Abstracts Category : Other

Heat Exchangers: An examination of the current plate heat exchanger and parameters for a 2-1 heat exchanger

by Roger A Yee

The plate heat exchanger in the unit operations lab fails to achieve theoretical overall heat transfer coefficients (U) with a difference in theoretical U multiplied by the contact area (A) compared to the simulated values to be as great as 97%. Overall, this experiment does not teach students proper heat transfer. Proposing a new solution, two configurations of a 2-1 heat exchanger is designed in the paper with building specifications of the total shell diameter 2", the tubing is 112", and the total length is 3m. Using eigenvectors and eigenvalues, the temperatures throughout the entire length of the pipe are calculated. The overall heat transfer coefficient is calculated using dimensionless analysis. In one of the configurations, a hot and cold stream show a cross in temperatures. Also, this configuration can be scaled up to a 4-2 heat exchanger that uses the same caluclation process. Concluding, this new 2-1 heat exchanger properly showcases heat transfer with theoretical overall heat coefficients and a fully tirbulent flow. ( en )