Designing of Air Cooled

Heat Exchangers

Purpose
To provide some general information on
air-cooled heat exchangers
Designing a air cooled heat exchanger

Definition

An Air Cooled Heat Exchanger is a heat transfer device

for rejecting heat from a hot fluid directly to fan-blowing
ambient air.

The most evident advantages are:

No problem arising for thermal and chemical pollution of

cooling fluids.
Flexibility for any plant location and plot plan arrangement
like installation over other units.

Fields of application of air-cooled heat

exchangers

Oil and gas refineries

Compressor stations for gas pipelines
Subsurface gas storage facilities
Plants producing polychlorvinyl, polyethylene, glass
fibre, biplastic
Caustic soda plants
By-product coke plants
Ammonia transportation and handling plants

CONFIGURATION
Arrangement of tube bundles and provision of air flow
Bundles construction and flow configurations
Finned tube construction

INDUCED DRAFT UNIT

The induced draft unit
gives a steady and
durable thermal
performance,
better air distribution,
less hot air recirculation,
less fouling,

lower noise at grade.

FORCED DRAFT UNIT

The forced draft unit allows an
easy access for maintenance to
the fans and to the bundles.
Furthermore,
the fans remain in the cold
ambient air ,
lower capital cost.

 Typical heat exchanger

A typical air cooled heat exchanger

mechanical components of heat exchanger

A air cooled heat exchanger is shown in the figure 1.
components may be listed as
1. Tubes with fins as basic component which is made up of
carbon steel thru which process fluid at high temperature
flow and heat exchange takes place.
2. Inlet header which distributes the process fluid in to tubes
3. Outlet header on the other side collects the process fluid.

 Above three are basic components of air cooled

exchanger and the rest are auxiliary, such as side wall
which holds the tube bundle structure. Tube support
which the support the tubes, number of tube support
varies with length of heat exchanger. Tube sheet are
found at the inlet and outlet of the tubes and tube length
ends at the tube sheets. Lifting eye is the small grove
found on the tube support, tube bundles are lifted for
cleaning by these holes. Gasket is employed in order to
avoid leakage.

How are they constructed?

Typically, an air-cooled exchanger for process use
consists of a finned-tube bundle with rectangular box
headers on both ends of the tubes. One or more fans
provide cooling air. Usually, the air blows upwards
through a horizontal tube bundle. The fans can be either
forced or induced draft, depending on whether the air is
pushed or pulled through the tube bundle. The space
between the fan(s) and the tube bundle is enclosed by a
plenum chamber, which directs the air. The whole
assembly is usually mounted on legs or a pipe rack.

What standards air used for Air-Cooled Exchangers?

First, almost all air coolers are built to Sect. VIII of the ASME Code,
since they are pressure vessels
What kinds of finned tubes are used?
The tubes can be of virtually any material available, such as carbon
steel, stainless steel, Admiralty brass, or more exotic alloys. The
minimum preferred outside diameter is one inch. Some
manufacturers sometimes use smaller tubes, but most of the process
coolers have tubes, which are 1.0", 1.25", or 1.5" OD. The minimum
tube wall thickness vary with the material. In some cases the design
pressure and design temperature of the exchanger govern the
minimum thickness.

Thermal performance calculations

BASIC EXPERSSION FOR THE TOTAL RATE OF HEAT TRANSFER

.

Q ATU r TM
AT
Ur

is the total external surface are of the tubes without fins.

is the overall heat transfer coefficient
mean temperature difference.

calculation of overall heat

transfer .
1
1 Dr Dr 1 Dr

ln
Rc
U r a,r 2t Di f ,i Di
a , r = Enhanced airside heat transfer coefficient based on tube outer diameter,

= thermal conductivity of tube

=heat transfer coefficient for fluid being cooled based on inner diameter,
t =contact thermal resistance between fins and tube.
Rc
f ,i

a ,r

AF AW

AT
AF is external area of the fin and is the external surface of the tube between
fins

Calculation of mean temperture difference.

1.Calculate R and P

M c C pc
M h C ph

T
P
T

c ,out
h ,in

h ,in
c.out

Th,out
Tc,in

Tc,in

Tc,in

2.values R and P read off the values of F from the part of the combined chart(F0-NTU-P).

3. calculate from the expression

TLM

ln T

h ,in

Tc,out Th,out Tc,in

h ,in

Tc,out Th,out Tc,in

4. calculate the mean temperature difference from

TM FTLM

Problem description

tc_i=313
air inlet temperature [k]
th_i=383
process fluid inlet temperature [k]
u_a=6
air velocity[m/s]
m_h=7
mass flow rate of process fluid[kg/s] "
th_o=368* outlet temperature[k]"
process fluid is hydrocarbon
heat transfer rate=218400 w

Sizing and designing

Sizing of the heat exchanger tubes
Assumption are to be made based on
1. type of exchanger
2. Data available
3. physical understanding
Design criteria

ASSUMPTION:
1. Mass flow is equally divided in to number of tubes.
2. Cross-flow unit ,one pass and unmixed stream
3. fins are made up of aluminum
4. four tubes in a row

Sizing

Outer diameter of the tube[m]

Internal diameter of the tube[m]
Number of tubes in one passes
Number of rows
Number of passes
Total number of tubes
Number of tubes in a column
Length of the tubes[m]
Space between the fins[m]
Thickness of the fins[m]
Thermal resistance of aluminum [w/m.k]

Design Criteria
Heat exchanger was designed in order to perform
required duty with minimum cost of heat transfer
Paikert(1983) sugested
internal htc 200 w/m2.k then TSAFT/TSABT=5
internal htc 1000 w/m2.k then TSAFT/TSABT=13
internal htc 5000 w/m2.k then TSAFT/TSABT=23

procedure
u_h=m_h/(np*(pi/4)*(di^2)*rho_h)

%"velocity of
hydro corbon"
re_h=rho_h*u_h*di/mhu_h
%Reynolds
number of process fluid"
nu_h=0.023*((re_h)^0.8)*(pr_h)^0.4
%" nusselt
number of process fluid"
alpha_h=(nu_h*k_h)/di
%"heat transfer coeffiecient of the process fluid"
a_t=n_t*l*pi*dr
%" total area of the
`tube without fins"
a=a_t*12
%"condition for min cost of
heat transfer paikert(1983)

 a_w=n_t*l*pi*dr*s/(s+w)
a_f=a-a_w

%" area
between the fins"
%" area
between the fins"

solve('d_f^2+2*d_f*w(a_f*2*(s+w))/(n_t*l*pi)-dr^2)=0')
d_f=0.042739
h=(d_f-dr)/2
% height of the
fin"

Result
dr=24e-3
di=20e-3
np=88
nr=4
p=1
n_t=88
nt=n_t/nr
l=2
s=1.9e-3
w=0.4e-3

outer diameter of the tube[m]

internal diameter of the tube[m]
number of tubes in one pass"
number of rows
number of passes
total number of tubes
number of tubes in a column
length of the tubes[m]
space between the fins[m]
thickness of the fins[m]

 velocity of process fluid= 0.3332 m/s

heat transfer co-efficient on air side
= 115.4027 w/m2.k
heat transfer co-efficient on tube side
=535.1891 w/m2.k
overall heat transfer co-efficient
= 291.5178 w/m2.k
percentage of error calculation=0.07
Pressure drop= 215.5326 N/m2

Thank you