, shell and- tube heat
exchangers are not suitable for use in automotive and
aircraft applications because of their relatively large
size and weight.
 The tubes in a shell-and-tube heat exchanger open to
some large flow areas called headers at both ends of
the shell, where the tube-side fluid accumulates before
entering the tubes and after leaving them (Refer fig 2).
 Shell-and-tube heat exchangers are further classified
according to the number of shell and tube passes
involved.
 Heat exchangers in which all the tubes make one U-
turn in the shell, for example, are called one-shell-pass
and two tube- passes heat exchangers.
 Likewise, a heat exchanger that involves two passes in
the shell and four passes in the tubes is called a two-
shell-passes and four-tube-passes heat exchanger (
Cross flow Heat exchanger(Compact heat
exchanger)
 This type of heat exchanger is specifically designed to
realize a large heat transfer surface area per unit
volume.
 The ratio of the heat transfer surface area of a heat
exchanger to its volume is called the area density . A
heat exchanger with  > 700 m2/m3 is classified as being
compact.
 Compact heat exchangers enable us to achieve high
heat transfer rates between two fluids in a small
volume, and they are commonly used in applications
with strict limitations on the weight and volume of heat
exchangers.
 The large surface area in compact heat exchangers is
obtained by attaching closely spaced thin plate or
corrugated fins to the walls separating the two fluids.

 In compact heat exchangers, the two fluids usually
move perpendicular to each other, and such flow
configuration is called cross-flow. The cross-flow is
further classified as unmixed and mixed flow,
depending on the flow configuration, as shown in Figure
below.

Fig 3 ) Different flow configurations in cross-flow heat exchangers.

Fig 4 ) Compact Heat Exchangers flow and fin
Plate and Frame (Plate type ) Heat Exchanger
 An innovative type of heat exchanger that has found
widespread use is the plate and frame (or just plate)
heat exchanger, which consists of a series of plates
with corrugated flat flow passages.
 The hot and cold fluids flow in alternate passages, and
thus each cold fluid stream is surrounded by two hot
fluid streams, resulting in very effective heat transfer.
 They are well suited for liquid-to-liquid heat exchange
applications, provided that the hot and cold fluid
streams are at about the same pressure.
Working Principle
Channels are formed between the plates and the corner ports are
arranged so that the two media flow through alternate channels. The
heat is transferred through the plate between the channels, and
complete counter-current flow is created for highest possible
efficiency.
The corrugation of the
plates provides the
passage between the
plates, supports each
plate against the
adjacent one and
enhances the
turbulence, resulting in
efficient heat transfer.

Fig 5 ) Flow Principle of plate-and-frame heat

The Overall Heat Transfer Coefficient
 A heat exchanger typically involves two flowing fluids
separated by a solid wall. Heat is first transferred from
the hot fluid to the wall by convection, through the wall
by conduction, and from the wall to the cold fluid again
by convection. Any radiation effects are usually
included in the convection heat transfer coefficients.
 The thermal resistance network associated with this
heat transfer process is shown in fig below.

Fig 6 ) Thermal Resistance for a double pipe heat

 For example, for a double-pipe heat exchanger shown
in fig 6, we have: Ai =  DiL and Ao = DoL, and the
thermal resistance of the tube wall in this case is:

Then the total thermal resistance becomes

 In the analysis of heat exchangers, it is convenient to combine all

the thermal resistances in the path of heat flow into a single
resistance R, and to express the rate of heat transfer between the
two fluids as:

where U is the overall heat transfer coefficient, whose unit is W/m2·°C,

cancelling T gives
Note that
Fouling Factor
 The performance of heat exchangers usually deteriorates
with time as a result of accumulation of deposits on heat
transfer surfaces. The layer of deposits represents additional
resistance to heat transfer and causes the rate of heat
transfer in a heat exchanger to decrease.
 The net effect of these accumulations on heat transfer is
represented by a fouling factor Rf , which is a measure of
the thermal resistance introduced by fouling.
 The most common type of fouling is the precipitation of
solid deposits in a fluid on the heat transfer surfaces. To
avoid this potential problem, water in power and process
plants is extensively treated and its solid contents are
removed before it is allowed to circulate through the system.
 Another form of fouling, which is common in the chemical
process industry, is corrosion and other chemical
fouling. This form of fouling can be avoided by coating
metal pipes with glass or using plastic pipes instead of metal
ones.
 The fouling factor is obviously zero for a new heat
exchanger and increases with time as the solid deposits
build up on the heat exchanger surface.
 The fouling factor depends on the operating
temperature and the velocity of the fluids, as well as
the length of service. It increases with increasing
temperature and decreasing velocity.
 The overall heat transfer coefficient relation given
above is valid for clean surfaces and needs to be
modified to account for the effects of fouling on both
the inner and the outer surfaces of the tube. For an
unfinned shell-and-tube heat exchanger, it can be
expressed as:

where Ai =Di L and Ao = Do L are the areas of inner

and outer surfaces, and Rf,i and Rf,o are the fouling factors
at those surfaces.
Example

Analysis
The thermal resistance for an unfinned
shell-and-tube heat exchanger with
fouling on both heat transfer surfaces is
given by:

Where
 Substituting, the total thermal resistance R is :
Note that about 19
percent of the total
thermal resistance in this
case is due to fouling and
about 5 percent of it is
due to the steel tube
separating the two fluids.
The rest (76 percent) is
due to the convection
resistances on the two
sides of the inner tube.
(b) Knowing the total thermal resistance and the heat
transfer surface areas, the overall heat transfer
coefficient based on the inner and outer surfaces of the
tube are:
Analysis Of Heat Exchangers
 Heat exchangers usually operate for long periods of
time with no change in their operating conditions.
Therefore, they can be modeled as steady-flow devices.
As such, the mass flow rate of each fluid remains
constant, and the fluid properties such as temperature
and velocity at any inlet or outlet remain the same.
 The outer surface of the heat exchanger is assumed to be
perfectly insulated, so that there is no heat loss to the
surrounding medium, and any heat transfer occurs between
the two fluids only.
 Under these assumptions, the rate of heat transfer from the
hot fluid is equal to the rate of heat transfer to the cold one.
That is,
(Eq. 1)
and
(Eq. 2)
 For boilers and condensers , the rate of heat transfer
(for evaporation or condensation )is :
In heat exchanger analysis, it is often convenient to
combine the product of the mass flow rate and the
specific heat of a fluid into a single quantity. This
quantity is called the heat capacity rate and is defined
for the hot and cold fluid streams as:
and
Two Methods are in common use in the analysis of heat
exchanger:
i. The Log Mean Temperature Difference (LMTD)
method
used to select a heat exchanger that will achieve a
specified temperature change in a fluid stream of known
mass flow rate,
ii. Effectiveness- NTU method
used to predict the outlet temperatures of the hot
The Log Mean Temperature Difference Method
 The rate of heat transfer in a heat exchanger can also
be expressed in an analogous manner to Newton’s law
of cooling as: (Eq. 3)
where U is the overall heat transfer coefficient, As is the
heat transfer area, and Tm is suitable mean
temperature difference between the two fluids across
the heat to
In order exchanger.
develop a relation for the equivalent average
temperature difference between the two fluids, consider
the parallel-flow double-pipe heat exchanger in fig 7
below.
an energy balance on each fluid in a differential section
of the heat exchanger can be expressed as:
and
Solving the equations above for dTh and dTc gives
and (Eq. 4)
 Taking the differences of eq.2,
(Eq. 5)

The rate of heat transfer in the

differential section of the heat
exchanger can also be expressed
as:

Substituting this equation into Eq.

5 and rearranging gives:
(Eq. 6)

Integrating from the inlet of the heat

exchanger to its outlet, we obtain:

Fig 7 ) Variation of the

(Eq. 7)
fluid temperatures in a
parallel-flow double-pipe
heat exchanger.
 Finally, solving Eqs. 1 and 2 for and
substituting into Eq. 7 gives, after some
rearrangement,

Where is the log mean temperature

difference,
Here T1 and T2 represent the temperature difference between the
two fluids at the two ends (inlet and outlet) of the heat exchanger.
ounter-Flow Heat Exchangers
Similar relation could be used for log mean temperature
difference of a counter flow double pipe heat exchanger with
modification of T1 and T2 as follows :
 Multipass and Cross-Flow Heat Exchangers:
Use of a Correction Factor
 for cross-flow and multipass shell-and-tube heat
exchangers, log mean temperature difference relation
for the counter-flow case is:

where F is the correction factor, which depends on the

geometry of the heat exchanger and the inlet and outlet
temperatures of the hot and cold fluid streams. For cross
flow
The or
Tshell
, isand
thetube.
log mean temperature difference for the
lm CF
case of a counter-flow heat exchanger.
The correction factor F for common cross-flow and shell-and-tube
heat exchanger configurations is given in chart versus two
temperature ratios P and R defined as: subscripts 1
and 2 represent
and the inlet and
outlet,
respectively.
T and t represent the shell- and tube-side temperatures,
Example
A 2-shell passes and 4-tube passes heat exchanger is
used to heat glycerin from 20°C to 50°C by hot water,
which enters the thin-walled 2-cm-diameter tubes at 80°C
and leaves at 40°C (Fig. ). The total length of the tubes in
the heat exchanger is 60 m. The convection heat transfer
coefficient is 25 W/m2 ·°C on the glycerin (shell) side and
160 W/m2 · °C on the water (tube) side. Determine the
rate of heat transfer in the heat exchanger (a) before any
fouling occurs and (b) after fouling with a fouling factor of
0.0006 m2 · °C/ W occurs on the outer surfaces of the
tubes. Analysis The tubes are said to be thin-
walled, and thus it is reasonable to
assume the inner and outer surface
areas of the tubes to be equal. Then the
heat transfer surface area becomes

The rate of heat transfer in this heat

exchanger can be determined from:
the log mean temperature difference for the counter-flow
arrangement is determined as:

In the case of no fouling, the overall heat transfer coefficient U is

determined from

Then the rate of heat transfer becomes

(b) When there is fouling on one of the surfaces, the overall heat
transfer coefficient U is

Then the rate of heat transfer becomes

 The Effectiveness–NTU Method
 This method is used for the determination of the heat
transfer rate and the outlet temperatures of the hot and
cold fluids for prescribed fluid mass flow rates and inlet
temperatures when the type and size of the heat
exchanger are specified.
 It is based on a dimensionless parameter called the
heat transfer effectiveness  , defined as:

The actual heat transfer rate in a heat exchanger can be

determined from an energy balance on the hot or cold
fluids and can be expressed as:

where Cc and Ch are the heat capacity rates of the cold

and
the hot fluids, respectively.
 To determine the maximum possible heat transfer rate
in a heat exchanger, we first recognize that the
maximum temperature difference in a heat exchanger
is the difference between the inlet temperatures of the
hot and cold fluids. That is,

The heat transfer in a heat exchanger will reach its maximum

value when (1) the cold fluid is heated to the inlet
temperature of the hot fluid or (2) the hot fluid is cooled to
the inlet temperature of the cold fluid. These two limiting
conditions will not be reached simultaneously unless the heat
capacity rates of the hot and cold fluids are identical (i.e., Cc
= Ch).
When Cc  Ch, which is usually the case, the fluid with the
smaller heat capacity rate will experience a larger temperature
change,
Therefore, the maximum possible heat transfer rate in a heat
exchanger is:

Where Cmin is the smaller of

 The determination of the maximum heat transfer rate
requires the availability of the inlet temperature of the hot
and cold fluids and their mass flow rates, which are usually
specified. Then, once the effectiveness of the heat
exchanger is known, the actual heat transfer rate can be
determined from:

Therefore, the effectiveness of a heat exchanger enables us

to determine the heat transfer rate without knowing the
outlet temperatures of the fluids.
The effectiveness of a heat exchanger depends on the
geometry of the heat exchanger as well as the flow
arrangement. Therefore, different types of heat exchangers
have different effectiveness relations.
Effectiveness relations of the heat exchangers typically
involve the dimensionless group UAs/Cmin. This quantity is
called the number of transfer units NTU and is expressed
as: the larger the NTU, the larger the heat
exchanger.
  In heat exchanger analysis, it is also convenient to
define another dimensionless quantity called the
capacity ratio c as:

the effectiveness of a heat exchanger is a function of the

number of transfer units NTU and the capacity ratio c. That is,

For example effectiveness relations for double pipe heat

exchanger are:

Relations for NTU and  are given in table (Refer extra material given in class)
Example
A counter-flow double-pipe heat exchanger is to heat water
from 20°C to 80°C at a rate of 1.2 kg/s. The heating is to be
accomplished by geothermal water available at 160°C at a
mass flow rate of 2 kg/s. The inner tube is thin-walled and
has a diameter of 1.5 cm. If the overall heat transfer
coefficient of the heat exchanger is 640 W/m2·°C, determine
the length of the heat exchanger required to achieve the
desired heating. Analysis
In the effectiveness–NTU
method, we first determine the
heat capacity rates of the hot
and cold fluids and identify the
smaller one:

Therefore

and
Then the maximum heat transfer rate is determined to be

The actual rate of heat transfer in the heat exchanger is

Thus, the effectiveness of the heat exchanger is

Knowing the effectiveness, the NTU of this counter-flow heat

exchanger can be determined from

Then the heat transfer surface area becomes

To provide this much heat transfer surface area, the length of the
tube must be