EXAMPLE 8.

2-1: Performance of a Cross-Flow Heat Exchanger

The cross-flow heat exchanger investigated in EXAMPLE 8.1-1 and EXAMPLE 8.1-2 is used to
heat air with hot water. Water enters the heat exchanger tube with a mass flow rate, m H = 0.03
kg/s and temperature, TH,in = 60C. Air at TC,in = 20C and atmospheric pressure is blown across
the heat exchanger with a volumetric flowrate of VC = 0.06 m3/s. The conductance of this heat
exchanger has been calculated using several different techniques in Section 8.1; the best estimate
of the conductance is UA = 58.4 W/K, obtained using the compact heat exchanger correlations.
a.) Determine the outlet temperatures of the water and air and the heat transfer rate using the
LMTD method.
To solve this problem, we could add code to the EES program developed for EXAMPLE 8.1-2.
Instead, a new program will be generated so that the calculations needed to implement the LMTD
method are clear. The conductance calculated in EXAMPLE 8.1-2 is an input to this program. It
would appear to be straightforward to use the information provided together with the LMTD heat
exchanger formulation in Eq. (8-48) to determine the outlet temperatures. However, the LMTD
method is not as easy to use as the -NTU technique discussed in Section 8.3.
The known information is entered into EES.
"EXAMPLE 8.2-1: Performance of a Cross-Flow Heat Exchanger"
$UnitSystem SI MASS RAD PA K J
$Tabstops 0.2 0.4 0.6 3.5 in
"Inputs"
V_dot_C=0.06 [m^3/s]
p=1 [atm]*convert(atm,Pa)
T_C_in=convertTemp(C,K,20 [C])
T_H_in=convertTemp(C,K,60 [C])
m_dot_H=0.03 [kg/s]
UA = 58.4 [W/K]

"volumetric flow rate of air"

"atmospheric pressure"
"inlet air temperature"
"inlet water temperature"
"water flow rate"
"conductance (from EXAMPLE 8.1-2)"

The density of air (C) is calculated at the inlet condition using EES' built-in property routine for
air. The air-side mass flow rate is calculated according to:

m C = C VC
rho_C=density(Air,T=T_C_in,P=p)
m_dot_C=rho_C*V_dot_C

"density of air"
"air mass flow rate"

The specific heat capacities should be evaluated at the average of the inlet and outlet
temperatures for each fluid stream. However, these temperatures are not yet known. Notice that
the values of Tlm,cf, P and R in Eqs. (8-44), (8-49) and (8-50) all require the outlet temperatures
as well; this is the disadvantage of the LMTD method. The log-mean temperature difference is
easy to use if the outlet temperatures are known and you want to solve for the required
conductance (i.e., a design-type of problem). However, for problems where the conductance is

known and you would like to know the outlet temperatures (i.e., a simulation-type of problem)
then the LMTD method is inconvenient. Here, we will take the approach that has been used
throughout this text; reasonable values for TC,out and TH,out are guessed so that the problem can be
solved sequentially and these values are adjusted by EES in order to complete the problem.
T_C_out=convertTemp(C,K,25 [C])
T_H_out=convertTemp(C,K,50 [C])

"guess for the cold stream exit temp."

"guess for the hot stream exit temp."

The specific heat capacities are evaluated at the average of the inlet and outlet temperatures:
c_C=cP(Air,T=(T_C_in+T_C_out)/2)
c_H=cP(Water,T=(T_H_in+T_H_out)/2,P=p)

"specific heat capacity of air"

"specific heat capacity of water"

The capacitance rates of the fluids are calculated:

CC = m C cC
C H = m H cH
C_dot_C=m_dot_C*c_C
C_dot_H=m_dot_H*c_H

"capacitance rate of the air"

"capacitance rate of the water"

The log-mean temperature difference that would result if the heat exchanger were in a counterflow configuration is computed according to:
Tlm,cf =

(T

H , out

TC ,in ) (TH ,in TC ,out )

(TH ,out TC ,in )

ln

(TH ,in TC ,out )

DELTAT_lm_cf=((T_H_out-T_C_in)-(T_H_in-T_C_out))/ln((T_H_out-T_C_in)/(T_H_in-T_C_out))
"log-mean temp. difference for counter-flow configuration"

The LMTD F factor is required because the heat exchanger is cross-flow rather than parallel-flow
or counter-flow. The value of P and R can be computed according to:

P=

(T
(T

C , out
H ,in

TC ,in )

TC ,in )

T T
C
R =  C = H ,in H ,out
CH TC ,out TC ,in
P_HX=(T_C_out-T_C_in)/(T_H_in-T_C_in)
R_HX=(T_H_in-T_H_out)/(T_C_out-T_C_in)

"LMTD effectiveness"
"LMTD capacitance ratio"

The LMTD F factor is obtained from the appropriate EES function. To review the available
functions, select the Function Info menu item in the Options menu and then select the Heat
Exchangers option and F for LMTD options from the pull-down menus in the dialog. Scroll
down to select the correct heat exchanger geometry. For this case, the appropriate heat
exchanger is a cross-flow heat exchanger with both fluids unmixed since the plate fins prevent
the air from mixing in the direction perpendicular to the air flow.
F_HX=LMTD_CF('crossflow_both_unmixed',P_HX,R_HX)

"LMTD correction factor"

The log-mean temperature difference in the heat exchanger is computed according to:
Tlm = F Tlm,cf
and the heat transfer rate is:
q = (UA ) Tlm
DELTAT_lm=DELTAT_lm_cf*F_HX
q_dot=UA*DELTAT_lm

"log-mean temp. difference"

"heat transfer rate"

The solution that is obtained is clearly not correct as it was based on assumed fluid exit
temperatures. Update the guess values (select Update Guesses from the Calculate menu) and
then comment out the assumed outlet temperatures:
{T_C_out=convertTemp(C,K,25 [C])
T_H_out=convertTemp(C,K,50 [C])

"guess for the cold stream exit temp."

"guess for the hot stream exit temp."}

The solution is completed by calculating the outlet temperatures using energy balances on the
two sides of the heat exchanger:

q
TC ,out = TC ,in + 
CC

TH ,out = TH ,in
T_C_out=T_C_in+q_dot/C_dot_C
T_C_out_C=converttemp(K,C,T_C_out)
T_H_out=T_H_in-q_dot/C_dot_H
T_H_out_C=converttemp(K,C,T_H_out)

q

CH
"cold-side fluid exit temperature"
"in C"
"hot-side fluid exit temperature"
"in C"

Select Solve from the Calculate menu and you are likely to be confronted with an error message.
Even after carefully setting up the problem in a way that guaranteed a reasonable starting point
for the iterative calculations, the LMTD method will often have problems converging; these
problems are avoided using the -NTU method presented in Section 8.3. It is possible to force
the problem to converge by setting appropriate limits in the Variable Information window. For

example, specify that the outlet temperatures must lie between the inlet temperatures and that the
values of R and P must be in a reasonable range. With the limits set, it should be possible to
obtain the solution q = 1371 W with TC,out = 38.9C and TH,out = 49.1C.
There are a few sanity checks that you should use at this point to ensure that your answer makes
physical sense. The outlet temperature of the hot fluid cannot be less than the inlet temperature
of the cold fluid (and the outlet temperature of the cold fluid cannot exceed the inlet temperature
of the hot fluid). The rate of heat transfer must always be less than the rate of heat transfer that
would occur in the limit that neither fluid stream changed temperature which provides the
maximum possible driving temperature difference; that is, q must be less than UA (TH,in TC,in)
which for this problem is 2336 W.
You may be somewhat disappointed that EES was not able to solve the equations with the
default guess values. The nature of the LMTD method makes this problem computationally
difficult when the outlet fluid temperatures are not known. Figure 8-12 shows that there may be
no solution for F for what appear to be reasonable outlet temperatures; this same problem occurs
if you try to solve this problem by hand through manual iterations. The effectiveness method
presented in Section 8.3 is much better in this respect.