Air Coolers – Design Rules of Thumb

Rules of Thumb

1. Nozzle size should produce a rho*v2 value of <1500

2. There should be 3 to 8 tube rows, with 4 being most common
3. Fan coverage (fan area/ tube face area) > 40%
a. Using a fixed fan size, the fan coverage can be increased by reducing
bay width via reduction of the number of tubes

Design Procedure Using Aspen EDR

i. Use design mode (‘Design with varying outside flow’) and input client design
parameters to generate an initial design
ii. Whilst still in design mode, look at the effects of varying tube size on pressure
drop and overall heat transfer coefficient
iii. Alter the unit width for a given tube size to maximise heat transfer coefficient
and fan coverage as much as possible
iv. Convert to rating mode and proceed to reduce the number of tubes to
increase fan coverage
a. Tube number must be reduced by a multiple of the number of rows
b. This reduction in heat transfer area causes ‘U’ to increase, whilst
decreasing cost as materials are reduced.