THERMAL PERFORMANCE ASSESSMENT OF A LABORATORY SCALE SHELL AND

TUBE TYPE HEAT EXCHANGER UNDER PARALLEL AND COUNTER FLOW

ARRANGEMENT

1. Objective
To study the thermal performance of a shell and tube type heat exchanger under parallel and counter
flow arrangement.

2. Instruments and equipments used

 Heat exchanger with parallel and counter flow arragement
 Power supply
 Voltage regulator (VariAC)
 Thermocouple and three junction thermopile
 Multi meter to measure resistance and a millivolt meter
 Reference junction
 Water heater
 Junction board

3. Theory
Heat exchangers are equipment targeted to the efficient transfer of heat from a hot fluid flow to a
cold fluid flow, in most cases through an intermediate metallic wall and without moving parts. Scope
of the present study is the thermal analysis of heat exchangers, but proper design and use requires
additional fluid-dynamic analysis (for each fluid flow), mechanical analysis (for closure and
resistance), materials compatibility, and so on. Heat losses or gains in a whole heat exchanger
(except in open-flow types), can be neglected in comparison with the heat flow between both fluids;
i.e. a heat exchanger can be assumed globally adiabatic.

Although heat flows from hot fluid to cold fluid by thermal conduction through the separating walls
(except in direct-contact types), heat exchangers are basically heat convection equipment, since it is
the convective transfer what governs its performance. Convection within a heat exchanger is always
forced, and may be with or without phase change of one or both fluids. When one just relies in
natural convection to the environment, like in the space-heating home radiator, or the domestic
fridge back-radiator, they are termed 'radiators' (in spite of convection being dominant), and not heat
exchangers.

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 3.1. Classification of heat exchangers
Heat exchangers can be classified according to:
 The type of fluid used (liquid-to-liquid, liquid-to-gas, gas-to-liquid, gas-to-gas),
 The phase changes (vaporisers, condensers),
 The relative flow direction (counter-flow, co-flow, cross-flow),
 The area density (transfer area per unit volume) or channel size, etc.

The basic designs for heat exchangers are the shell-and-tube heat exchanger and the plate heat
exchanger, although many other configurations have been developed in recent past. Main types can
be grouped according to following groups:
 Shell-and-tube heat exchanger, where one flow goes along a bunch of tubes and the other within an
outer shell, parallel to the tubes, or in cross-flow (as shown in Fig. 2a).
 Plate heat exchanger, where corrugated plates are held in contact and the two fluids flow separately
along adjacent channels in the corrugation (as shown in Fig. 2b).
 Open-flow heat exchanger, where one of the flows is not confined within the equipment, or at least
not specifically piped (as shown in Fig. 2c). They originate from air-cooled tube-banks, and are
mainly used for final heat release from a liquid to ambient air, as in the car radiator, also used in
vaporisers and condensers in air-conditioning and refrigeration applications, and in directly-fired
home water heaters. When gases flow along both sides, the overall heat-transfer coefficient is very
poor, and the best solution is to make use of heat-pipes as intermediate heat-transfer devices
between the gas streams; otherwise, finned separating surfaces, or, better, direct contact through a
solid recuperator, are used.
 Contact heat exchanger, where the two fluids enter into direct contact (simultaneous heat and mass
transfer takes place). Furthermore, the contact can be continuous, i.e. when the two fluids mix
together and then separate by gravity forces, as in a cooling tower, or the contact can be
alternatively with a third medium, usually solid, as in regenerative heat exchangers, like the
rotating wheel (as shown in Fig. 1d) (the hot gas heats the wheel whereas the cold gas retrieves that
energy). When the heat-exchange process between the hot and the cold fluids is delayed
significantly, the heat exchanger device is known as 'thermal energy storage'. There is always some
contamination by entrainment of one fluid by the other, although many times it is irrelevant (as in
air-conditioning heat-recuperators), or even intended (as in cooling towers). Notice also that, if the
mixed-up fluids do not separate, as in open feed-water heaters or in evaporative coolers, the device
is not named heat exchanger but just heater or cooler.

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Fig. 1. Types of heat exchanges: a) shell-and-tube, b) plates, c) open-flow, d) rotating-wheel.

3.2. Applications of heat exchangers

Heat exchangers are used to promote thermal energy flows at intermediate stages in process
engineering, or as a final heat release to the environment, ambient air in most cases, which renders
non-contact devices as shell or plate type heat exchangers) rather inefficient and recourse is to be
made of contact heat exchangers as the wet cooling towers treated aside. A special case is that of
marine engineering, where seawater is plenty available in the environment, greatly alleviating the
thermal problem for heat-exchangers, but at a cost in materials compatibility (cupro-nickel or
titanium, instead of copper or aluminium), since seawater is very corrosive and plenty of
microorganisms. In order to mitigate the effects of seawater on heat exchangers, and to minimise
hull-pass-throughs, only one central heat exchanger is cooled by seawater (a plate type heat
exchanger usually)), and all other required heat exchangers use clean fresh-water as an intermediate
fluid loop to finally discharge the energy at the seawater exchanger (centralised cooling system);
different fluid loop layouts can be used, normally grouping several thermal loads by proximity of
location and by temperature level. For the latter, two levels are considered: high-temperature level
(HT-circuit), say at >50ºC like for engine cooling circuits (main engine and auxiliaries), and low-
temperature level (LT-circuit), say at <50ºC like for engine-oil-lubrication cooling, air-conditioners
and refrigerators, electronic equipment, and so on; instead connecting the HT-circuit to the LT-
circuit by means of a heat exchanger, it is better to use a partial mixing of the streams (regulated by a
thermostatic valve). The standard design value for final heat release in ships is a seawater
temperature of 32ºC, to allow for operation in all seas, in spite of fact that the largest share of
operating time for most ships takes place in seas at 15ºC to 20ºC (initial cost cannot be avoided, but
operation costs can be minimised by adjusting the seawater flow). Heat exchangers are widely used
in process control to promote or quench chemical reactions (by heating or cooling, respectively). The

3
food industry makes use of heating to kill pathogen micro organisms (sterilisation), either after
canning, or before packaging; the latter is most conveniently made for liquid stuff in heat
exchangers. Sterilisation, i.e. the inactivation of all micro organisms, requires high-temperature
processing, typically at 120ºC or more (i.e. under pressure, for aqueous stuff); to kill even the most
resistant spores. In the pasteurisation process, however, a quick heating to 60ºC or 70ºC is applied to
kill most bacteria without protein denaturising.

3.3. Selection of Heat Exchanger

Due to the many variables involved, selecting optimal heat exchangers is challenging. Hand
calculations are possible, but several iteration are typically needed. As such, heat exchangers are
most often selected via computer programs, either by system designers, who are typically engineers,
or by equipment vendors.

In order to select an appropriate heat exchanger, the system designers (or equipment vendors) would
firstly consider the design limitations for each heat exchanger type. Although cost is often the first
criterion evaluated, there are several other important selection criteria which include:
 High/ Low pressure limits
 Thermal Performance
 Temperature ranges
 Product Mix (liquid/liquid, particulates or high-solids liquid)
 Pressure Drops across the exchanger
 Fluid flow capacity
 Clean ability, maintenance and repair
 Materials required for construction
 Ability and ease of future expansion

Choosing the right heat exchanger requires some knowledge of the different heat exchanger types, as
well as the environment in which the unit must operate. Typically in the manufacturing industry,
several differing types of heat exchangers are used for just the one process or system to derive the
final product. For example, a kettle heat exchanger for pre-heating, a double pipe heat exchanger for
the ‘carrier’ fluid and a plate and frame heat exchanger for final cooling. With sufficient knowledge
of heat exchanger types and operating requirements, an appropriate selection can be made to
optimise the process.

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 3.4. Configurations of heat exchangers
3.4.1. Shell-and-tube heat exchangers

Fig. 2 Schematic diagram of a shell and tube heat exchanger one shell pass and one tube pass

The shell-and-tube heat exchanger is the most common type of heat exchanger. It originated from the
jacketed-coil distiller, and is used in heavy industries (steam condensers, boilers), and residential
hot-water and heating systems (fire-tube water heaters). Details of few shell and tube type heat
exchanger are presented in Fig. 3.

As can be seen in Fig. 2 and 3, each fluid can flow along several passes. In the tube-side, every set of
tubes that the fluid travels through, before it makes a turn, is considered a pass. In the shell-side, a
pass accounts for each main flow direction change. A standard code of practice in heat exchanger
design and operation is that of TEMA (Tubular Exchangers Manufacturers Association). Other
important source of standards are ASME (American Society of Mechanical Engineers; Boiler and
Pressure Vessel Code), and, for heating and cooling loads, ASHRAE (American Society of Heating,
Refrigerating and Air Conditioning Engineers).

Fig. 3 Shell and tube type arrangement, cut-out showing construction (material copper)

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 3.4.2. Plate heat exchangers
A plate heat exchanger is a compact heat exchanger where thin corrugated plates (some 0.5 mm
thick, bended 1 or 2 mm) are stacked in contact with each other, and the two fluids made to flow
separately along adjacent channels in the corrugation (Fig. 1b). The closure of the staked plates may
be by clamped gaskets, brazing (usually copper-brazed stainless steel), or welding (stainless steel,
copper, titanium), the most common type being the first, for ease of inspection and cleaning.
Additionally, a frame (end-plates and fixing rods) secures together the plate stack and connectors
(sometimes PFHE, standing for plate-and-frame heat exchanger).

Plate assembly is sketched in Fig. 2. Suitable channels, sometimes helped by the gaskets, control the
flow of the two fluids, and allow parallel flow or cross flow, in any desired number of passes, one
pass being most used. They have large conductance coefficients (up to K = 6000 W/(m 2·K) for
liquid-to-liquid use), are ideally suited for low-viscosity fluids, the number of plates can be adjusted
to the needs, and the transfer surface accessible to cleaning (the latter two advantages only for gasket
assemblies; in any case, the gaskets should be changed if dismounted). The projected area of plates is
usually taken as nominal heat transfer area, in spite of the real curved surfaces and lost space in
gaskets and ports.

Fig. 4 configuration and flow pattern

Fig. 5. Internal details

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Fig. 6. Assembled and exploded view of plate heat exchanger

Major limitations in plate heat exchanger are: maximum allowed pressure (usually below 1 MPa,
although there are designs with 4 MPa), temperature range (usually limited to 150ºC by the gasket
material, although there are designs allowing 400ºC). Although typical plate heat exchanger
application is in liquid-to-liquid heat-transfer, special plate designs have been developed for phase-
change applications. Higher working pressures and still goof thermal performance can be achieved
with hybrid plate-shell heat exchangers, where a plate stack is welded inside a shell (i.e. a kind of
Shell and tube arrangement with plates instead of tubes).

The plate heat exchanger was developed in the 1920s in the food industry (for the pasteurization of
milk), but they are taking over all markets now because of its compactness and efficiency (3 to 10
times more than shell and tube arrangement). They are used for process heating, cooling, in all
cryogenic applications, and as an intermediate step in domestic water heaters, where consumable hot
water (hot tap water) is produced in an intermediate heat exchanger from closed-loop fuel-fired hot
water, to minimise solid depositions. Plate heat exchanger are often named compact heat exchangers,
although the word compact can be added to any type of heat or mass transfer unit with specific area
>103 m2/m3 (our lungs are 20 times more compact than that).

3.4.3. Regenerative heat exchanger

A third type of heat exchanger is the regenerative heat exchanger. In this, the heat (heat medium)
from a process is used to warm the fluids to be used in the process, and the same type of fluid is used
either side of the heat exchanger (these heat exchangers can be either plate-and-frame or shell-and-
tube construction). These exchangers are used only for gases and not for liquids. The major factor for
this is the heat capacity of the heat transfer matrix.

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 3.4.4. Adiabatic wheel heat exchanger
A fourth type of heat exchanger uses an intermediate fluid or solid store to hold heat, which is then
moved to the other side of the heat exchanger to be released. Two examples of this are adiabatic
wheels, which consist of a large wheel with fine threads rotating through the hot and cold fluids, and
fluid heat exchangers. This type is used when it is acceptable for a small amount of mixing to occur
between the two streams.

3.4.5. Plate Fin heat exchanger

This type of heat exchanger uses "sandwiched" passages containing fins to increase the effectivity of
the unit. The designs include cross-flow and counter-flow coupled with various fin configurations
such as straight fins, offset fins and wavy fins. Plate and Fin heat exchangers are usually made of
aluminium alloys which provide higher heat transfer efficiency. The material enables the system to
operate at a lower temperature and reduce the weight of the equipment. Plate and Fin heat
exchangers are mostly used for low temperature services such as natural gas, helium and oxygen
liquefaction plants, air separation plants and transport industries such as motor and aircraft engines.

Advantages of Plate and Fin heat exchangers:

• High heat transfer efficiency especially in gas treatment
• Larger heat transfer area
• Approximately 5 times lighter in weight than that of Shell and Tube heat exchanger
• Able to withstand high pressure

Disadvantages of Plate and Fin heat exchangers:

• Might cause clogging as the pathways are very narrow
• Difficult to clean the pathways

3.4.6. Fluid heat exchangers

This is a heat exchanger with a gas passing upwards through a shower of fluid (often water), and the
fluid is then taken elsewhere before being cooled. This is commonly used for cooling gases whilst
also removing certain impurities, thus solving two problems at once. It is widely used in espresso
machines as an energy-saving method of cooling super-heated water to be used in the extraction of
espresso.

3.4.7. Waste Heat Recovery Units

A Waste Heat Recovery Unit or WHRU is a heat exchanger that recovers heat from a hot gas stream
while transferring it to a working medium, typically water or oils. The hot gas stream can be the

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exhaust gas from a gas turbine or a diesel engine or a waste gas from industry or refinery. See also:
WHRU.

3.4.8. Phase-change heat exchangers

In addition to heating up or cooling down fluids in just a single phase, heat exchangers can be used
either to heat a liquid to evaporate (or boil) it or used as condensers to cool a vapour and condense it
to a liquid. In chemical plants and refineries, reboilers used to heat incoming feed for distillation
towers are often heat exchangers. Distillation set-ups typically use condensers to condense distillate
vapors back into liquid. Power plants which have steam-driven turbines commonly use heat
exchangers to boil water into steam. Heat exchangers or similar units for producing steam from
water are often called boilers or steam generators. In the nuclear power plants called pressurized
water reactors, special large heat exchangers which pass heat from the primary (reactor plant) system
to the secondary (steam plant) system, producing steam from water in the process, are called steam
generators. All fossil-fueled and nuclear power plants using steam-driven turbines have surface
condensers to convert the exhaust steam from the turbines into condensate (water) for re-use.

To conserve energy and cooling capacity in chemical and other plants, regenerative heat exchangers
can be used to transfer heat from one stream that needs to be cooled to another stream that needs to
be heated, such as distillate cooling and reboiler feed pre-heating. This term can also refer to heat
exchangers that contain a material within their structure that has a change of phase. This is usually a
solid to liquid phase due to the small volume difference between these states. This change of phase
effectively acts as a buffer because it occurs at a constant temperature but still allows for the heat
exchanger to accept additional heat. One example where this has been investigated is for use in high
power aircraft electronics.

3.4.9. Direct Contact Heat Exchangers

Direct contact heat exchangers involve heat transfer between hot and cold streams of two phases in
the absence of a separating wall. Thus such heat exchangers can be classified as:
• Gas – liquid
• Immiscible liquid –liquid
• Solid-liquid or solid- gas

Most direct contact heat exchangers fall under the Gas- Liquid category, where heat is transferred
between a gas and liquid in the form of drops, films or sprays. Such types of heat exchangers are
used predominantly in air conditioning, humidification, water cooling and condensing plants

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 3.4.10. Spiral Heat Exchangers
A spiral heat exchanger, may refer to a helical (coiled) tube configuration, more generally, the term
refers to a pair of flat surfaces that are coiled to form the two channels in a counter-flow
arrangement. Each of the two channels has one long curved path. A pair of fluid ports are connected
tangentially to the outer arms of the spiral, and axial ports are common, but optional. The main
advantage of the spiral type heat exchanger is its highly efficient use of space. This attribute is often
leveraged and partially reallocated to gain other improvements in performance, according to well
known tradeoffs in heat exchanger design. (A notable trade-off is capital cost vs operating cost.) A
compact spiral type heat exchanger may be used to have a smaller footprint and thus lower all-
around capital costs, or an over-sized spiral type heat exchanger may be used to have less pressure
drop, less pumping energy, higher thermal efficiency, and lower energy costs.

Fig. 7 Spiral type heat exchanger flow arrangement

3.5. Different co-relations

 Galerkin weighted residual formulation is used for spatial discretization to implement the
velocity correction algorithm.
4/ 5 3
Nu D =0.023 ℜD Pr … …(1)
 The Dittus-Boelter equation is slightly different
NuD =0.023 ℜ4/D 5 Pr n … …(2)
Where n is 0.4 for heating and 0.3 for cooling. These equations are valid for 0.7 < Pr < 160; Re >
10,000; L/D > 10.
 Another more complex correlation is attributed to Petukhov
(f /8) ℜD Pr
Nu D = 2

()
f 2
1
… … (3)
1.07+12.7 (Pr 3 −1)
8
Where
10
f = Friction factor.
This correlation is good for 0.5<Pr<2000 and 10^4<Re<5x10^6.
 For low Reynolds numbers < 3000, following correlation is to be used

Nu =
( 8)
f
( ℜ −1000) Pr
D

… …(4)
D 2
1.07+12.7 ( ) (Pr −1)
1
f 2 3
8

This is valid for the same range of Prandlt number, but with Reynolds < 3000.

 For smooth pipes, one should use the following for the friction factor
−2
f =(0.79 log e ℜD −1.64) … …(5)

 For fully developed laminar flows in pipes with a circular cross section
Nu D =4.36 for uniform heating and
Nu D =3.66 for uniform Temperature imposed
For flow in circular tubes:
Nu D =4.36 for Laminar flow, ReD < 2300
 Colburn equation:
4/ 5 1 /3
Nu D =0.023 ℜD Pr for Turbulent flow, ReD > 2300
hD
NuD = … …(6)
k
D = Diameter of tube
K = Conductivity of fluid
If the tube is non circular, hydraulic diameter is used, instead.
4 AC
D h= … …(7)
P
Where Ac and P are the cross-sectional area and the wetted perimeter, respectively

4. Experimental program
4.1. Description of experimental set-up
As shown in Fig. 8 both hot and cold fluids stream are taken from the overhead tank placed at the
top. Both the stream is subjected to flow measurement by allowing fluid to flow through rotameters.
One stream is directed to the heater where it will be heated and will act as a hot stream. The shell and
tube arrangement is having two paths one is fluid flowing through inside of tubes and another fluid
circulate around the annular passage between the outer shell and outside of the tubes. Heat exchanger
is having arrangement to alter the fluid path so that both parallel and counter flow arrangement can
be achieved in the same set-up just by opening and closing of appropriate valves. For this hot stream
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is allowed to pass through the tubes, while cold fluid circulating on the outer side can be
arrangement to flow in both the directions making combination work for parallel flow arrangement
or counter flow arrangement. Temperatures of the fluid at three different locations, hot inlet stream
(HI), hot outlet stream (HO) and for cold inlet stream (C I) in case of parallel flow configuration or for
cold outlet stream (CO) in case of counter flow configuration are measured by three ‘K’ type
thermometer. A three junction thermopile is located to measure the difference in the fluid
temperature stream between hot outlet temperature and cold outlet stream (C I) in case of parallel
flow configuration or cold inlet stream (CO) in case of counter flow configuration.

A reference junction is used to generate millivolt corresponding to temperature difference of ambient

temperature and zero degree centigrade. This will have to compensate millivolt for temperature
corresponding to ambient temperature. The thermopile which measures temperature difference
between two flowing streams is three thermocouple junctions arranged in series. Since three
junctions are kept in series mV generated will be magnified by three times, and sensitivity increases
by three fold (or error will be reduce to 1/3rd). Such type of sensors is particularly suited for
measuring very low temperature difference. Advantage of such system need not required calibration.
The shell of heat exchanger and all other parts are covered by plaster of paris to reduce the heat
losses. That is beneficial to achieve accurate measurements. Pictorial view of the set-up is as shown
in Fig. 9.

Fig. 8 Schematic of experimental set-up

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Fig. 9 Pictorial view of the heat exchanger set-up

4.2. Procedure
Flowing procedure is observed to conduct the experiment:
 Check adequate water head for the supply of water from tank which should be sufficient to
operate flow of water through rotameter.
 Start the heater to generate hot stream.
 In order to obtain different flow conditions and wider range of temperature it is chosen to kept
the any one flow stream steady and vary the other flow stream at a time under one set of
observation. The conditions are reversed for next set of observations.
 Establish flow conditions and wait for steady state condition.
 Note down the observations in mV dc
 Obtain temperatures in ºC with the help of mV dc→ temperature conversion table.
 Obtain different quantity of interest.

4.3. Notations used:

∈ = Effectiveness of heat exchanger [-]
µ = Kinetic viscosity of the fluid [m2/s]
AC = Cross sectional area across all tubes [m2]
AS = surface area [m2]
dT = temperature recorded at three junction thermopile
C = quantity corresponding to cold stream [-]
D = Diameter of tubes [m]
H = quantity corresponding to hot stream [-]
K = Thermal conductivity [W/m2K]
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L = length of tubes [m]
N = No. of tubes [-]
U = Overall heat transfer coefficient in [W/ m²K]
ρ = Density of water [kg/m³]

Subscript
c = cold
h = hot
i = inlet
o = outlet

5. Observations and Analysis

Table 1 gives the constants used in the analysis. This includes dimensions of the heat exchanger. It is
important to note that due to the small change in temperature thermo-physical properties like thermal
conductivity and density are consider as constant in the analysis for the simplicity in the analysis.
Table 2 and Table 3 summaries the observations recorded for the steady state conditions under
parallel and counter flow configuration of heat exchanger. It is important to note that dT corresponds
to the temperature recorded using three junction thermopile between two streams. In order to get
actual rise in temperature the observation should be adjusted to one third of its recorded values.

Table 1 Constants used

# Particulars Quantity Unit
1. Diameter of tube 0.0095 m
2. Length of Tube 0.4 m
3. Number of tubes 19 -
4. Specific heat of water 4186 kJ/kgk
5. Density of water 1000 Kg/m3
6. Heat transfer surface area 0.22682299 m2
7. Flow area or cross section area 0.001346762 m2

Table 2 Observation table - Parallel flow arrangement

HO HI dT CO CO CI HO HI CI mh mc
# mV mV mV mV °C mV °C °C °C LPH LPH
2.1
1 1.85 2 1.01 1.51 37.0 1.29 45.31 51.83 31.56 106.49 124.24
2.1
2 1.87 9 1.02 1.53 37.5 1.30 45.85 53.53 31.68 97.30 123.75
14
 2.2
3 1.89 6 1.05 1.54 37.7 1.30 46.34 55.27 31.75 90.14 123.03
2.3
4 1.93 5 1.13 1.55 38.0 1.30 47.28 57.61 31.78 83.45 124.71
2.4
5 1.96 5 1.23 1.55 38.0 1.30 48.09 60.00 31.85 75.73 126.89
2.5
6 2.02 6 1.27 1.59 39.0 1.31 49.39 62.85 31.95 72.07 125.34
2.7
7 2.11 3 1.41 1.64 40.0 1.32 51.58 66.98 32.29 64.49 103.73
2.7
8 2.11 4 1.25 1.70 41.5 1.33 51.78 67.11 32.37 65.11 96.03
2.5
9 2.09 8 1.11 1.72 42.0 1.33 51.14 63.34 32.47 72.16 82.32
2.5
10 2.10 9 1.15 1.72 42.0 1.33 51.43 63.42 32.59 73.11 76.38
2.5
11 2.13 9 1.11 1.76 43.0 1.34 52.10 63.56 32.69 72.97 67.40
2.5
12 2.13 8 1.00 1.80 44.0 1.34 52.20 63.22 32.76 73.37 61.51
2.5
13 2.14 8 0.91 1.84 45.0 1.34 52.49 63.17 32.74 73.88 57.03
2.6
14 2.19 0 0.94 1.88 46.0 1.35 53.70 63.69 32.91 73.49 45.10
2.5
15 2.21 7 0.87 1.92 47.0 1.43 54.12 62.97 35.02 74.42 36.26
3.0
16 2.29 6 1.36 1.84 45.0 1.33 56.13 75.13 32.61 50.70 65.73
2.7
17 2.18 4 1.07 1.82 44.5 1.31 53.28 67.30 32.10 62.00 67.75
2.4
18 2.03 8 0.76 1.78 43.5 1.26 49.76 60.66 30.77 73.87 65.01
2.3
19 1.95 2 0.71 1.72 42.0 1.23 47.79 56.90 30.03 82.34 66.34
2.2
20 1.90 4 0.56 1.72 42.0 1.22 46.59 54.78 29.78 86.43 64.34
2.1
21 1.84 2 0.49 1.68 41.0 1.20 45.04 52.00 29.24 98.21 65.03
2.1
22 1.82 0 0.43 1.68 41.0 1.18 44.52 51.53 28.85 97.29 65.02
2.0
23 1.78 2 0.31 1.68 41.0 1.15 43.56 49.47 28.01 109.00 66.77

5.1. Sample calculation (for parallel flow observation # 17)

Reading no 17
 Converting temperature in to degree centigrade.
HO = 2.18mV = 53.28 ºC and HI = 2.74mV = 67.30 ºC
dT = 1.07 mV, so actual rise in temperature = 0.3566 mV = 0.0241 ºC
CO = HO – dT/3 = 2.18 - 1.82/3 mV = 1.82 mV = 44.50 ºC and CI = 1.31 mV = 32.10 ºC … …(8)
 Obtaining quantity Q/Cp
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mh = 62.00 LPH and mc = 67.75 LPH
Qh /Cp= mh (HI – HO) = 62.0 (67.30 - 53.28) = 869.32 … …(9)
Qc/Cp = mc (CO – CI) = 67.75 (44.50 - 32.10) = 840.34 … …(10)
 Obtaining error in the energy balance (this will be used as a measure to determine the validity
of a particular observation or to determine confidence level of the observation for the flow
condition)

( )
QH Q C
−
Cp Cp
Error= ∗100 = 3.33 … …(11)
QC
Cp

 Obtaining LMTD (Log Mean Temperature Difference)

θ1 = (HI –CI) = (67.30 -32.10) = 35.205 … …(12)
θ2 = (HO – CO) = (53.28 - 44.50) = 8.78 … …(13)
( θ1−θ 2 )
θm = θ 1 = 19.028 … …(14)
log ( )
θ2
 obtaining overall heat transfer coefficient
AS = Π*D*L*N = 0.22682299 m²
U = Qh / (A*LMTD) = 234 w/m²k
V = mh / ( ρ * AC) = 0.013m/sec
 Obtaining dimensionless numbers
Nu = U *D/K = 3.47
Re = V D ρ /µ = 197.97
Pr = 4.036 (from standard table)

6. Results and discussion

Result of energy balance and error in the energy balance for the observations for the parallel flow
arrangement is as shown in Table 3. It is observed that the average value of percentage error in both
the case 9.58% for parallel flow. Error in the observation is due to the error involved in measuring
mass flow rate of water by rotameter, mainly due to its operating point at a low value and its
sensitiveness to the fluctuation due to very low intensity of flow.

The calculation of LMTD for parallel flow arrangement (as shown in Table 3) shows average value
of LMTD for parallel flow is 16.01.

Table 3 Error in energy balance and LMTD – for parallel flow configuration
16
 QH/CP QC/cp ERROR % θ1 θ2 LMTD θm
694.30 676.47 2.57 20.273 8.308 13.413
746.87 720.45 3.54 21.848 8.350 14.033
805.04 737.93 8.34 23.521 8.592 14.824
862.32 776.12 10.00 25.833 9.277 16.166
901.79 780.32 13.47 28.146 10.088 17.600
969.91 883.80 8.88 30.902 10.392 18.820
993.26 799.42 19.52 34.690 11.582 21.065
997.99 877.04 12.12 34.740 10.279 20.086
880.58 784.88 10.87 30.877 9.139 17.855
875.98 718.85 17.94 30.828 9.435 18.068
836.61 695.06 16.92 30.877 9.099 17.824
808.70 691.33 14.51 30.459 8.197 16.960
788.87 699.41 11.34 30.434 7.492 16.367
734.08 590.43 19.57 30.779 7.698 16.654
659.15 434.24 34.12 27.949 7.116 15.229
963.48 814.51 15.46 42.522 11.126 23.417
869.32 840.34 3.33 35.205 8.780 19.028
805.12 827.72 -2.81 29.893 6.262 15.117
749.55 794.10 0.06 26.867 5.793 13.736
708.11 785.99 0.10 24.997 4.588 12.038
683.81 764.57 0.11 22.758 4.038 10.826
682.19 790.07 0.14 22.684 3.521 10.287
643.62 867.19 0.26 21.454 2.562 8.889
Average Value 9.58 16.01

Thermal performance of parallel flow heat exchanger is as shown in Table 4. The straight line fit for
the trend as suggested by Dittus-Boelter equation is proposed. For this ln(Re) v/s ln(Nu/Pr0.4) is as
shown in Fig. 10.

Table 4 Thermal performance parameter– for parallel flow configuration

QH J/s QC J/s V m/s Nu Re Pr ln(Re) ln(Nu/Pr0.4)

807 787 0.022 3.99 299.86 4.66 5.70 0.77
868 838 0.020 4.10 276.94 4.61 5.62 0.80
936 858 0.019 4.18 259.09 4.56 5.56 0.82
1003 902 0.017 4.09 243.17 4.49 5.49 0.81
1049 907 0.016 3.93 223.51 4.43 5.41 0.77
1128 1028 0.015 3.94 217.20 4.33 5.38 0.79
1155 930 0.013 3.59 200.54 4.18 5.30 0.71
1160 1020 0.013 3.78 204.06 4.14 5.32 0.76
1024 913 0.015 3.76 222.62 4.22 5.41 0.75
1019 836 0.015 3.69 226.01 4.21 5.42 0.73
973 808 0.015 3.57 227.36 4.17 5.43 0.70
940 804 0.015 3.63 229.40 4.15 5.44 0.72
917 813 0.015 3.67 232.17 4.13 5.45 0.73
854 687 0.015 3.35 233.78 4.08 5.45 0.65
766 505 0.015 3.28 239.61 4.02 5.48 0.63
1120 947 0.010 3.11 170.36 3.83 5.14 0.60
1011 977 0.013 3.47 197.97 4.06 5.29 0.68
17
 936 962 0.015 4.07 223.97 4.30 5.41 0.82
872 923 0.017 4.18 241.86 4.45 5.49 0.83
823 914 0.018 4.52 250.38 4.52 5.52 0.90
795 889 0.020 4.87 278.20 4.63 5.63 0.97
793 919 0.020 5.11 274.17 4.66 5.61 1.02
748 1008 0.022 5.59 302.77 4.73 5.71 1.10

Fig. 10 Variation in ln(Nu/Pr0.4) v/s ln(Re)

From the Figure the thermal performance in terms of Nu=f ( ℜ , Pr ) can be obtained as under.
a2 0.4
Nu=a 1 ℜ Pr … …(15)
Nu a2
0.4
=a 1 ℜ … …(16)
Pr
Nu
log e 0.4
=log e a 1+a 2 log e ℜ … …(17)
Pr
Nu
log e 0.4
=−2.6238+ 0.6239 log e ℜ … …(18)
Pr
Nu −2.6239❑
log e 0.4
=log e e + 0.6239 log e ℜ … …(19)
Pr
Nu 0.6239
0.4
=0.072526 ℜ … …(20)
Pr
0.6239 0.4
Nu=0.072526 ℜ Pr … …(21)

Comparison of LMTD for counter and parallel flow arrangement is summarized in Table 5.

Table 5 Results for LMTD

Particulars Notation Flow arrangement
Parallel Counter
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Mass flow rate of water for hot stream mh 50 LPH 50 LPH
Mass flow rate of water on cold stream mc 55 LPH 55 LPH
Hot water outlet temperature Ho 46.62 ºC 46.47 ºC
Cold water outlet temperature Co 44.28 ºC 35.86 ºC
Hot water inlet temperature Hi 57.00 ºC 57.00 ºC
Cold water inlet temperature Ci 30.50 ºC 30.50 ºC
Temperature potential at inlet of heat exchanger Ɵ1 26.50 ºC 21.21 ºC
Temperature potential at exit of heat exchanger Ɵ2 1.78 ºC 17.10 ºC
Logarithmic mean temperature difference LMTD 9.17 ºC 19.08 ºC

It is observed from the results that counter flow arrangement gives higher LMTD i.e. higher heat
transfer potential compared to parallel flow arrangement. Therefore the use of counter flow
arrangement will require a low surface area of heat exchange for the same terminal temperature and
for same mass flow rate, hence the cost of counter flow heat exchanger will be less compared to
parallel flow heat exchanger. Use of three junctions on thermopile is justified due to the fact that the
difference in terminal temperature in case of parallel flow exchange exit will be very small, use of
ordinary thermocouple would lead to the error in measurement, while three junctions thermopile will
reduce the measurement error by 1/3rd.
-- x --

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