MEPME 132 – Heat and Mass Transfer

Assignment No. 3 – Heat Exchangers

(Optional Tools: Use Mathcad, EES or MS Excel)

Problem No. 1 (Overall heat transfer coefficient)

A steel tube (k = 50 W/m-K) of ID = 20 mm, OD =26 mm is used to transfer heat from hot gases
flowing over the tube (ho = 200 W/m2-K) to cold water flowing through the tube (h i = 8000
W/m2-K). (a) What is the cold side overall heat transfer coefficient U i? (b) To enhance the heat
transfer, 16 straight fins of rectangular profile are installed longitudinally along the outer surface
of the tube. The fins equally spaced around the tube, fin thickness being 2 mm and length of 15
mm. Assuming the fin efficiency of 77.92%, what is the corresponding overall heat transfer
coefficient Ui?

Problem No. 2 (Overall heat transfer coefficient and fouling factor)

A shell and tube counter-flow heat exchanger uses copper tubes (k = 380 W/m-C), 20 mm ID
and 23 mm OD. Inside and outside film coefficients are 5000 and 1500 W/m 2-C, respectively.
Fouling factors on the inside and outside may be taken as 0.0004 and 0.001 m 2C/W, respectively.
Calculate the overall heat transfer coefficient based on: (a) outside surface, (b) inside surface,
and (c) Plot the variation of total thermal resistance, Rtotal as k varies from 10 to 400 W/m-C.

Problem No. 3 (LMTD Method)

Water at a rate of 4080 kg/hr is heated from 35 C to 75 C by an oil of C p = 1.9 kJ/kg-K. The heat
exchanger is of counter-flow, double pipe design. The oil enters at 110 C and leaves at 75 C.
Determine the (a) mass flow rate of oil, (b) area of heat exchanger necessary to handle this load,
if overall heat transfer coefficient is 320 W/m2-K.
If after 3 years there is a scale formation on the water side, an the outlet temperature is 60 C for
the same inlet temperatures and flow rates, calculate the (c) heat transferred, (d) outlet
temperature of oil, (e) overall heat transfer coefficient, and (f) water side fouling factor.

Problem No. 3 (NTU-Effectiveness Method)

Consider a heat exchanger (HX) for cooling oil at 180 C, with water entering at 25 C. Mass flow
rates of oil and water are 2.5 and 1.2 kg/s, respectively. Area of HX is 16 m 2. Calculate the outlet
temperatures of both fluids for (a) counter-flow HX, and (b) for parallel flow HX. Specific heat
data for oil and water are: 1900 J/kg-C and 4184 J/kg-C, respectively. Overall U = 285 W/m2-C.