Thermal Design Margins For Heat Exchangers

GBH Enterprises, Ltd.
Process Engineering Guide:

GBHE-PEG-HEA-504
Thermal Design Margins for Heat

Exchangers
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Process Engineering Guide:
Thermal Design Margins for

Heat Exchangers
CONTENTS
SECTION
INTRODUCTION/PURPOSE
SCOPE
FIELD OF APPLICATION
DEFINITIONS
TERMINOLOGY
REASONS FOR SPECIFYING A DESIGN MARGIN
5.1
5.2
5.3
5.4
5.5
5.6
5.7
Instantaneous Rates
Future Uprating
Plant Upsets
Process Control
Uncertainties in Properties
Uncertainties in Design Methods
Fouling
4
4
4
4
4
4
4
COMBINATION OF DESIGN MARGINS
CRITICAL AND NON-CRITICAL DUTIES
7.1
7.2
General
Penalties of Over-design
5
6
OPTIMIZATION OF EXCHANGER DUTY
WAYS OF PROVIDING DESIGN MARGINS
9.1
9.2
9.3
9.4
9.5
The Provision of Excess Surface

Decreasing the Design Temperature Difference
Increasing the Design Process Throughput
Increasing the Design Fouling Resistance
Reducing the Design Process Outlet Temperature
Approach
Adjusting the Physical Properties
7
7
7
8
9.6
10
ACCURACY OF THE DESIGN METHODS FOR

SHELL AND TUBE EXCHANGERS
8
8
10.1
10.2
Pressure Drop
Heat Transfer
8
9
11
SUGGESTED DESIGN MARGINS
10
11.1
11.2
11.3
No Phase Change Duties

Condensers
Boilers
10
10
10
12
EFFECT OF UNDER- OR OVER-SURFACE ON

PERFORMANCE
10
FIGURES
(1)
EFFECT OF LENGTH ON EXCHANGER DUTY

COUNTERCURRENT FLOW, C* = 1.0
12
EFFECT OF NUMBER OF TUBES ON EXCHANGER

PERFORMANCE COUNTERCURRENT FLOW,
C* = 1.0, ALL RESISTANCE IN TUBES
13
EFFECT OF TUBE LENGTH ON NUMBER OF TUBES,

AREA AND PRESSURE DROP
14
DOCUMENTS REFERRED TO IN THIS PROCESS

ENGINEERING GUIDE
15
INTRODUCTION/PURPOSE
This document is one of a series on heat transfer prepared for GBH Enterprises.
When designing a heat exchanger it is usual to include some form of over-design
or "safety factor" to allow for uncertainties in the design process. This can be
done in many different ways, which have advantages and drawbacks. Unless the
specifying engineer is aware of the implications of the chosen method, the
effective safety margin may be different from the intention.
SCOPE
This Guide explains the reasons for including a design margin, discusses the
various ways in which one can be provided and comments on the relative merits
of the different ways. It also gives some information on the accuracy of heat
exchanger designs with special reference to shell and tube heat exchangers.
FIELD OF APPLICATION
This Guide applies to process engineers in GBH Enterprises worldwide, who

may be involved in the specification, design or rating of heat transfer equipment.
DEFINITIONS
For the purposes of this Process Engineering Guide, the following definitions
apply:
HTRI
Heat Transfer Research Incorporated. See GBHE-PEG-HEA-502.
HTFS
Heat Transfer and Fluid Flow Service. One of the suppliers of

thermal design software. See GBHE-PEG-HEA-502.
With the exception of terms used as proper nouns or titles, those terms with initial
capital letters which appear in this document and are not defined above are
defined in the Glossary of Engineering Terms.
TERMINOLOGY
Several alternative terms are commonly used to describe the "design margin", for
example "safety factor", "% excess surface", "% over-design", "actual to required
area ratio".
REASONS FOR SPECIFYING A DESIGN MARGIN
An item of equipment may be designed to be larger than that needed to meet the
average design throughput of the plant at design conditions for several reasons.
The following list has been produced with heat exchangers in mind, but much of
it is equally applicable to other items of equipment.
5.1
Instantaneous Rates
The section of plant may be required to run at instantaneous rates above the
normal plant throughput as part of the normal plant operation to allow for different
availabilities of different sections of the plant. Designing for this condition does
not represent a true design margin, as the higher rate represents a normal
condition.
5.2
Future Uprating
The engineer may wish to make provision for future plant uprating. If it is
probable that the plant will be uprated at some future date, there may be a case
for increasing the design throughput, with a corresponding increase in heat load.
However, the heat transfer coefficient under the initial operating conditions will be
lower than the design figure because of the lower velocities; the performance
under the initial operating conditions should be checked to determine the
expected safety margin at the initial conditions. Again, this does not represent a
true design margin, as after the uprating there will be no margin left.
Rather than installing the larger size unit initially, it may be preferable to make
provision for increasing the size of the exchanger at some later date, either by
replacing it with a larger unit, by adding an additional exchanger in parallel with
the original one or by adding heat transfer enhancement devices.
5.3
Plant Upsets
Variations in the inlet flowrates, temperatures or compositions of the feeds to the

exchanger, due to disturbances in other parts of the plant, may require a duty
above the nominal design. Although ideally such disturbances should be
identified at the time when the duty was specified, and the worst case taken for
design, it may be desirable to include an additional margin to allow for
unforeseen disturbances.
5.4
Process Control
The duty required from an exchanger may need to be above the steady state
value in order to provide some control function for another piece of equipment.
5.5
Uncertainties in Properties
Many heat exchangers are required to handle a complex mix of compounds

where the physical properties of the mixture may be uncertain. This can result in
errors in the required heat duty, the estimated heat transfer coefficients or the
temperature driving force (by affecting the dew point of a condensing stream, for
example).
5.6
Uncertainties in Design Methods
In spite of improvements made over many years, there are still uncertainties in
the predictive methods for heat transfer, especially for processes involving a
phase change. It is generally advisable for a critical duty to provide some form of
safety margin to allow for uncertainties in the design methods.
5.7
Fouling
It is normal when specifying a heat exchanger duty to include the expected

fouling resistances. The prediction of such resistances is not a precise science,
often being more of a guess. As such, the fouling resistance may be considered
itself to be a safety margin over the predicted clean performance, to allow for the
(unpredictable) variation in fouling. However, it is normal to include an additional
margin above that represented by the assumed fouling resistance. The
extra pressure drop due to the fouling layer thickness should not be forgotten.
See sub clause10.1.
COMBINATION OF DESIGN MARGINS
Beware of over specifying design margins. During the course of a plant design,
several stages occur between the overall concept and detailed equipment
design. These might include:
(a)
Preparation of overall flowsheet.
(b)
Preparation of section flowsheet.
(c)
Specification of equipment duty.
(d)
Detailed equipment design.
Each of these stages may be the responsibility of a different engineer. If each

engineer adds his/her own design margin at each stage, the final item design
may be considerably oversized for the duty. If the instantaneous section
throughput has been increased to compensate for periods when the flowsheet
rate cannot be achieved, it is unreasonable to design an air cooled exchanger for
an ambient temperature which is exceeded for only a few hours each year.
Frequently, there may be more than one type of uncertainty associated with the
design of a heat exchanger, each of which might justify the inclusion of a design
margin. For example, there may be uncertainties in fouling resistance, physical
properties and ambient conditions. If the standard deviations for each area on
uncertainty are d1, d2, d3, .... then the overall uncertainty of design will have a
standard deviation of d0 where:
This is equivalent to saying that the combined margin for design M0 should be
given by:
where M1, M2, M3 are the margins which would be applied for the uncertainties
considered in isolation, expressed as fractional excess areas. This resulting
margin will be less than that obtained by a straight summation of the individual
margins. In particular, if the margin due to one particular factor is large compared
with the others, then the other margins will be largely irrelevant.
(Strictly speaking, the above approach is only correct if the uncertainties follow a
normal distribution, but it will be reasonable even if they do not).
CRITICAL AND NON-CRITICAL DUTIES
7.1
General
Critical exchangers can be defined as:

(a)
Exchangers which, if they failed to perform as required, would have a

significant effect on plant safety; for example, the inability to control a
potential runaway reaction.
(b)
Exchangers which directly affect the plant production rate. Typical

examples are distillation column reboilers and condensers, some feed
heaters and run-down coolers and some fired heaters.
Other exchangers will be "non-critical", if they do not perform as required then

plant efficiency may be reduced and running costs increased with very little effect
on plant production. Examples of these are compressor suction and interstage
coolers, chillers, vacuum and refrigeration condensers and most interchangers.
The distinction between "critical" and "non-critical" duties in some cases may be
somewhat arbitrary. Ultimately, a trade-off needs to be made in some way
between the cost of the exchanger and the consequences of under-design.
.Whereas the provision of a suitable design margin for a critical duty may be
necessary, this is not true for non-critical duties. In general, no margin should be
provided for non-critical duties.
7.2
Penalties of Over-design
Design margins are provided to compensate for uncertainties which could reduce the
calculated performance. However, these uncertainties could be unfounded, or even act
to improve performance, resulting in an oversized exchanger for the duty. In most cases,
the only penalty associated with an oversized exchanger is the extra capital cost.
However, there may be cases where an oversized exchanger can have positively
harmful effects.
If the oversized unit is part of an exchanger network, its over-performance could result in
problems with other exchangers in the network. It may be possible to overcome this by
the provision of suitable control schemes, such as bypassing of some of the fluid round
the unit, but this could result in other problems, such as excessive fouling. In the
extreme, it may require the installation of additional trim heaters or coolers, thus
detracting from the benefits of the network.
Thermosyphon boilers can present particular problems. The turndown ratio of such units
is limited; typically a 3:1 turndown is the most that can be achieved without running into
problems with stability or total failure to circulate. The performance and stability of such
units is influenced not only by the installed area but by also by the design of the
circulation pipework and the distribution of pressure drop around the circuit. For steam
heated boilers, it may also be necessary to run with sub-atmospheric steam to achieve
turn-down conditions with an oversized boiler. This can lead to problems of condensate
removal. It is imperative that the designer carry out performance runs for the design for
the complete operating range under both clean and fouled conditions. For more
information on vertical thermosyphon boilers, see GBHE-PEG-HEA-515
OPTIMIZATION OF EXCHANGER DUTY
So far, it has been assumed that the required duty of the exchanger is fixed, and
the margin is required to ensure that this duty can be met. The exchanger
designer will then try to produce the "best" design which meets the duty within
the constraints, with some agreed margin.
However, in many cases, the duties of specific exchangers within the process are
not fixed a priori. The duty of these exchangers should be optimized by the
correct trade-off between capital and running costs, possibly with the assistance
of heat exchanger network design methods. Discussion of these methods is
beyond the scope of this guide.
Many such exchangers can be classified as "non-critical". For these, designs
based on normal fouling resistances without additional margins should be
considered.
WAYS OF PROVIDING DESIGN MARGINS
A thermal design margin (safety factor) may be provided in several different

ways, which have their own advantages and disadvantages. It is important that
the engineer understands the implications of these. The engineer should be wary
of disclosing design margins to a supplier who is to perform the design, as the
latter may be tempted to design with negative margins in order to maintain a
competitive position, knowing that in many cases, actual performance checks
under design conditions may be difficult or impossible. Because of this, it may be
advisable to produce a separate data sheet to send to the manufacturer, on
which certain items have been removed or altered. This sheet should be
included, suitably annotated, in the plant manual, along with the correct data
sheets, so that the true situation is recorded.
9.1
The Provision of Excess Surface
Excess surface may be provided in one of two ways:

(a)
Adding extra surface in parallel:

Providing the extra surface by increasing the number of tubes or passages
per pass over that theoretically necessary is generally unsatisfactory for
cases where convective transfer is the dominant mechanism. It will result
in a more expensive unit but because of the reduced velocity, and hence
coefficient, there may be little effective increase in performance. See
Clause 12 for more information.
(b)
Adding extra surface in series:

Increasing the flowpath, by increasing the exchanger length or the number
of passes, is generally more satisfactory. This will, however, increase the
pressure drop, and it may be necessary to increase the number of
passages as well, to restore the pressure drop to the desired value. A
check on the predicted performance of the oversized exchanger will
confirm the actual pressure drop to be expected.
Note that the "area ratio" obtained when rating an exchanger, or the "percentage
over-design" obtained when rating an exchanger, is an indication of the extra
length of exchanger above that required.
It is not possible to use this approach without declaring it to the manufacturer.
9.2
Decreasing The Design Temperature Difference
Sometimes a higher air or cooling water inlet temperature is specified for critical
services than for non-critical duties. This suffers from the disadvantage that the
actual margin on performance at normal air or water temperatures will depend on
the required product temperature. A refrigerant condenser designed using this
approach might have a 25% margin; for a reactor cooler/condenser, with a higher
outlet temperature, it might be only 5%.
The specification of design ambient temperature for air cooled heat exchangers
is discussed in sub clause 3.5 of GBHE-PEG-HEA-513. It should be used to
ensure that a critical unit is designed to meet its duty on warm days, but it is not
recommended to use this parameter to control design margins at other ambient
conditions.
This approach can be useful when designing vertical thermosyphon reboilers.
Because of the coupling between heat transfer performance and circulation, the
extra length concept cannot safely be used. It is better to design the unit for
operation with a lower steam pressure, and hence condensing temperature, than
is available. A check on the predicted performance with the higher steam
pressure will give the maximum heat duty possible; the ratio of this to the
desired duty is a measure of the safety margin. However, beware that the higher
steam pressure does not result in problems such as film boiling, particularly
under clean conditions. See GBHE-PEG-HEA-515 for more details.
9.3
Increasing the Design Process Throughput
As a means of providing a design margin, this suffers from the same

disadvantage as increasing the number of tubes, namely that under normal
conditions the tubeside performance will be poorer than design, so the margin
may be less than expected.
If this approach is used, and the higher throughput is not actually likely to occur,
the allowable pressure drop supplied to the manufacturer should be increased
above the actual value by the square law, in order that he be not unduly
constrained. As the unit will end up being designed for a flowrate above that at
which the plant will run, it will not be possible to do performance checks at design
conditions.
9.4
Increasing the Design Fouling Resistance
This reduces the overall heat transfer coefficient, hence resulting in a larger
surface area being selected for the exchanger. The designer will seek to
minimize the area, within the constraints of allowable pressure drop; the film
coefficients used will not be affected by the "safety margin" as is the case for
using an increased throughput. The approach is useful when dealing with a
manufacturer, as it enables the safety margin to be hidden from him. However, it
is good practice to disclose the actual safety margins in the final documentation,
so the expected fouling resistance should be recorded in the final revisions of the
data sheets.
9.5
Reducing the Design Process Outlet Temperature Approach
In many ways this is the most satisfactory form of safety margin, and it does
allow the final unit to be checked against design conditions. However, it suffers
from the same drawback as does raising the design air or water temperature, in
that the margin will appear greater for units with a low outlet temperature.
9.6
Adjusting the Physical Properties
If there is uncertainty in the physical properties, it may be worth considering

adjusting the values used. However, some care has to be taken over how this is
done. Ideally, a sensitivity analysis ought to be performed on the effects of all
properties on the predicted performance. In practice, this is unrealistic; even
using only two values for each of the main properties for a two phase system
(latent heat, quality, specific heat, viscosity and thermal conductivity for each
phase)
As a general rule, a "safe" design will be produced if the heat load and viscosity
are overestimated and the thermal conductivity, specific heat and density are
underestimated. The percentage error in the prediction due to an error in any one
of these properties will be less than the percentage error in the property, typically
around one half. Note that for single phase cases, the specific heat and heat load
cannot be specified independently. For these cases, the "safe" design results
from overestimating the specific heat.
10
ACCURACY OF THE DESIGN METHODS FOR SHELL AND TUBE

EXCHANGERS
It was stated earlier that one of the reasons for providing a design margin was
due to uncertainty in the design methods used. This Clause gives some
indication as to the likely magnitude of such errors.
10.1 Pressure Drop

10.1.1 Tubeside Flow
For single phase flow in clean heat exchanger tubes, the estimated pressure
drop is likely to be accurate to within 2%, assuming the physical properties are
known. The pressure drop in a fouled tube may be significantly higher, and may
not be estimated correctly by the computer programs used for exchanger design.
There are two factors resulting from fouling which are important here.
(a)
Firstly, the fouling layer reduces the effective bore of the tube. For a
smooth tube, in turbulent single phase flow, the pressure drop is
inversely proportional to the diameter raised to the power 4.75.
Thus, a dirt layer which reduces the bore by 10% will increase
the pressure drop by 65%, all other things being equal.
(b)
Secondly, the dirt layer is likely to increase the relative roughness

of the tube. The roughness of moderately rusty carbon steel is
typically 10 times that of clean steel. The effect this has on
pressure drop increases with Reynolds number. At a Reynolds
number of 10,000 it will give an increase in pressure drop of about
30-40%, at Re=100,000 about 90-100% and at Re=1,000,000
about 250%. These increases will be compounded with
those due to the reduction in bore.
Commercially available programs, allow the user to input the thickness of the
fouling layer, and use this to determine the effective tube diameter for pressure
drop calculations. However, these calculations take no account of the effect of
fouling on roughness.
Some programs make no allowance for the effect of fouling on pressure drop.
The basic correlations for two phase pressure drop have considerably greater
error than is the case for single phase flow, even without considering the effects
of fouling. Errors of up to a factor of 2 in the estimated frictional pressure drop in
smooth tubes may occur. However, the effects of surface roughness are less
pronounced for two phase systems.
10.1.2 Shell-side Flow

Shell-side flow is considerably more complex than tubeside flow. The models
used in some commercially available programs are based on a method usually
known as "stream analysis". The shell-side flow is divided between five parallel
routes: tube-to-baffle leakage, cross-flow over the bundle, bypassing round the
outside of the bundle, baffle-to-shell leakage and pass-partition
lane leakage. (referred to in some programs as the "A", "B", "C", "E" and "F"
streams respectively.) The models adjust the flow split until the calculated
pressure drops for each stream are equal.
The relative magnitudes of these streams affect not only the heat transfer, but
also the pressure drop. It is not possible to give simple guidance here on the
magnitude of such effects. However, some feel for the problem can be obtained
by performing computer runs with different clearances. This simulates the
blockage of the leakage paths by fouling deposits. It is not unusual for the
predicted pressure drop to double if the baffle-to-shell and tube-to-baffle
clearances are reduced from the normal design figures to zero.
Some programs will adjust the clearances between tube and baffle to allow for
the effect of the fouling layer thickness input by the user. Some programs do not;
in order to simulate the fouled condition, the clearance has to be input. Note that
in some programs a value of zero clearance may be interpreted as a request for
the default value. If zero clearance is required, it may be necessary to input a
small number. See program manuals of the software for more detail.
10.2 Heat Transfer
10.2.1 Tube Side
For single phase turbulent flow in tubes, the ESDU correlation, has a
claimed (root mean square) error of 10.2%. Similar accuracy can be
expected from other correlations. For transitional and laminar flow, higher
errors can be expected.
10.2.2 Shell Side

As for pressure drop, heat transfer predictions for the shell side of shell
and tube exchangers are complicated by the flow distribution. Some
programs suggest an accuracy of 25% for single phase turbulent flow.
11
SUGGESTED DESIGN MARGINS
The choice of design margin ultimately lies with the process engineer and the
designer and will be influenced by the nature of the process and the criticality of
the exchanger in question. The degree of uncertainty in the fouling resistances
should also be taken into consideration. The figures given in 11.1 to 11.3 should
be regarded only as guides.
11.1
No Phase Change Duties
For non-critical duties, a margin of 0 - 5% on the exchanger length should be

adequate, and it may be worth even considering small negative margins if this
leads to a design which fits in better with any standard tube length chosen for the
process.
For more critical duties, a value of 5-10% is appropriate.
11.2
Condensers
For pure component systems, the condensing coefficient is unlikely to be limiting;

the values given above for single phase cases will be appropriate.
For multi-component cases, values around 10% for non-critical duties and 20%
for critical duties are suggested, the margin being provided by extra tube length.
11.3
Boilers
For boilers, it is generally worth considering the design margin in terms of the
ratio of the maximum to desired evaporation capacity. For cases where the
boiling resistance is dominant, particularly for multi-component systems, a
margin of 10-20% is recommended.
12
EFFECT OF UNDER- OR OVER-SURFACE ON PERFORMANCE
An exchanger which has less than the necessary surface will have a lower heat
duty than required. However, the effect is generally not directly proportional to
the shortfall in surface; an exchanger with only 90% of the required surface will
generally perform more than 90% of the required duty.
For single phase duties it is possible to estimate the effects of over- or undersurface on exchanger performance from a theoretical analysis. The change in
heat load for a given change in surface area depends on the exchanger pass
arrangement, the ratio of the product of heat capacity and flowrate for the hot and
cold streams, C*, and the number of heat transfer units in the exchanger, NTU,
(NTU = U.A/Cmin, where U is the overall heat transfer coefficient, A is the
area and Cmin is the product of heat capacity and flowrate for the stream showing
the greater temperature change.) The NTU value is a measure of the "thermal
length" of the exchanger; duties with a large temperature overlap between the
streams have a large value of NTU.
Figure 1 shows the effect of changes in exchanger length on heat load for a pure
countercurrent exchanger with C* = 1. It can be seen that as the number of
transfer units for the base case is increased, the effect on performance of a given
fractional change in length reduces. For a duty requiring an NTU value of 5, a
50% increase in length only results in a 6% increase in duty. Conversely, an
exchanger of only the necessary length is still capable of 85% of the required
duty.
Figure 2 shows the effects on performance of changes in the number of tubes.
Again, a pure countercurrent flow is assumed, with C* = 1. For this case, all the
thermal resistance is assumed to occur on the tubeside. It can be seen that the
performance is very insensitive to the number of tubes.
Even for a very low value of NTU, a 50% increase in the number of tubes gives
only 8.5% improvement in performance, whilst for NTU=5 the improvement is
only 1.3%. This confirms what was said above, that the provision of a design
margin by adding additional surface in parallel is not a good policy.
The above analysis is based on several assumptions, including a constant heat
transfer coefficient along the exchanger and linear temperature/enthalpy
relationships. It is less easy to perform a theoretical analysis for cases involving
multi-component phase change, but experience suggests that a similar behavior
can be expected. For example, the heat transfer performance of vertical tubeside
inerts condensers is generally insensitive to the number of tubes, but does
depend significantly on tube length.
FIGURE 1
EFFECT OF LENGTH ON EXCHANGER DUTY

COUNTERCURRENT FLOW, C* = 1.0
FIGURE 2 EFFECT OF NUMBER OF TUBES ON EXCHANGER

PERFORMANCE COUNTERCURRENT FLOW, C* = 1.0, ALL RESISTANCE IN
TUBES
FIGURE 3 EFFECT OF TUBE LENGTH ON NUMBER OF TUBES, AREA AND

PRESSURE DROP
DOCUMENTS REFERRED TO IN THIS PROCESS ENGINEERING GUIDE

This Process Engineering Guide makes reference to the following documents:
GBH ENTERPRISES ENGINEERING GUIDES
Glossary of Engineering Terms
(referred to in Clause 3).
GBHE-PEG-HEA-502
Computer programs for the thermal

design of heat Exchangers (referred to
in Clause 3 and 9.1).
GBHE-PEG-HEA-515
The design and layout of vertical

thermosyphon reboilers (referred to in
9.2).
GBHE-PEG-HEA-513
Air cooled heat exchangers

(referred to in 9.2).

Thermal Design Margins For Heat Exchangers

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Thermal Design Margins For Heat Exchangers

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GBH Enterprises, Ltd.

Process Engineering Guide:

Thermal Design Margins for Heat

Information contained in this publication or as otherwise supplied to Users is

Process Engineering Guide:

Thermal Design Margins for

REASONS FOR SPECIFYING A DESIGN MARGIN

COMBINATION OF DESIGN MARGINS

CRITICAL AND NON-CRITICAL DUTIES

OPTIMIZATION OF EXCHANGER DUTY

WAYS OF PROVIDING DESIGN MARGINS

The Provision of Excess Surface

ACCURACY OF THE DESIGN METHODS FOR

SUGGESTED DESIGN MARGINS

No Phase Change Duties

EFFECT OF UNDER- OR OVER-SURFACE ON

EFFECT OF LENGTH ON EXCHANGER DUTY

EFFECT OF NUMBER OF TUBES ON EXCHANGER

EFFECT OF TUBE LENGTH ON NUMBER OF TUBES,

DOCUMENTS REFERRED TO IN THIS PROCESS

This Guide applies to process engineers in GBH Enterprises worldwide, who

Heat Transfer Research Incorporated. See GBHE-PEG-HEA-502.

Heat Transfer and Fluid Flow Service. One of the suppliers of

REASONS FOR SPECIFYING A DESIGN MARGIN

Variations in the inlet flowrates, temperatures or compositions of the feeds to the

Many heat exchangers are required to handle a complex mix of compounds

Uncertainties in Design Methods

It is normal when specifying a heat exchanger duty to include the expected

COMBINATION OF DESIGN MARGINS

Preparation of overall flowsheet.

Preparation of section flowsheet.

Specification of equipment duty.

Detailed equipment design.

Each of these stages may be the responsibility of a different engineer. If each

CRITICAL AND NON-CRITICAL DUTIES

Critical exchangers can be defined as:

Exchangers which, if they failed to perform as required, would have a

Exchangers which directly affect the plant production rate. Typical

Other exchangers will be "non-critical", if they do not perform as required then

OPTIMIZATION OF EXCHANGER DUTY

WAYS OF PROVIDING DESIGN MARGINS

A thermal design margin (safety factor) may be provided in several different

The Provision of Excess Surface

Excess surface may be provided in one of two ways:

Adding extra surface in parallel:

Adding extra surface in series:

Decreasing The Design Temperature Difference

Increasing the Design Process Throughput

As a means of providing a design margin, this suffers from the same

Increasing the Design Fouling Resistance

Reducing the Design Process Outlet Temperature Approach

Adjusting the Physical Properties

If there is uncertainty in the physical properties, it may be worth considering

ACCURACY OF THE DESIGN METHODS FOR SHELL AND TUBE

10.1 Pressure Drop

Secondly, the dirt layer is likely to increase the relative roughness

10.1.2 Shell-side Flow

10.2.2 Shell Side

SUGGESTED DESIGN MARGINS

No Phase Change Duties

For non-critical duties, a margin of 0 - 5% on the exchanger length should be

For pure component systems, the condensing coefficient is unlikely to be limiting;

EFFECT OF UNDER- OR OVER-SURFACE ON PERFORMANCE