ADDITIONAL LEARNING

NAME – AVINASH RAJ REG NO. – 17BME0136

 HEAT EXCHANGER DESIGN PROJECT

Contents
1 INTRODUCTION 2

2 DESIGN BRIEF 2

3 THEORY 2
3.1 Overview ................................................................................................................................... 2
3.2 Design Process ................................................................................................................... 2
3.3 Heat Transfer Rate, Q ...................................................................................................... 2
3.4 Total Surface Area, Atotal .................................................................................................... 3
3.4.1 Overall Heat Transfer Coefficient, U ................................................................... 3

4 METHOD 4

5 RESULTS & CALCULATIONS 5

5.1 Numerics ............................................................................................................................. 5
5.1.1 Mesh Refinement Study ....................................................................................... 5
5.1.2 Inlet Turbulence Conditions ............................................................................... 8
5.2 2D Designs ......................................................................................................................... 9
5.2.1 Pipe Spacing .......................................................................................................... 9
5.2.2 Angle of Attack ............................................................................................................. 10
5.2.3 Reverse Flow .............................................................................................................. 11
5.3 3D Design .......................................................................................................................... 13
5.3.1 Creating the Model ............................................................................................. 13
5.3.2 Reynold’s Number ................................................................................................... 14
5.3.3 Total Surface Area, Atotal ..................................................................................... 14
6 ANALYSIS 15
6.1 Contours & Vectors ................................................................................................................... 15
6.1.1 Temperature .............................................................................................................. 15
6.1.2 Turbulence ................................................................................................................. 15
6.1.3 Velocity ....................................................................................................................... 16
6.2 Pipe Temperature ................................................................................................................. 17
6.3 Boundary Layer & Pipe Sizes ......................................................................................... 17

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1 INTRODUCTION
This report will look at designing a cross flow heat exchanger to meet a design brief. It
will look at some useful calculations before the CFD simulation process, the CFD
simulation process and analysis of results gotten from the CFD process.

2 DESIGN BRIEF
A cross flow heat exchanger is needed for a building’s heating system. The heat
exchanger will be supplied with oil, at 55oC (548.15oK), from a combined heat and power
plant, and needs to be capable of providing 0.025m3/s of water at 55oC (328.15oK).

3 THEORY
3.1 Overview
A heat exchanger is an equipment used to transfer heat from one fluid, at temperature
T1, to another at temperature T2. The temperature difference is key to the operation of the
heat exchanger. Heat exchangers can be classified by their:

1. Transfer Processes

2. Geometry of Construction

3. Heat Transfer Mechanism, and

4. Flow Arrangement

we are interested in the flow arrangement, specifically the cross flow system.

3.2 Design Process

The goal of a heat exchanger, as stated above, is to transfer heat between two or more
flowing fl . This implies that there will be a change in temperature between the heat
exchanger inlet and outlet.

Values of importance in the design process are; the relationship between the inlet, T IN,
and outlet, TOUT, temperatures, the overall, U, and individual, Cp, heat transfer coefficients,
and the heat transfer rate, Q, for the fluids involved (in this case, oil and water).

3.3 Heat Transfer Rate, Q

Heat transfer rate is the rate of heat energy transferred through a surface area. This gives
the amount of heat transferred between the oil in the pipes and the water, it is assumed there
are no heat losses between the pipes and the oil, i.e. the pipe walls are at 548.15oK.

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 The design brief above, states the required outlet temperature is 328.15oK, and, if water
at the inlet is taken to be at room temperature (298.15oK), then the heat exchanger has to
achieve a change in temperature, 4T, of 30oK. 4T is given as:
4T = Q
(1)
Cp ⇥ m˙
We know the required 4T, the heat transfer coefficient, Cp, of water (4183W/(m2 ⇥ K))
and the mass flux, m˙ (0.025m3/s). Therefore, equation (1) can be rearranged to get the
required heat transfer rate, Q.
Q = 4T ⇥ Cp ⇥ m˙
Q = 30 ⇥ 4183 ⇥ 0.025 = 3137.25W

3.4 Total Surface Area, Atotal

With heat exchangers, the greater the contact area between the fluids, the greater the
heat transferred. In this case, water is flowing along the surface of cylinders, so working
out the surface area of each cylinder and summing up will give the total contact surface. A
better way to go will be to relate the calculated heat transfer rate to the total surface area,
i.e. use the heat transfer rate, Q, calculated in 4.1 to find the required total surface area to
achieve the design temperature.

Total surface area, Atotal, is related to Q via the overall heat transfer coefficient, U, and is
given as:
Q
(2)
Atotal = U ⇥ 4T LM
Where 4TLM , the log mean temperature difference between the inlet and outlet, is:
4T A 4T B
(3)
4T LM = ln 4TA ln 4T B

Where 4TA is the temperature difference between the fl at the inlet, and 4TB is the difference
at the outlet. 4TLM gives a logarithmic average of the temperature difference between the heat
exchanger inlet and outlet. A large 4TLM means large heat transfer.

3.4.1 Overall Heat Transfer Coefficient, U

The overall heat transfer coefficient depends on the fluids and transmission material, and
their individual properties. To find the overall heat transfer coefficient, U, the individual heat
coefficients of oil and water, and the resistance of the pipe material are needed. U is given as:
1 1
X X
U⇥A= h ⇥ A +R (4)
Where R is the thermal resistance in the pipe and is given as:
x

R= (5)
kA
Where A is the total area of the heat exchanger, x is the wall thickness and k is the thermal
conductivity of the pipe material. Assuming a really thin pipe (x < 0.0005m), then R ⇡ 0.
Therefore:
1 1 1
U ⇥ Atotal =hoil ⇥ Apipes + hwater ⇥ Aheatexchanger Apipes
We need an approximate value for Atotal so we can take an approximate value for U.

4
 U = 60 300W/m2K ([9], heavy oils & water) and 4TA = 250oK and 4TB = 220oK, 4TLM
can be approximated as:
30
4TLM = o
ln 250 ln 220 = 234.68 K

and thus Atotal, for U = 60W/m2, is

3137.25 2

Atotal = 60 ⇥ 234.68 = 0.222m

and, for U = 300W/m2,
3137.25 2

Atotal = 300 ⇥ 234.68 =

0.04456m Therefore Atotal ⇡ between 0.222m2 and 0.04456m2.

4 METHOD
The CFD simulation process was done using Ansys workbench starting with a very
simple 2D model, figure 1. The model, a 1m ⇥ 0.2m flat plate, consisted of three pipes and
symmetry boundary conditions at the top and bottom of the plate, an inlet, to the left, and
an outlet, to the right.

Figure 1.

Next, the various boundaries where named using Named Selections. The pipe walls were
set a pipe walls, the inlet and outlet edges as inlet and outlet respectively and the top and
bottom walls as symmetry (this means the walls are infinitly long long the y-axis upwards
and downwards).

Then, the finished part had to be meshed. To start off, a mesh size of 0.005m (a mesh
refinement study is done in section 5 below) was chosen and the mesh generated. Figure 2,
below, shows the mesh at 0.005m.

5
 Figure 2.

The final settings where made in fluent. The viscous model was set to k ✏, because of
the turbulent nature of the flow, the fluid was specified as water, and boundary conditions,
for the inlet and pipes, where set. The inlet velocity and temperature where set to
0.0125m/s and 298.15ok respectively, and the pipe temperature set to 548.15oK. Fluent
was also set to solve for the internal energy of the fluid.

Before the calculations could be performed, the tolerance was lowered to 0.00001 and
the calculation was set to perform 1000 iterations, at which point convergence would be
been reached.

After the calculations, values relating to the mass fluxes, total heat transferred etc.,
where extracted from fluent using Fluxes under Reports.

5 RESULTS & CALCULATIONS

5.1 Numerics
5.1.1 Mesh Refinement Study
The first step, towards refining the design, was to perform a mesh refinement study. The
mesh refi ment study provided an reasonable guide to choosing a mesh size that would give
accurate results in an effective time frame. A very fine mesh (small element size) would very
accurate result approximations at the cost of very high processing power, so the most efficient
case would be a mesh small enough to give results within an acceptable accuracy/tolerance
level, but big enough to run with very little computing power and time requirements.

6
 Figure 3.

Figure 3 shows the mesh at 0.05m, cells around the curves, especially the center circle, are
polygonal (instead of round), because the cell size is too big to accurately define them. Figures
4 and 5 show the mesh at 0.002m and 0.001m respectively. Although the 0.001m mesh is fi r,
it only gives a 2% increase in accuracy, compared to the 56% increase from the 0.05m mesh.

Figure 4.

Figure 5

Before the analysis could run, the boundary conditions had to be set. The inlet temperature
was set to room temperature and the outlet temperature was set to 548.15oK. The inlet flow
velocity, vI, also had to be set. To do this, vI was calculated by rearranging equation (6), below,
˙ 3
and solving for vI when volumetric flow rate, V = 0.025m /s (from the design brief), and the

7
area of the inlet, Ainlet, = 0.2m2 (the inlet was assumed to be 1m thick, and 0.2m).
˙
V = vI ⇥ A (6)
This gives an inlet velocity of 0.125m/s. The mesh refinement study was performed for
values between 0.05m and 0.001m, at increments of 0.01m, between 0.01m and 0.05m,
and 0.001m between 0.001m and 0.009m. Table 1, below, shows the values for outlet
temperature, TOUT , for different mesh sizes, where x is mesh size in meters.

MESH REFINEMENT
x(m) TIN (K) m˙ kg/s Q (W) 4T (K) TOUT (K)
0.05 298.15 25 309775 2.97 301.12
0.04 298.15 25 308925.4 2.96 301.11
0.03 298.15 25 401368.64 3.85 302.00
0.02 298.15 25 533509.75 5.11 303.26
0.01 298.15 24 682983.54 6.67 304.82
0.009 298.15 25 687097.2 6.58 304.73
0.008 298.15 25 706218.3 6.77 304.92
0.007 298.15 25 701844.6 6.72 304.87
0.006 298.15 25 703599.57 6.74 304.89
0.005 298.15 25 704299.1 6.75 304.90
0.004 298.15 25 699115.5 6.70 304.85
0.003 298.15 25 704136.1 6.75 304.90
0.002 298.15 25 708133.1 6.79 304.94
0.001 298.15 25 724694.8 6.94 305.09

Table 1.

From table 1, 4T can be seen to be converging at ⇡ 7oK as the mesh gets finer, however,
after 0.002m, the calculation times increase significantly, which indicated increased
processing power. However, from graph 1, the graph is levelling off and can be expected to
give relatively similar temperature values at mesh size 0.0005m (for example) as at
0.002m; therefore, it is reasonable to use a mesh size of 0.002m.Graph 1, below, illustrates
the levelling out of the temperature values.

7
 Graph 1: TOUT(K) against mesh size (m)

5.1.2 Inlet Turbulence Conditions

Another test of convergence was to change the inlet turbulence conditions; the temperature
results where not expected the change significantly. Table 2 and graph 2 below show the
results converging as turbulence intensity increases. Where % is turbulence intensity.

INLET TURBULENCE
% TOUT(K)
1 306.92
2 305.95
3 305.4
4 305.09
5 304.9
6 304.77
7 304.68
8 304.61
9 304.57
10 304.53
11 304.5
12 304.47
13 304.45
14 304.43
15 304.42

Table 2.

8
 Graph 2: Outlet Temperature, TOUT(K) against Turbulence Intensity %.

5.2 2D Designs
Confident that fluent was generating accurate and reliable results, the original simple
design could be modified to achieve requirement set out in the design brief.

5.2.1 Pipe Spacing

The 1st variable, in the design process, was the pipe spacing. A pipe spacing study was
performed on five different variations of a simple design (figure 6 above), all with 3 pipes
of radius 0.075m. Graph 3, shows a plot of the pipe oulet temperature against spacing.

Graph 3: Outlet Temperature, TOUT(K) against Pipe Spacing (m).

The shape of Graph 3 indicates, generally, the smaller the pipe spacing, the better the the
heat transfer, however, there is a dip in the curve, which indicates that pipe spacing is not
the only factor affecting heat transfer. Figures 6 and 7, show the geometry at spacings
0.15m and 0.35m respectively.

9
 Figure 6

Figure 7

5.2.2 Angle of Attack

Another factor, affecting heat transfer, is the angle at which the inlet flow engages with
the pipes. Various resources [2] on heat exchanger design quote 30 o as the angle to set the
pipes at for maximum efficiency. Working on an even simpler model than the one used in
5.2.1 above, with 2 pipes of radius 0.03m, we can investigate the effect the angle of attack
has on heat transfer.

Figure 8

Figure 8, above, shows the pipe arrangement at 30o. Graph 4, below, shows the outlet
temper-ature for different angles of attack. We can see that, the best heat transfer occurs at
0o mark, but at 30o we have a similar value.

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 Graph 4: TOUT(K) against Angle of Attack (o)
To explain this, we examine the velocity contours of the flow in 30o and 50o cases (figures
8.1 and 8.2 below). In the 30o case, flow over the top pipe can be seen to be interacting
with the fl w over the second pipe a lot more than in the 50 o case; these interactions aid
heat transfer. Therefore, a design with pipes at an angle around 30o would be ideal.

Figure 8.1

Figure 8.2

5.2.3 Reverse Flow

Reverse flow occurs when flow of fluid changes direction and flows opposite to it’s
predefined, or desirable direction. When running the pipe spacing study, it was discovered
that, at a certain distance from the inlet and outlet, reverse flow began to occur. Reverse
flow occurs when flow is fully turbulent and has not had adequate time to adjust after
coming in contact with an obstacle.

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Case 1
The design in case one is the simple first case used for the mesh refinement study in
5.1.1 above. Using a mesh size of 0.002m, 1000 iterations where calculated, at turbulence
intensity 5, and the temperature at the outlet was worked out using equation (1) in section
3.3 above. Design 1 gave an outlet temperature of 304.94oK.

Case 2
In case two, the number of pipe was increased from 3 to 9, and the pipe spacing, angle of
attack, and pipe radii where changed. This design had an outlet temperature of 309.29oK.

Figure 9

Case 3
Case 3 built on case 2, with more pipes being added, even more variation in pipe radii,
and smaller gaps between the pipes. The outlet temperature for this design was 352.11oK,
23.96oK more than the required outlet temperature specified in the brief; this gives room
for discrepancies that my arise when the part is extruded to 3D (for example, the 3D case
will not have symmetry conditions at the walls and will have the walls set at room
temperature). Case 3 will be the main design going forward.

Figure 10
The design in case 3 pulled together everything discussed in the above sections. The pipe
spacing is very small, to get as much interaction as possible, there are no empty spaces at the
top an bottom of the heat exchanger, where water could avoid the pipes, and there are smaller
pipes in spaces between the larger ones to increase the maximum total surface area, and thus
increase heat transfer. Also, there a huge amount of the heat exchanger left over for turbulent
flow to settle such that reverse flow either does not occur at the outlet or is kept to a minimum.

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5.3 3D Design
Having achieved the design brief in 2D, the next step was to run the simulation in 3D.

5.3.1 Creating the Model

To create the model, the geometry was thin extruded, in design modeller, and, to save
processing time, the thickness was set to 0.1m. This meant that the inlet velocity had to be
recalculated, and the new vI(1m/s) had to be set as the boundary condition in fluent. After
generating the 3D part and defining the inlet, outlet walls and pipes, a 0.002m mesh was
generated and the calculations where set up in fluent and run. Figure 11 shows the meshed
3D part.

Figure 11
Figure 12, below, shows the highlighted section from figure 11. This shows how detailed
the mesh is, especially at the spaces between the pipes.

Figure 12
It can be seen that the mesh is not small enough, in the pipe spacings, to give the best
values, especially where there is only one cell between the pipes. A finer mesh was tried, to
better describe the spaces, but the meshing process ran for too long, so in an attempt to
get a better mesh, the thickness of the 3D part was reduced further to 0.05m. Figure 13
shows a zoomed in image of the refi d mesh (0.0015m) for the part.

Figure 13

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With the 0.002m mesh, the outlet temperature for the 3D model was 343.44oK.

5.3.2 Reynold’s Number

To understand the nature of the flow through the heat exchanger, we need to work out
the Reynold’s number. At Re< 2300, flow is laminar, at 2300 <Re< 4000, the flow is
transient, and at Re> 4000 we have turbulent flow[3]. In our design, the flow is expected
to be turbulent, thus Re> 4000. For a heat exchanger, Reynolds number is given as [4]

Re = ⇢vDH (7)
µ
Where the hydraulic diameter of the pipe, DH, is given as:
4A
DH = P
Where A is the cross-sectional area of the heat exchanger and P is the wetted perimeter.
⇢ = 997.04, V= 2m/s (from equation (6) at thickness= 0.05m),
µ = 0.001003kg/m−2, and
4 ⇥ 0.05 ⇥ 0.251
DH = 2 ⇥ 0.05 + 0.25 = 12
Therefore, Reynolds number for the 3D design is:
997.04 ⇥ 2 ⇥ 1/12
Re = = 165676.3

Re> 4000, therefore the flow is turbulent, as expected.

5.3.3 Total Surface Area, Atotal

In section 3.4, the total surface area to achieve the design brief was approximated as 0.222m2.
This section will compare the theoretical results with the result received experimentally.
The design in case 3 consists of a pattern of pipes of different radii. There are 14 pipes of
radius 0.03m, 2 of radius 0.017m, 12 of radius 0.016m, 2 of radius 0.015m, 12 of radius
0.013m, and 12 of radius 0.01m. Total surface area for a cylinder is given as:
Atotal = 2⇡r(r + h) (8)
The pipes are 0.05m long, therefore, Atotal can be calculated for each case using equation (8).
Table 3 below shows the total surface area for each pipe radius. Comparing the result here
with theoretical Atotal, ⇡ between 0.222m2 and 0.04456m2, we can see the design should
and does fit the design brief from a mathematical point of view.

14
 r (m) No. Atotal (m)
0.03 14 0.211115026
0.017 2 0.014313096
0.016 12 0.079620524
0.015 2 0.012252211
0.013 12
0.0617511
45
0.01 12
0.0452389
34

Total = 0.4243m2

Table 3.

6 ANALYSIS
This section includes analysis of the performance of case 3’s 3D design.

6.1 Contours & Vectors

6.1.1 Temperature
Figure 14 shows the variation of temperature between the inlet and outlet. As expected,
the temperature is highest at the pipe walls and there is an increase in temperature from
the inlet to the outlet, which shows the water is getting heated.

Figure 14

6.1.2 Turbulence
The turbulence contour gives a visual representation of nature of the flow. The turbulent
energy of the flow is high at the top and bottom pipes and at the points (top and bottom)
where the flow exists the pipe system, due to vorticies formed by the unsteady separation
of the flow around the pipes (von Karman vortex sheet or vortex shedding [5]). These
vortices are undesirable as they set up cross wind forces, which lead to vibrations. The
effect can be reduced by using oval pipes, instead of circular ones, or by fitting fins down
stream from the pipes. In case 3, it would not be possible to fi fi on the pipes due the the
pipe spacing, using slightly more oval or aerofoil shaped pipes could be possible. Oval
pipes will be more streamline and, therefore, allow flow to pass around easier, thereby
avoiding (or minimizing) the vortices.
15
 Figure 15

The flow can then bee seen to settle as it approaches the outlet.

6.1.3 Velocity
Figures 17.1 and 17.2 below show the velocity vector of the whole heat exchanger and a
zoomed in section, respectively. Zooming in on figure 17.1 (figure 17.2), we can see the flow
around the cylinders is fast, and without and reverse flows.

Figure 17.1

Figure 17.2

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6.2 Pipe Temperature
One assumption made early on in the design process, was that the pipes had constant
temperature of 548.15oK; this is very unlikely to be the case. Oil is supplied to the heat
exchanger at 548.15oK, it is unknown what material the heat exchanger is made of, and
thus, impossible to work out the thermal conductivity of the pipes. Also, as water flows
through the heat exchanger, the oil looses heat to the water, and thus the temperature of
the oil begins to drop a certain distance from the inlet. However, to account for losses in
temperature to the surrounding was also ignored, the outer walls where set to room
temperature when during the 3D analysis.

6.3 Boundary Layer & Pipe Sizes

A boundary layer is a region around a wall where the effects of surface friction are
significant enough to slow down the flow; at the wall boundary, the flow velocity is zero.
The effects of the boundary layer where ignored during the design process and thus it is
possible that some of the pipes chosen are too small to effectively fl w oil through. In
reality, the type and properties of the oil (e.g. thermal resistance) would be known, and
study would have been done for different pipe sizes [6][7][8].

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