Altitude training institute

Air-cooled Heat
Exchangers
Overall Topics

 Pro’s and con’s of ACHE’s

 Optimizing air and water cooling
 Construction features
 Thermal design
 Optimization of thermal design
 Air cooler control
 Special applications
Pro’s and Con’s of ACHE’s

 Eliminates high cost of using  Higher initial cost

water: raw water, make-up water,  Expensive
treatment, piping winterisation
 Lower maintenance
 Flexibility of location
 Natural convection
 Better control
 Lower operating cost
Optimize air and water cooling

 Only water cooling: both in/out temps low, e.g., 50 C/45 C

 (Air + water) cooling: inlet temp high, outlet temp. low, e.g., 100 C/40 C Major heat duty
by ACHE. Break temperature to be optimised, usually t amb +18-20 C
 Only air cooling: both inlet and outlet temp’s high, e.g., 120 C/70 C
Air cooler components

 Finned tubes
 Headers
 Other tube bundle components
 Fans and drives
 Plenum chambers
Finned tubes

 Heart of the ACHE

 Why are they used?
 Base tube: any commercially available material, usually CS or SS
 Circular fins, aluminium
 Fin bond resistance
Finned tubes – contd

 Tube OD: 1”, 1 ¼” and 1 ½”

 Fin height: ½” and 5/8”
 L-footed, tension wound: T<120 C
 Double-footed: T<170 C
 G-fins: most common, heavier tube wall,
T<400 C
 Bimetallic finned tubes
 Extruded finned tubes
Headers

 Convey the process fluid into and out of the bundles.

 Carry inlet/outlet nozzles and pass partition plates.
 When required, split to accommodate differential expansion.
Headers – contd.

 Plug headers most, relatively cheap, upto

175 bar, not preferred for dirty services
 Cover plate type preferred for dirty
services
 Manifold for very high pressures
 Other tube bundle components

 Tube supports – boxes or collars

 Side frames
 Tube-totubesheet joints:
expanded into double grooves,
strength welded at high
pressures.
Fans

 Hub: cast iron, cast Al or fabricated steel

 Blades: Al, FRP
 Performance: no. of blades, tip speed,
blade angle (12o to 27o) and blade width
 Manually adjustable
 Auto-variable
Fans – contd.

 Fans with wider blades operate less noisily

 API 661-> 2 fans along tube length
 > 40% coverage
 Tip speed < 61 m/s
 Other specs. on height of fan, radial
clearance between fan ring and tip, height
of ring, etc.
 Plenum conical or rectangular
Drives

 Provide the power to move air

across bundles
 Electric motor, steam turbine,
engine
 Power usually transmitted through
belt (V-belt or HTD) or gear drives.
Draft : Forced vs. Induced

Advantages of forced draft

 Easier accessibility for maint.
 Lower power consumption
 Longer fan blade life
Advantages of induced draft
 Better air distribution
 Reduced hot air recirculation
 Better stack effect
 Better protection from the elements
Thermal design

 Tubeside calculations

 Airside calculations

 MTD
Tubeside

 HTC and pressure drop as in STHE’s.

 Normally permitted pr. drop: 0.05-0.2 kg/cm2 for gases/condensers and 0.5-0.7 kg/cm2 for
liquid coolers. Higher value warranted for viscous liquid
 Inadequate Allowable tubeside pressure drop can penalize an ACHE.
Airside

 Special correlations for HTC and

pressure drop
 HTC: (mass velocity)0.5
 Pr. drop : (mass velocity)1.75
MTD

 Somewhat different from STHE’s

 Higher Ft factor for more tube passes
 Cooling water flow rate limited by tout of 43-45 C, no such limitation for ACHE’s.
 Higher air flow rate: higher airside HTC, higher MTD
 Design ambient temperature: case study follows
MMTD Correction Factors
Optimisation of thermal design

Tubeside and airside simultaneously

 Tube length
 Tube OD
 Fin height
 Fin spacing
 Number of tube rows
 Air flow rate & fan power consumption
 Tube pitch
 Number of tube passes
Tube length

 Max. tube length for min. no. of sections

 When pipe-rack mounted, TL = PRW + 0.5 m
 Typical values 8.5 m, 10.5 m and 12.5 m
 Usually two bundles per section
 Bundle width limited to 3.2-3.5 m for transportation
 Length to section width 2:1 ideal for 2 fans
 Sometimes section highly rectangular: 3 fans may be used along tube length
Tube OD

 Smallest OD as per API 661: 1”

 Smaller OD -> small ACHE’s or to obtain good tubeside velocity
 Larger OD required for pressure drop limiting cases
Fin height

 Usual fin heights 3/8”, ½” and 5/8”

 Selection depends upon relative values of airside and tubeside HTC
 Where airside controlling (steam condensing, water cooling), greater fin height usually
better
 Greater fin height -> greater efficiency of conversion of pd to ht on airside
 For gas coolers and viscous liquid hc coolers, shorter fins Economically advantageous
Fin spacing

 Normal mfg range: 7- 11 fpi

 Same logic as for fin height: when airside controlling, higher density favourable.
 Invariably, 11 fpi are used irrespective of above.
 With 9 or 10 fpi, a higher air flow rate can be used for the same power consumption as
compared to 11 fpi -> higher MTD; however, airside htc will reduce
Number of tube rows

 Min. no. of rows 4, though 3 used occasionally.

 Most ACHE’s have 4 to 6 rows; 8, 10 and 12 also used
 Advantage of more rows: more HT area per bundle, hence less bundles.
 Disadvantages of more rows: (a) higher HP (b) lower airside flow area, lower air flow rate,
lower MTD.
 Practical implication: for a given HP, more rows -> lower airside velocity -> lower airside
HTC.
 Tubeside HTC controlling, more tube rows may be used. The lower airside HTC will not
hurt much.
Tube pitch

 Staggered far more efficient than in-line.

 Common configurations:
Tube OD 25 25
Fin OD 50 57
Pitch 60 67
 Above may not always be optimum, hence pitch should be optimised.
 At low tube pitch, the air pr. drop and HP tend to be high for the same air HTC.
 Powerful variable, can be fine-tuned to achieve specific goals, e.g., (a) reduced to restrict
bundle width to within the maximum or (b) decreased or increased for complying with API
fan coverage criterion
Tube pitch (contd.)
Number of tube passes

 As in STHE’s, this is a big parameter for the tubeside calculations. 1,2,3,4…

 Macro change
 Distribution of tubes in various passes can be varied, esp. in condensers, e.g., an ACHE
with 6 rows and 4 passes can have
Ist and 2nd pass: 2 rows
3rd and 4th pass: 1 row
A typical air cooler

 One or more sections

 Two tube bundles
 40-45 tubes per row
 4-6 tube rows
 2 tube passes
 12.5 m long CS tubes, 25 mm OD and 2.5 mm
thick
 fins: 16 mm high, 11 per inch, 0.4/0.3 mm thk
 67 mm tube pitch
 2 fans per section of 14-15 ft. diameter
 Power consumption: 30-40 HP
Air cooler control
Special applications

 Combined services
 Recirculation air coolers
 Humidified air coolers
 Tube inserts
 Natural convection
Combined services

 Small coolers pose a problem when

they have to be located on a broad
pipe-rack.
 Individual coolers would be narrow
and long with several fans: expensive
 Can be combined in asingle section
serviced by the same fans: lose
flexibility.
 Recirculations air coolers

 Required when a min. tube-wall temp.

has to be maintained
 By precise recirculation of air, desired
air temp can always be maintained.
 Steam coil for winter start-up.
 Expensive, also consider tempered
water cooling
Humidified air coolers

 Normal ACHE’s can cool a fluid only to a temp. higher than the dry-bulb temp.
 By humidifying the hot, dry air, its temp. can be reduced drastically for operation during
summer daytime.
 Installed cost very high.
 Makeup water (soft water) represents additional expense.
 Economic analysis required
 Selection of design air temp crucial
Humidified air coolers
Tube inserts

 Considerably enhance laminar heat

transfer inside tubes.
 Very effective for cooling viscous
liquids such as lube oils.
 Unavoidable for offshore platforms
where space is at a premium.
THANK YOU !